Media Bias
Cyborski R. Jacob
Northern Illinois University
On
nearly a daily basis on news networks, media bias is a prominent topic. There
is a long running rumor that media bias is strictly or primarily liberal. News
casters on conservative networks often mention "the liberal media",
which has created the misconception that liberal media bias far overshadows
conservative bias. Also whenever a news media network mentions media bias, it
is usually to call that bias unfair, which has created another misconception, The
misconception that bias in media is always a bad thing. The notion that media
bias is prominently liberal is a myth, media bias goes both ways and is not
always a bad thing, without bias, the news would not be nearly extensive as it
is now, and would be unable to present stories from unique and personal angles.
Bias is everywhere, but why is it important? Tucker
Carlson, on a television debate, noted the importance of avoiding certain types
of media bias. During his debate, Carlson noted (2006) countries where the
media has had a history of intense bias, and how the populations of those
countries have become totally turned off to the media. Now, those people have a
hard time obtaining reliable information concerning their government and a
variety of other subjects that regularly appear on the news on a regular basis.
Do I think the American news media is so
biased that people are ready to write off nearly all information they present?
No, but Americans are surely aware of the bias, or the perception of bias
concerning many news networks. According to a study by the Pew Research Center
(2009), 37% of Americans see a great deal of bias, 67% see at least some bias,
and the category “great deal of bias” received more percentage points than any
other. According to another study by the
Pew Research Center (2009), 47% of polled Americans perceive Fox news as
conservatively biased, whereas MSNBC is seen by 36% of Americans polled as
having a strong liberal bias. Every station examined except Fox News (MSNBC,
CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS) all received scores on the liberally biased category of
30%+, and no station besides Fox News received any more than 14% as
conservatively biased. So the notion of a liberally biased media is real, but
does is it backed up scientifically?
First
I want to start off with the notion that news media is prominent liberal. The
problem with those who claim liberal bias in the media is that, there is no scientific
evidence to support this claim. Sure they could find plenty of examples of
media bias that may be liberal leaning, but those examples could easily be
counteracted by an equal amount of examples of conservative bias. Measuring bias
quantitatively is no easy task. There have been studies that attempt to
quantitatively measure media bias, but these studies run into quite a few
problems. Eric Alterman (2006), a columnist for The Nation Magazine and author
of "What Liberal Media", said in a debate on media bias "On this
issue of media bias, It's an incredibly rich topic for debate, because there's
really no normative way to measure it in an academic environment.....You can't
control the variable in media bias because time moves on and issues
change.....I can say that President Clinton lied about getting a blowjob from
an intern and President Bush lied about whether or not Iraq presented a threat
to the US....those two lies are not equivalent. The point is you can't say the
president was called a liar 18 times in one instance and 17 times in another
instance and that proves bias, two issues are not comparable. Issues change,
and it's therefore entirely an art rather than a science." What he is
trying to say here, is that, media bias is extremely hard to quantitatively
measure. The variability of news stories and their bias is too much to compare
in a scientific setting.
Although
this difficulty has been noted, it has not stopped studies from attempted to
quantify media bias. A study was released in 2005 called "A Measure Of
Media Bias" by Tim Groseclose. This study attempted to measure bias by
assigning media outlets a score between zero and one hundred, zero being the
most conservative, and 100 being the most liberal. Their scores changed based
on how many times they cited anything that was also cited by a member of
congress, then that news outlets score would change toward the side of the
scale that is equal to that member of congress' political affiliation. This
study produced expected results for the news stations that were polled, Fox
News and The Washington Times scored conservatively biased whereas the New York
Times scored liberally. Although most networks scored as expected, when this
method was extended to think tanks outside the examined group, the flawed
methods of this study became more and more obvious with the flawed results it
began to produce. For example, Media Matters for America (2005) applied the
same procedure as Groseclose’s study to other media outlets, The American Civil
Liberties Union, a group that supports the legalization of abortion and gay rights,
were scored as slightly conservative leaning. This study also fails to account for
any measurement of the degree of bias. In measuring bias, surely the magnitude
of the bias is nearly as important as the frequency at which it occurs. This is
just one example of a study which tried to measure media bias, and failed, most
likely due to what was mentioned earlier in this paper by Eric Altermann (2006),
that there were too many variables.
