Liberal Bias: Fact or Fiction [W:373]

[indifferent]

TV host and guest argue pro and con almost every day. The Right is certain there is bias to the left and the left adamantly denies it or claims it to to the right. I stumbled across a You Tube of Chris Matthews, MSNBC stating that there has always been a tilt to the left from the days of Walter Cronkite. Make of it what you will. It is what it is or rather it is what your want to believe it is.(Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left' - YouTube)......
[h=1]Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left'[/h]

 

[Boo Radley]

TV host and guest argue pro and con almost every day. The Right is certain there is bias to the left and the left adamantly denies it or claims it to to the right. I stumbled across a You Tube of Chris Matthews, MSNBC stating that there has always been a tilt to the left from the days of Walter Cronkite. Make of it what you will. It is what it is or rather it is what your want to believe it is.(Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left' - YouTube)......
[h=1]Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left'[/h]

What research did Matthews do? What objective data does he have?

 

[pbrauer]

TV host and guest argue pro and con almost every day. The Right is certain there is bias to the left and the left adamantly denies it or claims it to to the right. I stumbled across a You Tube of Chris Matthews, MSNBC stating that there has always been a tilt to the left from the days of Walter Cronkite. Make of it what you will. It is what it is or rather it is what your want to believe it is.(Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left' - YouTube)......
[h=1]Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left'[/h]

How does his OPINION differ from anyone else? He's just an opinion maker (read: Blow Hard) just like the other "talking heads" on TV. He's admitted he voted for Bush in 2000. And when Baghdad fell in April 2003, hes said. "We are all neocons now." Plus his brother is a Republican

 

[indifferent]

I am not suggesting that his statement is anything other than his own personal "leftist" opinion. I was a little surprised just to hear him "come out of the closet" so to speak. I do not place any value on his opinion of what is fair or foul than I would Bill O'Rielly's opinion (I do lean conservative). It is simply an interesting statement by Matthews who is an avowed Left leaning Liberal. The factual leaning of the MSM may never be documented and I am not sure it mean anything. The sad thing about the absence of unbiased factual reporting on all subjects that allows the reader to develop his or her own conclusion without being influenced by the so called "star factor" opinion that so many of the electorate are influenced by. There is not a winner here. Only looser who allow their conclusion to be hijacked by party or ideology mob mentality.

 

[Boo Radley]

I am not suggesting that his statement is anything other than his own personal "leftist" opinion. I was a little surprised just to hear him "come out of the closet" so to speak. I do not place any value on his opinion of what is fair or foul than I would Bill O'Rielly's opinion (I do lean conservative). It is simply an interesting statement by Matthews who is an avowed Left leaning Liberal. The factual leaning of the MSM may never be documented and I am not sure it mean anything. The sad thing about the absence of unbiased factual reporting on all subjects that allows the reader to develop his or her own conclusion without being influenced by the so called "star factor" opinion that so many of the electorate are influenced by. There is not a winner here. Only looser who allow their conclusion to be hijacked by party or ideology mob mentality.

Not that interesting. Like O'Rielly he's merely trying to start controvesy.

 

[Thrilla]

fact or fiction?


yes... it's both.

in some cases, it's fact
in others, it's fiction.

if we look at the media as a whole,and try to get an average.... I think it leans left a bit... not far left, but just a bit.
it's pretty useless looking at the media as a whole though... it's ,I think, better to look at specific outlets or specific stories and determine their bias or lack of.

 

[Boo Radley]

fact or fiction?


yes... it's both.

in some cases, it's fact
in others, it's fiction.

if we look at the media as a whole,and try to get an average.... I think it leans left a bit... not far left, but just a bit.
it's pretty useless looking at the media as a whole though... it's ,I think, better to look at specific outlets or specific stories and determine their bias or lack of.

What is a lean? I don't mean to be too contentious, but I'm never sure what that means. If it means that it reports equal rights, caring for our envirnoment, and death totals from a war, what makes that liberal? I jsut want a feel for what we're talking about, and are we talking about all media or just news media? ANd if just news media, do we include political entertainers? If so, why?

 

[Moot]

I am not suggesting that his statement is anything other than his own personal "leftist" opinion. I was a little surprised just to hear him "come out of the closet" so to speak. I do not place any value on his opinion of what is fair or foul than I would Bill O'Rielly's opinion (I do lean conservative). It is simply an interesting statement by Matthews who is an avowed Left leaning Liberal. The factual leaning of the MSM may never be documented and I am not sure it mean anything. The sad thing about the absence of unbiased factual reporting on all subjects that allows the reader to develop his or her own conclusion without being influenced by the so called "star factor" opinion that so many of the electorate are influenced by. There is not a winner here. Only looser who allow their conclusion to be hijacked by party or ideology mob mentality.

Hardball is a political "commentary" program and not the news.

 

[TheDemSocialist]

Sure there are more commentators out there that are liberal but the "news" in general does not have a "liberal slant".

 

[GCD]

Chris comes from a republican family, he tends to say things like that, commentary is not mews btw. Try rt.com

 

[mpg]

What research did Matthews do? What objective data does he have?

Unless he's claiming to have proof, he doesn't need either of those things. He's entitled to his opinion.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

Everyone knows the media is bias, the lefty’s deny it like a kid denies getting in the cookie jar as he wipes the crumbs of his mouth.

 

[Boo Radley]

Unless he's claiming to have proof, he doesn't need either of those things. He's entitled to his opinion.

