Whats wrong with bias? (1 Viewer)

[Red_Dave]

What ive noticed on alot of american fourms is that everyone gets hyped up about how such and such a newspaper/tv station is biased. If if you post and article saying saying that people disagree with they just think "meh its biased" and dont bother with it despite dont doing anything to debunk the claims it the article makes or point out how its twisted the truth . I dont really see whats so shocking about it. In the uk we have two main broadsheet newspapers. The guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/] which writes from a left-wing perspective and the telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk] which writes from a right wing perspective. On the whole left-leaning people read the guardian and right leaning people read the telegraph and everyones happy. If i complained about the liberal bias in the guardian everyone would think i was a prat because its a liberal newspaper. So if your so anoyed by the liberal bias in CNN then that could be because its a liberal tv station. I may have a solution for you, dont watch it.

What also really confuses me is the fact the everytime a T.V station cites facts that someone doesnt like facts someone doesnt like it becomes biased and an eleigitimate source of truth. There was one guy complaining about some article or news programe about how black people and the poor where suffering as a result of the huricane. Thats not bias. Thats what actually happend. If you want a t.v station that doesnt broadcast these things to make concervatives happy then why not try fox?

 

[FinnMacCool]

Its probably cause they think that people who watch cbs or somethign will be influenced by it too much but the thing is if they watch fox news they are being influenced by that also so really they are just hypocrites. Tv isn't really the best way to form an opinion anyways, though it helps.

 

[torch]

Whats wrong with bias is that there when you use bias to go to wars for your own power, tell scared humans that you scared and made afraid that its ok for the police and military to shoot victims of hurricane katrina for stealing food, and supplies for there friends and families simply cause they were african-americans..thats whats wrong with bias!!

 

[mpg]

Fox is out numbered by the liberal networks, and most people don't realize that they're not merely passing along facts.

 

[FinnMacCool]

NOTE: The term "liberal networks" is very very misleading because some people think that just cause the media doesn't constantly praise Bush and his friends they are biased towards liberals. In fact, you could say that the supposed "liberal media" is the reason why Bush's approval ratings were 90% after 9/11.

 

[akyron]

What ive noticed on alot of american fourms is that everyone gets hyped up about how such and such a newspaper/tv station is biased. If if you post and article saying saying that people disagree with they just think "meh its biased" and dont bother with it despite dont doing anything to debunk the claims it the article makes or point out how its twisted the truth . I dont really see whats so shocking about it. In the uk we have two main broadsheet newspapers. The guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/] which writes from a left-wing perspective and the telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk] which writes from a right wing perspective. On the whole left-leaning people read the guardian and right leaning people read the telegraph and everyones happy. If i complained about the liberal bias in the guardian everyone would think i was a prat because its a liberal newspaper. So if your so anoyed by the liberal bias in CNN then that could be because its a liberal tv station. I may have a solution for you, dont watch it.

What also really confuses me is the fact the everytime a T.V station cites facts that someone doesnt like facts someone doesnt like it becomes biased and an eleigitimate source of truth. There was one guy complaining about some article or news programe about how black people and the poor where suffering as a result of the huricane. Thats not bias. Thats what actually happend. If you want a t.v station that doesnt broadcast these things to make concervatives happy then why not try fox?

Whats a prat?

 

[mpg]

NOTE: The term "liberal networks" is very very misleading because some people think that just cause the media doesn't constantly praise Bush and his friends they are biased towards liberals. In fact, you could say that the supposed "liberal media" is the reason why Bush's approval ratings were 90% after 9/11.

I don't give Bush OR the media credit for his approval rating being so high after 9/11. It was merely people rallying around the president in a time of crisis. It would've happened to any president.

As far as the media being liberal is concerned, everyone has their own definition of "liberal", but the media pushes an agenda that's pro-choice on abortion, pro-gun control, pro-affirmative action, anti-death penalty, and anti-military.

 

[cnredd]

I haven't thrown this up for awhile...seems like a good time now...