After
seeing this study, you might think that no studies can confirm liberally biased
media, but surely they must all point toward it. This, again, is untrue.
According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center (2012), President Obama
did not receive one week of more positive than negative coverage. Of course
they had to use a less than perfect method again for measuring positive and
negative coverage (how the story was framed and what it was about) but this
study does not point towards liberally biased media. There are studies pointing towards bias in
each direction, but each study released has a less than perfect method of
measuring bias, because again, there are too many variables to stack up against
each other in a scientific setting. There is no authoritative paper confirming
bias to be prominently in one direction, the cry of bias being primarily or
only from one side has become a cry of political ideologues defending their
favorite party and refusing to admit they can do any wrong.
So
without any scientific, quantitative studies confirming a prominent liberal
bias in the American news media, why is the notion so popular? At times,
conservatives can be guilty of widening the goalposts on what is considered
liberally biased, and just moments later have a case of tunnel vision when it
comes to bias on their own side. Jon Stewart (2012), host of a comedic but
serious news program talked about how conservatives crying out about a war on
religion were confusing not getting their way with an attack on their religion.
I think the same thing happens to news casters, that they confuse
non-conservative bias with liberal bias.
If
you look back to February 29th, 2012, when Rush Limbaugh (2012),
conservative radio host, said on his show that a Georgetown University Law
student was a slut for endorsing government funded contraception. He used a
metaphor saying that if the taxpayers are paying for this law student to have
sex, that she is in effect a slut. Very few people on the conservative side had
called him out on this, including quite a few who had cried liberal bias on
much softer topics. One of those conservatives is Lou Dobbs, who hosts a show
on the Fox Business Network called Lou Dobbs Tonight. On his show, Dobbs (2012)
had called the recently released movie, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, liberally biased
against big industry. Another example is John Bolton, who appeared on another
Fox News Network show, The Stossel Show. On his show, John Stossel (2012) was
having a town hall meeting, which is where the public comes and asks questions.
During this show, a veteran asked a strongly critical question to Bolton where
after Bolton had answered, applause was edited in for the television broadcast.
This is what I mean when I say conservatives at times are quick to call the
left on any sort of possible bias, while slow to recognize their own. That is
not to say that all conservatives are ignoring bias from their own side and
only accusing liberals of bias, but rather to show an example of how low the
standards may be for liberal bias, and how high they must be for conservative
bias. This is in part what contributes to a public perception of a prominently
liberally biased media.
Although as you can see, bias in the media is rampant, it
is not always a terrible thing. Whenever bias is talked about on the news, it
is usually to call out one person or story for being unfair. This has given
bias in the media a negative connotation and a very bad reputation within
media. Regardless of these perceptions, bias is not always a bad thing. Bias
can help reporters go more in depth about the stories they wish to
present. Tucker Carlson (2006) said in a
television debate regarding himself as a reporter “The criterion is very
simple, tell the truth, so I tell the truth as I see it, but very much from my
own perspective so yes I am biased, my job however is very different than that
from a straight reporter, whose job merely is to tell you what happened, their
job, when a plane crashes is to tell you who was on the plane, when did it
crash, etc etc… their job is to bring you the facts unpolluted by their
preconceptions, their job is to tell you the news without trying to make a case
for a particular position.” What he
means here is that straight reporters are the type that only gives confirmed
facts, but he himself is the kind of reporter that includes his personal
experience, and what he thinks about the topic from his point of view. This is
the kind of bias that is good for the news media, as long as it is clear that
whoever presents their viewpoint does not blur the line between fact and
opinion. In this debate, Carlson (2006)
also talks about stealthy bias, which is where biased, opinionated reporting is
presented as straight reporting. This is also a way to blur the line between
opinion and fact, and this is where bias becomes harmful in the news media. An example of beneficial bias is much more
difficult to give, although I believe beneficial news bias is much more
common. David Poulson (2010) wrote on
his website Great Lakes Echo “Well, would you say the crime reporter is biased
if you overheard her remarking that murder is a poor way to settle a dispute?
