Media bias blues

By Mac McKerral
11/17/08

I got an e-mail last week from a reporter who worked with me a few years back. Someone she works with showed her a picture of me and a friend taken in September at a journalism conference social event featuring an election theme.

In the photo, my friend and I held table centerpieces, donkeys. My former reporter’s colleague surmised that the photo represented a perfect example of liberal journalists displaying media bias.

A couple weeks back, I wrote a piece about the value of the news media to the public and how people try to convince us each day that we should disdain it. The media blame game, as I call it.

The blog drew one comment from someone in Pennsylvania, which focused, as always, on that pesky “media bias.” But the writer raises good questions.

I’ll share my answers with the writer and all of you. When I use the term “news media,” I am talking about news reporting, not opinion.

Patrick Kampert wrote a piece called “The Myth of the ‘Liberal’ Media: A Primer For My Fellow Christians,” published online. I’ll use a part it to clarify what I mean by “news media.”

Kampert wrote: “Forget for a moment the Fox News Channels and MSNBCs of the world. I’m talking about dyed-in-the-wool journalists who strive for a balanced, fair presentation of the facts, not loudmouths more concerned with ratings points than impartiality.”

Add talk radio and the majority of bloggers (yes, me) to that list of loudmouths.

Now, does bias creep into some “news” reporting? Of course.

Does bias marginalize the quality and value of “news” reporting? Of course.

But who really decides whether a news report comes with a bias? The consumer.

Bias is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder and research attests to that.

We seek information from sources that offer information that matches our viewpoint. This does not hold a lot of hope for seeking common political ground following a very contentious election. But it does attest to the slippery nature of media “bias” claims.

Research done by a political scientist at Western Kentucky University takes another angle. Professor Joel Turner wrote, “The Messenger Overwhelming the Message: Ideological Source Cues and Perceptions of Bias in Television News.”

Turner writes: “Because people appear to perceive CNN and Fox News Channel as biased, there is a real risk that the widespread view that these (and perhaps other) media outlets are biased could be a substantial obstacle to informing the American public. It may be the case the attaching the “CNN” and “Fox News Channel” labels to news stories is virtually the equivalent of sending ideological signals to the viewer.”

So, Turner created a newscast in a professional studio with a professional anchor reporting several stories. He then showed the newscast to different audiences while superimposing the CNN and FOX logos on screen during the anchor’s reports. The results of the study support his fears.

Follow these links to a range of articles on media bias, including Turner’s research. I suspect you will find something that matches your opinion.

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