Recently, the subject of media bias was rekindled when Vice President Dick Cheney said on CBS News program Face The Nation, “I think it has less to do with the statements we’ve made, which I think were basically accurate and reflect reality, than it does with the fact that there’s a constant sort of perception, if you will, that’s created because what’s newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad.”
Suddenly, Jack Cafferty is hosting a poll on CNN asking whether or not the media is biased; alongside were other cable and news channels jumping on the topic.
Implicit in Cheney’s statement was not only that the is media biased, but it is also biased towards the liberal end of the political spectrum. Political leanings are present in most of the media. The major headline news channels in the United States are MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.
CNN is most likely to be viewed as liberal, Fox News is conservative, while MSNBC hosts former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough and self-identified “Paleo-Conservative” Tucker Carlson. MSNBC also hosts television’s longest running program Meet the Press, arguably the most balanced news hour on television. This does not mean that the network as a whole is balanced.
To focus on the two most obvious perpetuators of media bias let’s look at CNN and Fox News. Recently, CNN conducted a poll through The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer asking “Does Neil Young writing a song called ‘Impeach the President’ mean anything?”
On the other end of the spectrum Neil Cavuto from Fox News points out that Neil Young is a Canadian and asks how would Canadians feel if Americans wrote songs criticizing their government, nationalizing the question. Fox News anchor Brit Hume recounts folk songwriter Neil Young’s soon-to-be-released protest album “Living with War” in a different way. Hume gives a bit of history about the album and then confronts Neil Young with “Young, you may remember, said in a 2002 biography that while he draws the line at doing drugs he considers life-threatening, he remains addicted to marijuana, but tries not to smoke too much so as not to “set a bad example for the kids.”
When addressing the Scooter Libby leak case involving Libby’s alleged leak of Iraq war critic and former ambassador Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a former CIA agent, there is separate coverage as well.
CNN centers on possible instructions from President Bush and Cheney to former Cheney staff member L. “Scooter” Libby to pay back Wilson. Fox News spends more time criticizing former ambassador Wilson, alleging he was against the Iraq War before filing his report on pre-war Iraqi nuclear programs.
A headline regarding Donald Rumsfeld’s handling of the Iraq War on CNN will most likely read “Another top general calls for Rumsfeld to resign,” whereas Fox will make the point that it is not the military’s job to criticize the administration and there are thousands of retired and active generals still living who have not called for the secretary of defense to resign.
Even the language used on cable news signifies some political alignment. In the ongoing immigration debate, CNN uses the phrase “undocumented workers” with the exception of Lou Dobbs. Generally, Fox News uses the term “illegals” or “illegal immigrants.” Fox News is also more prone to using cozy names for officials in the White House. For instance, “Condi and Rummy are working really hard to turn around the press image of the administration.” Meanwhile, CNN is more likely to talk about a “Trend of Global Warming.”
A really grown-up way to look at cable news is through the lens of business. MSNBC is host of the largely liberal oddball news program, Countdown, but host Keith Olbermann makes the point that his producers make the choice what he ultimately does and does not say on the program.
CNN markets the slogan “CNN: The Most Trusted Name in News” to capitalize on its relative longevity in the news business. Fox News is famous for “fair and balanced” and stepped into a market niche by providing conservative commentary on headline news.
Bias in itself may no longer be avoidable now that it’s the norm. More importantly, any news piece, whether analysis, reporting or commentary, should have integrity. Editorializing identified as such is not absolutely bad, so long as some reliable facts can eventually be reached.
This is a “Viewpoint” article and all readers are encouraged to become more involved in news coverage to reach their own conclusions.

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