How will murderers ever get a fair shake in the media if we allow such people
to report?” What he’s trying to say here is that, if a crime reporter had said
murder is a poor way to settle a dispute, would you call that bias? It is
indeed bias, because saying that murder is a poor way to settle a dispute is
only the opinion of the reporter. Considering that most people would not
disagree that murder is a poor way to settle a dispute, most would not see this
type of reporting as bias. He goes on to write “Clean air and water and
sustainable communities are worthy goals. I fail to see how acknowledging that
is a compromise of journalistic ethics” What he means here is that, if a
reporter had said that clean air and water are worthy goals for communities and
that is why they support new energy sources, would you call them biased as
well? They are using the exact same sort of bias as in the murder example. This
is what I mean when bias can be a good thing, a reporter can give a more
personal angle on a topic, as long as they make it clear that it is their
opinion, preferably by stating that it is so, but it is also acceptable if
obviously implied. This is where bias can help improve media. How would you
expect a news story, for example, how wrong was George Bush for invading Iraq
before confirming there were nuclear weapons? Without media bias and opinions
from reporters, these types of stories would not exist. There is no way to
quantify how right or wrong an action is, and therefore there is no
quantitative way to report on such stories. Bias becomes necessary for a story
such as this, and for all stories with any amount of subjectivity being
reported on. Why not just leave subjective stories alone you might ask. These
types of stories are extremely valuable to helping everyday Americans who are
not experts in such fields develop their opinions. Most Americans do not have
time to read in depth into the war on Iraq, and even further in depth into
every small or large political move regarding it. Reporters publishing biased
opinion pieces help Americans learn the reasoning of sides for and against
political moves, and if they read a balanced amount of arguments from each
side, they should be able to stack them up against each other and form their
own opinion all while becoming more knowledgeable on what is going on
politically in general.
Media bias is everywhere, and it does matter. We do not
want America to become a country where the media becomes so biased, it is
ignored all together and the population subsequently has no source of reliable
information on a plethora of topics, but we may very well be heading in that
direction if it is not recognized that not all bias is bad, and that bias goes
both directions. Studies on media bias generally fail or are insufficient, due
to people and issues varying far too much over time to examine fairly in a
scientific setting. No one side of the political spectrum is innocent of never
using hidden bias or construing the line between fact and opinion. It happens
in media, and as long as there is human error, it may very well be inevitable. Media
bias can be a great tool in helping reporters give more extensive and
sufficient reports on subjects that may be more subjective in nature. The key is to recognize when reporters are
using dishonest tactics to hide facts and present their own opinions, and to be
honestly pursuing the truth instead of looking for stories or facts that may
support your political ideology to get the most out of the news media.
References
(2012, April 9). Lou Dobbs Tonight
[Television broadcast]. New York City: Fox News.
Date unknown, although fairly
recent due to him talking about The Lorax the movie which came out fairly
recently, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYLmgQy6zq8
(2012). - [Television series episode]. In Stossel
Show. New York City: Fox News.
Edited, aired version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4JDX0-Uo1E&context=C4fe2c35ADvjVQa1PpcFM3Lz0PRT9dMCfnwrlWWUBumHHNTrbSxtE=
Unedited Version
Available Online:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2012/02/27/unedited-students-liberty-video-0
Groseclose, T.,
& Milyo, J. (2005). A Measure of Media Bias. The Quaterly Journal of
Economics, CXX(4), 1191-1237.
Matters; Philidelphia Weekly. (2005, December
21). Former fellows at conservative think tanks issued flawed UCLA-led study on
media's "liberal bias" | Media Matters for America. Media Matters
for America. Retrieved April 1, 2012, from http://mediamatters.org/research/200512220003
Poulson, D.
(2010, March 6). Reporting with bias | Great Lakes Echo. Great Lakes Echo -
Environmental news across the basin. Retrieved April 1, 2012, from
http://greatlakesecho.org/2010/03/06/reporting-with-a-bias-for-a-clean-environment/
(2012). The Vagina Idealogues [Television
series episode]. In The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. New York City:
Comedy Central.
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