According to Pew Resarch, a non-partisan group held in high esteem, the general public is 20% Liberal, yet the National Press is 34% Liberal...

The general public is 33% Conservative, yet the National Press is 7% Conservative...

There are FIVE TIMES as many Liberals in the National Press than there are Conservatives...

It also says there are 54% Moderate...The logic here, compared with the above stats, would indicate that there are more left-leaning Moderates than right-leaning Moderates, but even if we were to split that evenly, it would indicate that there are 61% of the National Press that is center-to-left and 34% that is center-to-right...

 

[hipsterdufus]

Fake News

I don't mind journalists having opininions. Of course, Fox News says it's Fair and Balanced just to drive us liberals nuts, to paraphrase Tucker Carlson.

I have a MAJOR problem with the White House paying reporters to pretend to back issues.

Michael McManus, a newspaper columnist, was paid up to $10,000 to praise the administration's marriage initiative, which diverts funds from welfare to marital counselling, the Los Angeles Times reported.

snip

Neither did Maggie Gallagher, another conservative columnist and even a more prominent supporter of the marriage plan.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Ms Gallagher received $21,500 from the department of health and human services, and $20,000 from the justice department for championing the initiative in her syndicated newspaper columns.

snip

The administration spent more than $88m on public relations contracts last year - more than double the $37m it spent during Mr Bush's first year in office. That brought the administration's first-term spending on PR to $250m.

The first sign of a political payola scandal erupted this month when USA Today reported that Armstrong Williams, a conservative African-American columnist, had been paid $240,000 by the education department to champion the administration's controversial policies in his print, radio and television outlets.

This is OUR money!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1401211,00.html

 

[hipsterdufus]

I haven't thrown this up for awhile...seems like a good time now...

According to Pew Resarch, a non-partisan group held in high esteem, the general public is 20% Liberal, yet the National Press is 34% Liberal...

The general public is 33% Conservative, yet the National Press is 7% Conservative...

There are FIVE TIMES as many Liberals in the National Press than there are Conservatives...

It also says there are 54% Moderate...The logic here, compared with the above stats, would indicate that there are more left-leaning Moderates than right-leaning Moderates, but even if we were to split that evenly, it would indicate that there are 61% of the National Press that is center-to-left and 34% that is center-to-right...

Can you put up that link, I'd like to read it.

But, what's your point? You want affirmative action in all of the media? Sure, let's start with Fox.

At it's highest level journalism is about seeking the truth, investigating stories, muckraking, informing the public and doing some good. I think it's a profession that many liberals find appealing.

We could also talk about the right wing dominace of talk radio which makes no effort to be unbiased.

 

[FinnMacCool]

I don't give Bush OR the media credit for his approval rating being so high after 9/11. It was merely people rallying around the president in a time of crisis. It would've happened to any president.

The constant rerunning of images such as Bush standing atop a pile of rubble with a fireman next to him making a heroic speech is what gave everyone the image that there was a man who coud protect them.

As far as the media being liberal is concerned, everyone has their own definition of "liberal", but the media pushes an agenda that's pro-choice on abortion, pro-gun control, pro-affirmative action, anti-death penalty, and anti-military.

Thats from your perspective but it doesn't mean that its true. you have no evidence of this but only from what you see and perhaps from some conservative magazines etc. Especially what you said about ANTI MILITARY defined as a liberal characteristic and I wonder what exactly is your definition of anti military reporting.

 

[FinnMacCool]

I haven't thrown this up for awhile...seems like a good time now...

According to Pew Resarch, a non-partisan group held in high esteem, the general public is 20% Liberal, yet the National Press is 34% Liberal...

The general public is 33% Conservative, yet the National Press is 7% Conservative...

There are FIVE TIMES as many Liberals in the National Press than there are Conservatives...