The point is, it is no more than an opinion and as such, useless. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

 

[jpevans]

I didn't hear Chris say more than"the media leans a little to the left, I could argue". I didn't hear a time fram going back to "Walter Cronkite". Did you hear between the lines? eace

TV host and guest argue pro and con almost every day. The Right is certain there is bias to the left and the left adamantly denies it or claims it to to the right. I stumbled across a You Tube of Chris Matthews, MSNBC stating that there has always been a tilt to the left from the days of Walter Cronkite. Make of it what you will. It is what it is or rather it is what your want to believe it is.(Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left' - YouTube)......
[h=1]Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left'[/h]

 

[digsbe]

There are far more mainstream news sources that lean to the left, although people tend to pick their bias and listen to what they want to hear from the perspective they want to hear it from.

 

[Boo Radley]

There are far more mainstream news sources that lean to the left, although people tend to pick their bias and listen to what they want to hear from the perspective they want to hear it from.

I;'m still not sure what that means, lean left, and how we measure it. It could be that reality leans left as Colbert joked. Bias, I know how to measure. Lean? It has to be defined a little better before I can comment.

 

[jpevans]

MSNBC leans left, Fox (small n) news leans very right.
IMO it's very hard to be compleatly unbiased, try as you might. I would say though that the MSM trys hard to just report the news, actually sometimes trying too hard to be unbiased, for example the coverage of mans controbution to climate change, they will say that there is contoversy among scientists, when in reality there's only a handful of oil company hacks disagreeing in order to keep their jobs.
That the right has gone to the right of itself only makes those (formerly) in the center seem extreme left. eace

fact or fiction?


yes... it's both.

in some cases, it's fact
in others, it's fiction.

if we look at the media as a whole,and try to get an average.... I think it leans left a bit... not far left, but just a bit.
it's pretty useless looking at the media as a whole though... it's ,I think, better to look at specific outlets or specific stories and determine their bias or lack of.

 

[Boo Radley]

There are those who htink that if the fringe view isn't presented as equal, then there is a bias. Becasue they read and listen to very biased commentary, they often don't really know that the fringe element is really very small. If we looked at it like they do, with their bais, we too would see bias. But teaching someone something they think they already know is difficult to say the least. Misinformation dies a long, slow death.

 

[Tomfoolery]

Liberal bias within the strict confines of our propaganda based mass media is fact. It is also demonstrably existent in academia as well, and there is a good reason for both. The ideas are more interesting, nuanced and reflective of the human condition. It is therefore unsurprising that it is the preferred ideology or political model amongst the decision makers, intelligensia and informed citizenry. Of course this quick observation admits that it is generalizing, but the call of the thread allowed for that.

 

[rocket88]

It's all slightly biased to one side or the other.

 

[Zyphlin]

Truely "unbiased" news is near impossible and even more so in our age of profit driven "news".

There is nearly no singular news story that can be viewed at only one angle, that can be reported on from just one side, that can be interprited to mean just one thing. One can look at job numbers for instance and decide to just simply post the numbers, with no context or commentary. Or you could post them and suggest how they're better than they were this time a year ago. Or you could post htem and suggest how they're down from expectations. And on and on.

You have people who choose stories, people who authorize headlines, people who write the stories, individuals that perform research, and on and on. All of which can potentially, consiously or more often subconsiously, cause their own internal biases towards one direction or another to manifest themselves in the story.

In general, and poll after poll seems to back this up, those that are working in the news industry tend to lean more left then they tend to lean more right. Naturally then, its reasonable (and frankly imho jives with the reality of the situation) to suggest that there is a generalized lean to the left across media. The issue isn't in the notion that the biased is believed to exist but rather in the misguided, and unable to be proven, hypothesis that somehow its an intentionally and consious slant and bias. In reality I believe it's by and large a subconsious reality of having the majority of individuals within said business leaning to the left.

There are of course individual facets of the media...from entire delivery methods to particular stations...that make it a point to lean more one way or another either in their news or their commentary, or both. Some of these right leaning ones are formed more purposefully then left leaning ones, as it is far easier to "fall into" a left leaning news organization than a right leaning one due to the greater majority of left leaning individuals in the field.

So I believe the theory of a left leaning media, overall, is correct however I believe the slant is far more benign and unconsious then a purposeful and significant slant.

 

[Cardinal]

TV host and guest argue pro and con almost every day. The Right is certain there is bias to the left and the left adamantly denies it or claims it to to the right. I stumbled across a You Tube of Chris Matthews, MSNBC stating that there has always been a tilt to the left from the days of Walter Cronkite. Make of it what you will. It is what it is or rather it is what your want to believe it is.(Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left' - YouTube)......
[h=1]Chris Matthews Admits 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left'[/h]

Sometimes corporatism sounds liberal, sometimes it sounds conservative. But it's always corporatist.

 

[mpg]

The point is, it is no more than an opinion and as such, useless. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

Is that how you feel about the opinions of climatologists when they discuss global warming?

 

[Boo Radley]

Is that how you feel about the opinions of climatologists when they discuss global warming?

Opinions? Those supported by factual evidence are always superior to those that are not. I've said that as well, . . . repeatedly. There is a consensus on that subject. An educated one based on science.

 

[mpg]

Opinions? Those supported by factual evidence are always superior to those that are not. I've said that as well, . . . repeatedly. There is a consensus on that subject. An educated one based on science.

In both cases, you have tons of factual evidence without absolute proof, so we express opinions which are based on facts. Matthews' opinion is relevant because he himself is on the left. It's kinda like a scientist from an oil company claiming that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels.