Media Bias....What Media Bias?????

[Dreadsox]

[Q] Our results show a very significant liberal bias. All of the news outlets except Fox News’ Special Report received a score to the left of the average member of Congress. Moreover, by one of our measures all but three of these media outlets (Special Report, the Drudge Report, and ABC’s World News Tonight) were closer to the average Democrat in Congress than to the median member of the House of Representatives. One of our measures found that the Drudge Report is the most centrist of all media outlets in our sample. Our other measure found that Fox News’ Special Report is the most centrist. These findings refer strictly to the news stories of the outlets. That is, we omitted editorials, book reviews, and letters to the editor from our sample. [/Q]

Interesting stuff......

LOL Drudge is the center!


http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cach...gmu.edu/~atabarro/MediaBias.doc+drudge?&hl=en

 

[nbcrusader]

Ha, that should play well here!


I guess some will deem the report invalid because Fox News is mentioned without a right-wing extremist label....

 

[A_Wanderer]

Pfft, their all talking heads in my book - but influential ones, I suggest people go out and read everything out their be it Chomsky or Ralph Peters, if you can know the facts and get the opinions of each group then you can find your own politics. Its what made me into a liberal - oh wait im sorry neo-conservative.

 

[DrTeeth]

Interesting method apparently if a newspaper cites a certain thinktank as much as a person in congress does, and that person is liberal, than the newspaper is also deemed liberal.

 

[melon]

I disagree completely with the methods used to calculate what they consider to be "media bias." In fact, it has been said that the media is more libertarian, as, when polled, most journalists fit this category. Economically, they tended to be more conservative, while socially, they were liberal. Classic libertarians. If you look at the media from this lense, it is true. The media loved Ronald Reagan and loved Bill Clinton. And why are they perhaps seen as a bit negative towards Bush II? He is neither fiscally conservative nor socially liberal.

The only news outlet I would consider to probably be "liberal" is CBS; parent-company Viacom in 2000 donated 75% of their contributions to the Democratic Party and donated 25% to the Republican Party. Other news outlets either donated 50-50, or, in the case of FOX, donated 75%+ to the Republican Party.

I think this is a very sloppy report that has no business being done in a business school. If it had been done in a media school, there would have been discussion of underlying ideology; as in how certain issues are reported, often subtlely positive or negative.

Secondly, their expectation for journalists to present "both sides of the issue" has been trounced upon since Ronald Reagan allowed the FCC to repeal the "Fairness Doctrine." Congress, in 1988, had overwhelmingly passed a bill to reinstate it, but, after Reagan's veto of the bill, had narrowly lost an override vote. But the immediate result of this was the polarization of talk radio, which swung very far-right and has generally devolved into hate media. Rush Limbaugh has Reagan to thank to allow him to smear liberals without having to allow liberals equal time to refute his statements.

I see a very clear bias in this study, and I would counter that their "formulas" are no more reliable than Pat Robertson's numerology formulas to calculate the end of the world.

Melon

 

[Dreadsox]

Ha, that should play well here!


I guess some will deem the report invalid because Fox News is mentioned without a right-wing extremist label....