More on the Media
It occurs that my previous post about media bias might just appear to be sour grapes. "What if the Zogby poll had proved an apparent conservative bias to the media?", someone might legitimately challenge me.
Well I guess I would have been less inclined to try and point out the flaws, but I would still have to concede the main point that no body can properly judge whether the media as a whole is biased one way or another.
Maybe this is a better way to think of it:
There are clearly news sources that are more favorable to the left (New York Times) and to the right (Fox News). If we were to say that the effect was overall more to one side or the other, a good way would be to look at the ratings and sales of those identified in either direction.
Well, on the left we have the NYT which is obviously widely read, we have Air America Radio, which is just clawing its way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, we have comedians like John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, and if you believe conservatives, we have CBS News. I'll also add Keith Olberman on MSNBC.
On the right, they have an entire news channel (Fox), they have Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly on TV nightly, they have the Wall Street Journal. On talk radio they have Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck (again), Bill O'Reilly (agiain), Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Laura Schlessinger, Michael Savage, Mike Gallager, and Michael Medved; Focus-on-the Family is one of the most listened-to syndicated shows in America.
While many people have heard of Air America, fewer have probably heard of Salem Communications despite the fact that in the top 25 markets (i.e. those with the most money) it is the third largest broadcaster. (No.1, incidently, is Clear Channel - hardly known for its liberal bias!) Salem is quite open about its conservative orientation and syndicates much of the above programming; it also owns the popular Townhall.com website.
All the above are openly conservative and have huge ratings figures.
So I can't say whether the 'media as a whole' is biased one way or another, but even a cursary treatment like the above doesn't exactly leave one feeling that it's liberal all the way!
Well I guess I would have been less inclined to try and point out the flaws, but I would still have to concede the main point that no body can properly judge whether the media as a whole is biased one way or another.
Maybe this is a better way to think of it:
There are clearly news sources that are more favorable to the left (New York Times) and to the right (Fox News). If we were to say that the effect was overall more to one side or the other, a good way would be to look at the ratings and sales of those identified in either direction.
Well, on the left we have the NYT which is obviously widely read, we have Air America Radio, which is just clawing its way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, we have comedians like John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, and if you believe conservatives, we have CBS News. I'll also add Keith Olberman on MSNBC.
On the right, they have an entire news channel (Fox), they have Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly on TV nightly, they have the Wall Street Journal. On talk radio they have Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck (again), Bill O'Reilly (agiain), Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Laura Schlessinger, Michael Savage, Mike Gallager, and Michael Medved; Focus-on-the Family is one of the most listened-to syndicated shows in America.
While many people have heard of Air America, fewer have probably heard of Salem Communications despite the fact that in the top 25 markets (i.e. those with the most money) it is the third largest broadcaster. (No.1, incidently, is Clear Channel - hardly known for its liberal bias!) Salem is quite open about its conservative orientation and syndicates much of the above programming; it also owns the popular Townhall.com website.
All the above are openly conservative and have huge ratings figures.
So I can't say whether the 'media as a whole' is biased one way or another, but even a cursary treatment like the above doesn't exactly leave one feeling that it's liberal all the way!
posted by Sparx at 13:31
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