All of which means that the average citizen receives a version of political reality created by people whose views of the world are considerably at odds with his own. How much difference this makes is a matter for debate. Defenders of the press argue that reporters' liberal instincts do not necessarily translate into liberal bias in handling of the news. Perfect objectivity, whether in journalism or any other form of intellectual activity, is beyond attainment, and even the most scrupulous reporter will find it impossible to keep his reporting entirely untainted by ideology. The world of reality never comes through to us unmediated.
Facts acquire meaning only as they are selected, arranged, and interpreted.
Whether, for example, one views committed pro-lifers as heroes or fanatics will depend on prior judgments regarding abortion. Liberals inclined to minimize the significance of a leftward inclination among the media elite might test themselves on the point by asking how they would react if the situation were reversed-if, in fact, the world taken for granted by the nation's leading reporters and news executives tilted to the right rather than the left. America is plagued less by advocacy journalism than by adversary journalism. The press has somehow concluded that its proper stance over against government and politics is one of opposition. Our political life is made to look worse than it is not so much because journalists oppose any one tendency in politics as because they have come to oppose the political class in general.