It also says there are 54% Moderate...The logic here, compared with the above stats, would indicate that there are more left-leaning Moderates than right-leaning Moderates, but even if we were to split that evenly, it would indicate that there are 61% of the National Press that is center-to-left and 34% that is center-to-right

What does that prove? nothing

Many teachers are liberal also. The whole idea of the media is that they report the news unbiased and while, regrettably, they sometimes slip in their own judgements from time to time, this does NOT mean the media reports its news biased all the time every time as some people would have you believe.

 

[cnredd]

Can you put up that link, I'd like to read it.

Okie-dokey...I'll give you the whole related section pertaining to my graph presented in my previous post on this thread...:2wave:

Section IV: Values and the Press
Journalists at national and local news organizations are notably different from the general public in their ideology and attitudes toward political and social issues. Most national and local journalists, as well as a plurality of Americans (41%), describe themselves as political moderates.

But news people – especially national journalists – are more liberal, and far less conservative, than the general public.
About a third of national journalists (34%) and somewhat fewer local journalists (23%) describe themselves as liberals; that compares with 19% of the public in a May survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, there is a relatively small number of conservatives at
national and local news organizations. Just 7% of national news people and 12% of local journalists describe themselves as conservatives, compared with
a third of all Americans.

In this regard, Internet journalists are similar ideologically to local journalists: 57% describe themselves as moderates, while 27% say they are liberals and 13% conservatives. Local TV and radio journalists include the lowest percentage of liberals of any of the journalist groups surveyed (15%). Even
among local TV and radio journalists, however, just 13% describe themselves as conservatives.

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/prc.pdf

It seems that while the Internet & Local news is more evenhanded, the National News is WAY out of proportion in relation to the general public...

This one is also a good one for reading...

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=833

But, what's your point? You want affirmative action in all of the media? Sure, let's start with Fox.

Here's the problem...

What starts with Fox...ends with Fox...There aren't ANY other Conservative News Channels out there...One...and its harped on because it's the ONLY one...

What starts with CBS...goes to NBC...which goes to CNN...which goes to MSNBC...which goes to ABC...etc...

form a previous post of mine...

Before FoxNews there wasn't any open media for Consevatives other than talk radio or Rush's syndicated show on a UHF channel at 11:30PM. The issue of a Liberal bias was hardly ever bought up because the general public didn't know any better...all news was the same. FoxNews changed that.

And to this day, FoxNews, with incredibly small exceptions, is the ONLY answer Liberls give when complaining of a Conservtive Bias on TV. The status quo monopoly of "all Liberal news; all the time" has been disrupted.

FoxNews is always leading in the ratings, but that is misleading.

If you want to hear a Conservative spin, you only have one choice, so that's where the Conservative population congregates. One place.

But if you want a Liberal spin, you can go to every other Major Network or cable news channel available. Multiple places.

If FoxNews wasn't around, Conservatives would have no voice at all, save the token Conservative on a Liberal station...much like the Liberals accuse Alan Colmes of being on Fox.

And that's the way it used to be...The Liberals want it to be that way again...

http://www.debatepolitics.com/showpost.php?p=69434&postcount=17

At it's highest level journalism is about seeking the truth, investigating stories, muckraking, informing the public and doing some good. I think it's a profession that many liberals find appealing.

You may think its noble, but what does the general public think?

Public attitudes about the press have been declining for nearly 20 years.

Americans think journalists are sloppier, less professional, less moral, less caring, more biased, less honest about their mistakes and generally more harmful to democracy than they did in the 1980s.

Consider a few changes in the numbers between 1985 and 20021:

The number of Americans who think news organizations are highly professional declined from 72 to 49 percent.

Those who think news organizations are moral declined from 54 to 39 percent, and those who think they are immoral rose from 13 to 36 percent.

Those who feel news organizations try to cover up their mistakes rose from 13 to 67 percent.

The number of Americans who think news organizations generally get the facts straight declined from 55 to 35 percent.

Those who feel who feel news organizations care about the people they report on declined from 41 to 30 percent.

Those who think news organizations are politically biased rose from 45 to 59 percent.

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/narrative_overview_publicattitudes.asp?media=1

We could also talk about the right wing dominace of talk radio which makes no effort to be unbiased.

