Yesterday when I first read about Eliot Spitzer on Yahoo I was wondering if he was a Dem or Repub. When I finished reading I was sure he was a Dem, not because Yahoo said so in the story but because they didn’t say. I’ve known Yahoo was extremely leftist for a while but I guess it surprised me a bit. When a Republican like Larry Craig gets in hot water they make sure everyone knows he’s a Repub in the headline.
Of course almost all TV News is extremely liberal except Fox. Fox says they are fair and balanced and for the most part they are. They have quite a few libs employed as well as conservatives. Compare them to NBC, CBS, ABC, and MSNBC. Those 4 don’t even try to hide their disdain for the right and love of the left. The funniest thing is they don’t realize it. If you asked one of their top reporters or anchormen they would swear they didn’t play favorites. And that is also typical of a liberal. They usually can’t see the truth if it’s staring them in the face.
That’s really strange. When I first read the story yesterday on Yahoo I thought the same thing. Yahoo actually uses Reuters News Service. It was a long story and it was not until the last paragraph where they mentioned that he was a Dem. They almost always note the party affiliation the first time they mention a political person in any story.
Comment by Richard — Tuesday March 11, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
I’ve noticed Yahoo edits their stories. Seems like every political story they print has a left spin.
Comment by Don — Wednesday March 12, 2008 @ 6:22 am
I was glad to see a picture of Joc’s Grandma Nichols. She and I worked together for several years. I kept blowing up the picture until I could get a good look at her. She looks good.
Comment by Mom or Gma — Wednesday March 12, 2008 @ 9:40 am
Where was the pic of Joce’s Grandma?
Comment by Don — Wednesday March 12, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
Another Yahoo Story
This one yells out how McCain is “Hawkish” yet if you read the story you’ll see it’s not really as strong as the titile.
Comment by Don — Wednesday March 12, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
Wow, how perception depends on perspective. Certainly there are liberal slanted news shows; one of my favorites is “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”. But I don’t see that liberal bias in the major news outlets.
My impression of Fox is that is very “Republican oriented”; you almost never hear negative comments about the Bush administration on Fox, for example.
I guess if you are on the right, the middle seems left, and if you are on the left, the middle seems right.
Of course to most Europeans the US Democratic party is relatively right-wing, so there’s another point on the scale. I’m trying to think of a government that would consider our Republican party to be left-wing, but I’m not sure there is any country that far to the right.
Comment by Daryl — Friday March 14, 2008 @ 4:52 pm
I would agree the US Democratic party as a whole would be considered to the right in Europe but there are a host of leftys even Europe would consider to the left. I speak of Schumer, Durbin, Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy and that bunch. There are other Dems that are a lot more moderate all the way to Lieberman who could almost pass for a Republican.
You obviously haven’t read Bernie Goldberg’s Bias if you think the media has no bias. Here’s a link. Do some reading then get back to me.
Comment by Don — Friday March 14, 2008 @ 6:18 pm
OK, while I look for that, you should go take a look at “Outfoxed”. You can view it in it’s 8-part entirety on YouTube, search for “Outfoxed”.
Comment by Daryl — Friday March 14, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
I would except I agree that Fox leans to the right. They do have leftist commentators though unlike the other news channels. Alan Colmes is the first one that comes to mind but they have a lot of them on their payroll.
I started watching “Outfoxed” but when the 2nd guy they show is the CEO for Media Matters I can realize this isn’t going to be fair and balanced. Bernie Goldberg at least worked for CBS for 20 years before he wrote his book.
Comment by Don — Friday March 14, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
I think the difference is, not the analysis and commentary, but the actual news reporting. FoxNews makes it clear when they are analyzing news versus when they are reporting news. Shows like The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, or On the Record are commentating (or debating) the issues from both sides. However the true news report shows are fair and balanced. And that’s a very different comparison.
Studies find that the network news shows have a much higher percentage of negative reporting on conservative stories than the same types of liberal stories, as well as more frequent reporting of unbiased and general information about liberals than conservatives. Just google “independent study news bias” and you’ll find many examples.
If I want commentary, I’ll either turn to 60 Minutes for a liberal view or O’Reilly Factor for a conservative analysis. But when I turn on ABC World News Tonight, I would expect to hear the same slant on any current issue as I do when I turn to The Fox Report. That is not the case. The Fox Report gives me the facts, ma’am, just the facts. And when don’t, they disclose it as analysis.
Interesting that FoxNews shows are blowing the socks off the liberal stations’ Neilsen ratings. The O’Reilly Factor alone has more viewers than all the other news shows in the same time slot combined.
Comment by Donna — Saturday March 15, 2008 @ 5:26 pm
If you only watched through the second guy, then you missed all the ex-Fox journalists, Walter Conkrite and other journalists.
Of course the producers of the documentary had their agenda, and every news organization has their own perspective on what’s important and what should be emphasized, but I think Fox stands out as particularly egregious.
And how about Bill O’Reilly!? (“SHUT UP!”)
