From: jswitzer@afit.af.mil (Chip Switzer)
Subject: Re: Media bias
Keywords: bias
Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 19:02:52 GMT

alex@umbc4.umbc.edu (Alex S. Crain) writes:

>>Why do you think Rush Limbaugh is so popular? 

>	Just a guess, but maybe for the same reason that Larry King is
>so popular? Must be the far right politics that they both preech, huh?

I can't speak for all of Rush's listeners, but the reason I listen to
him has nothing to do with his cult of personality.  I listen to him for
the very same reasons I read the National Review. He is simply one of
the *very* few sources for conservative views on the news.  Regardless
of what you think of him, or whether or not you believe he does "news",
(and I'm sure you believe all the stories in your newspaper are hard news -- 
no opinionating there...) he does bring a different view of current events 
than most of the rest of the media.  That is what I contend his
popularity is based on. 


>>  Unfortunaltely, journalism is still a magnet for liberals.

>	Yup. It's not the liberals fault that they're just more talented
>then conservatives, though. If conservatives could spell better, then
>maybe there would be more conservative writers.

>	Seriously: Why are reporters/editors so "liberal". Were they 
>brainwashed? Are conservatives really just morons? Maybe Elvis comes
>down in a spaceship and touches journalists on the forehead, pushing
>them leftward.

Nobody that I know of has concluded that journalists become liberal
after they take up the job or get thier journalism degree.  They are
drawn to the field for various reasons.  I personally believe that a lot
of them are in it to change the world.  There aren't many jobs that
offer a better platform for activism (Law, social work...).

>	This is better then the JFK assasination - maybe you can get
>some right wing director to make it into a hit movie?


Well I did get a chuckle from reading this.  Hopefully that's what you 
intended.  I'm really at a loss to try to convince anybody that the
media is far more left than the rest of the country (which would be 
irrelevant if it were not painfully obvious from watching/reading the
news).  I have to conclude that you either have your head in the sand
or that you just assume that because the news reports things the way you
personally see them, that they must be mainstream.  I posted a fairly 
comprehensive article a couple of months ago on the subject and only had
a couple of people question the statistics.  The fact is that no matter
what you believe about those in the profession, *they* overwhelmingly 
see themselves as liberal.  Most reporters don't try to hide their own
political leanings.  The controversy arises when it comes through as
bias in a story.  Or even more insidiously, as not covering a story, or
in parts of the story getting left out.

As a parting thought:  Listen carefully the labels the media uses to 
describe people, programs, or ideas.  My favorite example in the media's
use of the term "Star Wars" for the SDI program.  They call it the "so 
called Star Wars program", which is such a crock, as they are the ones 
who named it that.  Also, listen carefully to the abortion debate.
Remember that the "labels" of choice for each of the sides are
Pro-Choice and Pro-Life.  What you will hear the media call them most of
the time is Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion.  Subtle, but the connotations
are certainly not beyond the average journalism student.



Chip Switzer                            "A witty saying proves nothing." 
jswitzer@afit.af.mil                              -- Voltaire 
                        
Newsgroups: alt.activism.d,alt.rush-limbaugh,talk.politics.misc