If you would like to attempt to give talk radio credibility, go right ahead...I have already proved previously that "talking heads" are not part of my news sources...

http://www.debatepolitics.com/showpost.php?p=43533&postcount=290

Wanna see it again?...

http://www.debatepolitics.com/showpost.php?p=75604&postcount=6


That SHOULD be the whole she-bang!..."FoxNews & Rush Limbaugh" is all the left has in way of Conservative affiliations...A VAST MAJORITY goes the other way...

I could start a thread in here that asks, "I would like to ask the Liberals to name a reputable Conservative source."...

I'd get NO responses...EVERYTHING is discredited and discounted with them...Conservatives would AT LEAST acknowledge the credibility of the media outlets I've mentioned above even though they believe they are slanted...

Its never the other way around...

Hopefully, this gives you, and the other forum members, a little insight without using partisan rhetoric and misleading tactics...:2wave:

 

[cnredd]

What does that prove? nothing

Many teachers are liberal also. The whole idea of the media is that they report the news unbiased and while, regrettably, they sometimes slip in their own judgements from time to time, this does NOT mean the media reports its news biased all the time every time as some people would have you believe.

I believe my post above deals with your concerns...:2wave:

 

[hipsterdufus]

Okie-dokey...I'll give you the whole related section pertaining to my graph presented in my previous post on this thread...:2wave:

Section IV: Values and the Press
Journalists at national and local news organizations are notably different from the general public in their ideology and attitudes toward political and social issues. Most national and local journalists, as well as a plurality of Americans (41%), describe themselves as political moderates.

But news people – especially national journalists – are more liberal, and far less conservative, than the general public.
About a third of national journalists (34%) and somewhat fewer local journalists (23%) describe themselves as liberals; that compares with 19% of the public in a May survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, there is a relatively small number of conservatives at
national and local news organizations. Just 7% of national news people and 12% of local journalists describe themselves as conservatives, compared with
a third of all Americans.

In this regard, Internet journalists are similar ideologically to local journalists: 57% describe themselves as moderates, while 27% say they are liberals and 13% conservatives. Local TV and radio journalists include the lowest percentage of liberals of any of the journalist groups surveyed (15%). Even
among local TV and radio journalists, however, just 13% describe themselves as conservatives.

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/prc.pdf

It seems that while the Internet & Local news is more evenhanded, the National News is WAY out of proportion in relation to the general public...

This one is also a good one for reading...

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=833

Here's the problem...

What starts with Fox...ends with Fox...There aren't ANY other Conservative News Channels out there...One...and its harped on because it's the ONLY one...

What starts with CBS...goes to NBC...which goes to CNN...which goes to MSNBC...which goes to ABC...etc...

form a previous post of mine...

Before FoxNews there wasn't any open media for Consevatives other than talk radio or Rush's syndicated show on a UHF channel at 11:30PM. The issue of a Liberal bias was hardly ever bought up because the general public didn't know any better...all news was the same. FoxNews changed that.

And to this day, FoxNews, with incredibly small exceptions, is the ONLY answer Liberls give when complaining of a Conservtive Bias on TV. The status quo monopoly of "all Liberal news; all the time" has been disrupted.

FoxNews is always leading in the ratings, but that is misleading.

If you want to hear a Conservative spin, you only have one choice, so that's where the Conservative population congregates. One place.

But if you want a Liberal spin, you can go to every other Major Network or cable news channel available. Multiple places.

If FoxNews wasn't around, Conservatives would have no voice at all, save the token Conservative on a Liberal station...much like the Liberals accuse Alan Colmes of being on Fox.

And that's the way it used to be...The Liberals want it to be that way again...

http://www.debatepolitics.com/showpost.php?p=69434&postcount=17



You may think its noble, but what does the general public think?

Public attitudes about the press have been declining for nearly 20 years.

Americans think journalists are sloppier, less professional, less moral, less caring, more biased, less honest about their mistakes and generally more harmful to democracy than they did in the 1980s.

