Namely the windmill of the ever persistent complaint about biased and one sided the Main Stream Media is.
“My judgment is now clear and unfettered, and that dark cloud of ignorance has disappeared, which the continual reading of those detestable books of knight-errantry had cast over my understanding”-from Don Quixote
In my younger days, I subscribed to much of what passes for conservative orthodoxy today- I thought the New York Times was run by a liberal conspiracy, Richard Nixon was leading the US to victory in Vietnam, and any problems in the US were caused by those “effete liberals”. As I grew older though and branched out a little, experiencing more of what the world was really like-using my idle hours aboard ship to read more than just comic books- I slowly, but surely, came to a better realization-most things are not clearly black or white, and the heavier shade comes a lot of times from the particular interpretation you yourself put on something that you see or hear.
That’s why whenever I hear someone whining about how unfair and biased the media is-and this year its been particularly pronounced in its repeated use as a reason Obama won the election-I just shake my head in disgust.
Because the answer is probably yes the media-all media- is biased in one way or another. The better question we should be asking is: “So what if it is?” I especially find the complaint interesting from bloggers -who pride themselves are how smart they are-as they take that easy excuse time and time again.
Especially in today’s world with a glutted market of different media products. The simple truth is that most of what people are complain of as bias, is not bias at all. Its a recognition of the fact that having examined a particular set of facts-the writer or broadcaster of a particular story or column-has arrived at a different conclusion than you.
I’ve got a news flash for all the Hannity’s, Malkins, and devout Sarah Palin fans out there:
That’s exactly what the media is supposed to do.
Now I have no doubt that a certain type of person goes into and achieves success in today’s big TV and print companies have a probably more liberal bent, than say-Joe the Plumber. Perhaps that means though-that unlike Joe, they may have actually used the education they got.
Journalists-all journalists- take basic data and draw conclusions from it. When that happens, some degree of bias slips in. But unlike bloggers who can and print any old lie that comes down the pike-media outlets have to live with libel laws and copyright laws. Happens on both sides of the political sphere. To blame it all on a biased media is to shift the blame from where it really belongs, the lack of a discerning reader.
When you turn to certain media products you are buying a particular slant or viewpoint. I submit to you that’s quite all right. For example, when I turn to MSNBC I know their interpretation of facts reflects a certain viewpoint. I’m Ok with that-the odds are out of all the things I’m not happy hearing, there will be at least one or two things, or points of view that I had not considered. And probably ought to at least give a second thought to.
Its a lazy man’s argument, to simply decry the media. And its not supported well by the facts. If the media wanted to be really biased-it would help their overall bottom line- a lot:
Have I got skews for you
Showing that newspapers have a political slant that is economically rational does not necessarily answer the question of whether ownership or demand determines bias. Here, the academics are helped by the fact that large media companies may own several newspapers, often in markets that are politically very different. This allowed them to test whether the slants of newspapers with the same owner were more strongly correlated than those of two newspapers picked at random. They found that this was not so: owners exerted a negligible influence on slant. Readers’ political views explained about a fifth of measured slant, while ownership explained virtually none.
Which brings us back to the where the blame lies-the fault dear Brutus, is with ourselves.
Footnote:
Truth in advertising: I subscribe to about 7 periodicals besides the association magazines I receive of various veterans groups I belong to: The Economist, The Kiplinger Letter, Time, Esquire, Foreign Policy, and The Atlantic Magazine. I also have internet sign-ups with the major papers in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Singapore. I also buy a Playboy or two from time to time. That entire list is a comment on how really boring life is in Shopping Mall-that I am able to organize and read a fair percentage of what comes in both physically and electronically.
However it does provide me with a wide variety of opinon and subject matter to consider. Accordingly-while I am quite sure my reading habits are different than most-I have come to point where if there is a complaint I have about the media its not about bias any more. Its the same one I have about women. There are too many of them, and not enough time for me to sample them all. ( Or at least the ones I like!).