Comment by Daryl — Saturday March 15, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
I’m really surprised you can’t see it Daryl. Even Saturday Night Live saw it enough to do a satire. The mainstream media(read lefties) were smitten with Obama so much SNL did their skit. Once it was pointed out to them by “Hip” SNL they have done less playing favorites.
Have you seen the stuff Obama’s pastor has said that’s extremely anti-American? You wouldn’t have if Fox hadn’t broken the story. The main news stations only talked about it after it was broken on O’Reilly. And even then they didn’t show everything.
As for the Outfoxed thing I’ve already said I think Fox leans to the right. You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know. I’m just surprised you still think the mainstream isn’t biased.
Comment by Don — Saturday March 15, 2008 @ 8:11 pm
Thea weather was quite lovely today, but I hear we have a storm heading our way tomorrow evening!
(Just thought I would lighten it up around here!) 🙂
Comment by Heather — Saturday March 15, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
Well, I usually listen to NPR. I’ve heard rumors that they are so left that CBS et. al. look middle of the road…
Of course, I don’t see that either 🙂
One note: The complaints about the coverage of Obama were relative to the coverage of Clinton. Obama’s and Clinton’s positions on most issues is almost identical, so supporting one over the other doesn’t really qualify as left- or right- wing bias.
Comment by Daryl — Saturday March 15, 2008 @ 10:17 pm
Donna,
I did as you suggested, and googled “independent news study bias”.
The first article was from “Project Censored“, which complained about bias in the AP, and newspapers using the AP, but not a liberal bias. For example, wire stories of deaths of civilians in Iraq were only picked up by 5% of newspapers. That sounds like Republican bias.
The next item was “How Public is Public Radio?”, by Fair.org. They conclude “little evidence has ever been presented for a left bias at NPR”, pointing out (among other facts) that Republican sources outnumber Democratic 3 to 2.
Skipping the articles on referee bias in the NBA, the next article is from Media Research. They show that in the 1992 Presidential Election, 91% of top journalists voted for Clinton. This doesn’t prove that their preference affected their reporting, but you would expect that it might. Of course, you might also argue that journalists, like college professors (another predominantly Democratic segment), because they study current events so deeply and carefully are better informed than most people, and that a Democratic position is a more reasonable position. You might argue that way, but I bet none of you would agree with that argument… 😉
A little further down is this article from Fair.org they looked at ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, and concluded that: “Instead of a liberal bias, the study found, source selection favored the elite interests that the corporate owners of these shows depend on for advertising revenue, regulatory support and access to information. Network news demonstrated a clear tendency to showcase the opinions of the most powerful political and economic actors, while giving limited access to those voices that would be most likely to challenge them.
On the partisan level, the news programs provided a generous platform for sources from the Republican Party … while giving much less access to the opposition Democrats, and virtually no time to third party or independent politicians.”
So anyway, while I am sure there is some bias in almost every story, I still don’t see any evidence for systematic liberal bias in the main stream news organizations. I do see a conservative bias at Fox.
Show me the contradictory data!
Comment by Daryl — Saturday March 15, 2008 @ 10:56 pm
OK, here’s one more article that maybe we can all agree on. UCLA did a study that seems pretty objective. I think they did a good job of keeping their own bias out of the results. Read how they did the study and make your own conclusion.
They adjusted the scale so that the average US citizen is 50. On this scale, Ted Kennedy comes in at about 90, and Tom Delay at about 5.
The New York Times is about 73, ABC World News Tonight is about 60. Fox News Special Report comes in at about 40, the only news outlet that is right of center. All of the other news outlets came in left of center.
Interestingly the most “fair and balanced” news report was the PBS program “News Hour with Jim Lehrer”. So much for the “liberal” bias of Public Television!
I’ll accept this study if you will. OK, most of the news outlets have a liberal bias. Fox News has a conservative bias. However, all the news outlets are well between the average Democrat and the average Republican. You can see a graph at this page.
Again, I’ll point out that the average US citizen is well to the right of the average European, so on an international standard our “liberal” news organizations are closer to center
Comment by Daryl — Saturday March 15, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
But the mere fact they would go gaga over Obama and slant their coverage just proves the point. They aren’t able to just report the news as Donna points out. They have to taint it with their opinion.
Comment by Don — Sunday March 16, 2008 @ 7:19 am
Here’s another great example.
“In interviews with Chicago newspapers, a TV appearance and a Saturday speech in Indiana, Obama disavowed racially tinged comments by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for nearly 20 years before retiring recently.”
That’s from a Yahoo story. If the pastor’s comments were just “racially tinged” then I’m almost a billionaire since I’ve got a few dollars.
Comment by Don — Sunday March 16, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
Here’s another study, this time by Harvard which I think we can all agree isn’t conservative.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=278808786575124
Comment by Don — Wednesday March 19, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
I would agree 50% of the time!
Comment by Heather — Tuesday April 8, 2008 @ 8:44 pm