Why is the media so liberal?
So, two young fish are hanging out in the ocean. An older fish swims by and says, “Water’s great today, isn’t it?” and swims away. One of the young fish turns to the other and says, “What’s water?”The ideological make-up of pretty much every media organization is overwhelmingly left-of-center. This is true not just of political journalists, but of pretty much everyone in the organization: feature writers, sports reporters, editors, etc. This is borne out by both polling and analysis of political contributions, and is not seriously in doubt.The question is how things got this way. The answer is that groups tend to self-reinforce their makeup, and become polarized over time. A group that is slightly left-of-center will tend to attract, hire and promote more left-of-center people than right-of-center people. This is natural: we tend to think that people that agree with us are smarter than the ones who don’t. Conservatives learned that their path to career success does not lead through the newsroom, and self-selected into other areas (think tanks, opinion journals, Fox), while liberals learned the opposite. The result, over the last several decades, has been ideological (and cultural) uniformity in most major news organizations.So the question becomes: can objective reporting occur in this kind of environment? I think it can, but it’s extremely difficult. The reason is confirmation bias. There is a natural tendency to be less skeptical about a piece of information that confirms our prior beliefs. Most journalists don’t set out to produce biased reporting, but most media is produced in an environment where it’s difficult to be objective.Ask thoughtful conservatives about media bias, and their complaints are rarely about actual mis-reporting of facts. They’ll say bias manifests itself in the form of story selection (resources are finite, and tend to get directed toward stories that fit the dominant narrative), asymmetric skepticism (the left’s motives are pure, the right’s are suspect), and word choice (Democrats “resist” Republican presidents; Republicans “obstruct” Democratic presidents).Lastly, the argument is that media can’t be liberal because most of the media are large corporations fundamentally misunderstands the Democratic Party’s relationship with large corporations, the ideology of corporate executives, and the way these organizations actually work.
Has Fox News won any awards for journalism?
Some of their commentators, like Krauthammer have won awards in the past, and I'm sure some organization with eagles, flags and guns must give them out to FOX. But as far as real journalism awards go, the answer is no. Murdoch has no interest in real journalism. He specializes in sensationalism and real journalists resent the nonsense he passes off as journalism. I've noticed lately that even the Fox network broadcast here has gone to the political commentary, eye-rolling, loaded, unanswered questions during their news portion. This isn't the cable stuff we all know and loathe, this is network, and it plays just as badly there as it does on cable. Editorializing during a newscast, with no indication that that's what is being done, is one of those things real journalistic ethics abhor.
If I would ask a journalist at least 10 questions, what would those be?
1. Why did you become a journalist? 2. Would you still choose this career knowing what you know now? 3. What do you love about your job? 4. What is the most outrageous story/assignment you had to cover? 5. Have you ever been in any dangerous situation covering a story? 6. What are things you don't like about current journalism practices that you wish can change? 7. How do you resolve the ethical dilemma of being a spectator covering a story when you could have helped out in a situation? 8. Have you ever covered a story/assignment you felt strongly against and what did you do? If you refused, what was the consequence? Or if you did your job, how do you resolve the personal/moral/ethical/philosophical conflict? 9. What is the competition like competing against other journalist for a story? 10. What advise do you have for a journalist student wanting to get into the field?
I Think That Journalists Are Scumbags?
I have several problems with the media. First, they believe they are exercising their God given right to tell us everything. The public has a right to know, and the public wants to know. Honestly, there are somethings the general public do not need to know. It does violate national security. And, a lot of people could really care less about all the trival crap. Second, the media reports the terrible things. Take Iraq and Afganistan for an example. How many stories have you read about the schools being built or the medical attention we are giving the sick (I'm not talking about the wounded) people? I believe if you are going to tell a story, then you should tell the whole story and tell it accurately. Third, they believe they are smarter then the public they serve. They are so unbelievably intelligent, they decide what we should be told. For example, how many gun commercials do you see on TV. Yet, it is a proven fact that drinking kills more in one year then gun violence does in several years. They report the stories involving gun violence is there is a sad ending, but they fail to report the stories where guns were used by private citizens to stop crimes. The media is totally one sided. This is America. One of the things that makes the USA great is our freedom of speech. Unfortunately, there are not enough people reporting the other side of the coin. Hence, we are given partial truths. This in turn generates hate, lack of acceptance of others, and a misinformed public. Maybe someone will open a company the tells the other side of the story. Third,
Can anyone deny that PBS's 'Frontline' is liberal propaganda?
Can anyone really deny that PBS is a mouthpiece for liberalism? Watch ANY episode of 'Frontline', and the politcs are ALWAYS radical left- always slamming our leader, Pres GW Bush, and the war on terror.... I forced myself to watch 'Bush's War', and found myself laughing as the liberal propaganda was so over the top, I was shocked people who proiduced it-or watched it could take it seriously.... PBS recently rejected a documentary because some of the producers had Conservative beliefs. PBS standing for free speech? Hah! Liberalism = hatred of freedom. The radical right has FOX, the radical left has PBS...... 'Frontline' is pure left wing propaganda.. My question is this- WHY do liberals deny that PBS has a liberal bias?