Consider a few changes in the numbers between 1985 and 20021:

The number of Americans who think news organizations are highly professional declined from 72 to 49 percent.

Those who think news organizations are moral declined from 54 to 39 percent, and those who think they are immoral rose from 13 to 36 percent.

Those who feel news organizations try to cover up their mistakes rose from 13 to 67 percent.

The number of Americans who think news organizations generally get the facts straight declined from 55 to 35 percent.

Those who feel who feel news organizations care about the people they report on declined from 41 to 30 percent.

Those who think news organizations are politically biased rose from 45 to 59 percent.

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/narrative_overview_publicattitudes.asp?media=1

If you would like to attempt to give talk radio credibility, go right ahead...I have already proved previously that "talking heads" are not part of my news sources...

http://www.debatepolitics.com/showpost.php?p=43533&postcount=290

Wanna see it again?...

http://www.debatepolitics.com/showpost.php?p=75604&postcount=6


That SHOULD be the whole she-bang!..."FoxNews & Rush Limbaugh" is all the left has in way of Conservative affiliations...A VAST MAJORITY goes the other way...

I could start a thread in here that asks, "I would like to ask the Liberals to name a reputable Conservative source."...

I'd get NO responses...EVERYTHING is discredited and discounted with them...Conservatives would AT LEAST acknowledge the credibility of the media outlets I've mentioned above even though they believe they are slanted...

Its never the other way around...

Hopefully, this gives you, and the other forum members, a little insight without using partisan rhetoric and misleading tactics...:2wave:

Thanks for the info and a civil debate!

I was recently reminded that only 15% of Americans believe in evolution so the public's opinion of journalism doesn't matter too much to me. :lol:

The right has done a great job of attacking MSM for incorrect stories, while having almost non-existent journalistic standards on Fox. They always attack the messanger (CBS, Newsweek, New York Times) and it has been very effective to move public opinion. But where are the standards for Fox, The New York Post and The Washington Times? Since the FCC is now a powerless organisation, they can say anything they want without retribution.

Also - if the MSM is so liberal, where are all of the liberal shows?
I can only think of three off the top of my head: "Countdown" w/ Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and "Now" on PBS, and 60 Minutes.
Of course that's not counting The Daily Show:lol:

 

[Thorgasm]

I haven't thrown this up for awhile...seems like a good time now...

According to Pew Resarch, a non-partisan group held in high esteem, the general public is 20% Liberal, yet the National Press is 34% Liberal...

The general public is 33% Conservative, yet the National Press is 7% Conservative...

There are FIVE TIMES as many Liberals in the National Press than there are Conservatives...

It also says there are 54% Moderate...The logic here, compared with the above stats, would indicate that there are more left-leaning Moderates than right-leaning Moderates, but even if we were to split that evenly, it would indicate that there are 61% of the National Press that is center-to-left and 34% that is center-to-right...

That is like how conservatives don't get how most professors, artists, entertainers are liberal. They value different things. Go to Wall Street, NRA functions, and rural bible studies and you will find more conservatives. Many conservatives value personal financial and overall security. Liberals are free-thinkers and dreamers. I am not saying that conservatives can't be professors or creative, They just go with a safer career choice usually.

 

[cnredd]

That is like how conservatives don't get how most professors, artists, entertainers are liberal. They value different things. Go to Wall Street, NRA functions, and rural bible studies and you will find more conservatives. Many conservatives value personal financial and overall security. Liberals are free-thinkers and dreamers. I am not saying that conservatives can't be professors or creative, They just go with a safer career choice usually.

And this has to do with Bias In The Media HOW?...

 

[ShullsM]

Its probably cause they think that people who watch cbs or somethign will be influenced by it too much but the thing is if they watch fox news they are being influenced by that also so really they are just hypocrites. Tv isn't really the best way to form an opinion anyways, though it helps.

For the majority of Americans, how else are they to form an opinion? Television and print media is too easily available for citizens not to form an opinion based on what's reported.