Do The Mass Media Have A Liberal Bias?
3 Pages 672 Words
Do The Mass Media Have a Liberal Bias?
I believe that there is no question whether the media has a bias or not, but the question is does the bias lean more heavily to the left or more to the right. Through reading these two articles I believe that the first article written by Robert Novak to be more or less correct in its accusations. I believe that the media shows an overly liberal bias while reporting their version of the news. While there are bias conservatives in the media like Rush Limbaugh, for every Rush there are ten bias liberals fighting for air time. While those like Limbaugh and William Buckley state their conservative views, they are also stating that it is their opinion; many papers and TV programs simply hide their views in-between the lines and are supposedly still being objective. This is indicated by facial expression, emphasis on words, omission, choosing which stories they are going to run, and what “slant” to put on it.
The attitudes of the journalists, producers, and executives have an immense affect on the shape of the story they are reporting or the TV show they are making. The biggest example of this is that they choose which stories to run and what kind of angle they want on them. This can completely distort the views of the public by praising the one side while condemning the other. For example, they should not have “Dick Cheney viciously attacks Kerry at the RNC” and “Kerry’s Patriotic Defense of His Stance on the War”. If the two headlines were to be side by side, then it would lead one to believe that Cheney was inaccurate and overly forceful in his accusations, while showing Kerry as patriotically defending his views. Other ways that a journalist’s attitude could affect the news are by their emphasis on words, self commentaries between articles, or even by their facial expressions. An example of a slight phrase that was completely liberal was Peter Jennings calling President Bus...