While I know the Republican Party has long believed the mainstream media to be liberally biased, their whining about the subject has reached migraine-inducing levels of late, and it's about time someone dawned a little reality on them regarding the matter.
Especially since the inception of talk radio and the Internet, the number of partisan media outlets has continued to grow. Due to that, it's become increasingly difficult to find a nonpartisan source from which to gather the news. If die-hard conservatives want to hear their opinions spouted as fact, they can turn to Rush Limbaugh on the radio, Fox News on television, or a number of websites, including WorldNetDaily, RedState, Breitbart, Drudge Report, and IJ Review (Independent Journal). If die-hard liberals want to hear their opinions confirmed, they can watch MSNBC or read articles at Salon, Slate, or ThinkProgress. So if the Republican Party wants to make the radical claim that left-leaning media outlets have a liberal bias, then so be it. However, when it comes to their claim that the mainstream media has a liberal bias, they're off the mark.
The mainstream media doesn't have a liberal nor a conservative bias. If it has a bias, it's toward themselves - in reporting the news, earning the people's trust and respect, and garnering good ratings. When the big story was the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, what did the mainstream media report on more than anything else? On the morning of the September 11th attacks, and in the days, weeks, and months which followed, what story did the mainstream media discuss more than any other? When awful storms plague this country or another, such as Hurricane Katrina, once again, what does the mainstream media cover? More recently, in light of Hillary Clinton's alleged email scandal, what did the mainstream media talk about more than anything else? While MSNBC might often times ask themselves, "How can we paint this story in a positive light for Democrats?" and Fox News might ask themselves, "How can we paint this story in a positive light for Republicans?," the mainstream media simply asks the question, "What is the actual story and how can we paint it in a way that's both accurate and appealing to viewers?" So while it's entirely possible for more journalists in the mainstream media to be self-described liberals than conservatives, their main objective is to report the news without slant, to help earn the public's respect and trust along the way, and to garner solid ratings in the process.
The biggest reason why I think a growing number of conservatives firmly believe the mainstream media to be liberally biased is the same reason many of them feel fact-checking sites are liberally biased - more times than not, facts are on liberals' side. As Stephen Colbert once said, "Reality has a well known liberal bias." While this hasn't always been the case, since Fox News and right-wing talk radio shows premiered, an increasing number of conservatives have taken opinions for fact and taking facts for opinions. When the mainstream news announces that nearly 100% of scientists (and climatologists more specifically) believe in man-made global warming, this isn't liberal bias disguised as fact; it's fact which is in line with liberal thinking. The mainstream media has also reported the following: A link between the rise in gun quantity and the rise in gun violence, a decrease in unwanted pregnancies and abortions with an increase in comprehensive sex education and access to contraception (just the opposite when it comes to abstinence-only education), a decrease in the top earners' taxes and an increase in pay gap, etc. When a conservative anti-abortion group releases a series of controversial videos concerning Planned Parenthood and the mainstream media, upon further investigation, discovers the videos to be heavily edited, this isn't evidence of a liberal conspiracy; it's simply evidence the videos were flawed. Sadly, it seems a growing number of conservatives have chosen to ignore hard-core evidence and facts, so they can revise the present, much like the past, and live in their own fantasy world, devoid of reality. I can just hear such a person facing murder charges in a courtroom.
Judge: "We've been shown the murder weapon, that your fingerprints were on the weapon, have a picture of you shooting the person, and even have an audio recording of you stating your full name and that you were so happy you killed the individual."
Conservatives: "That's just liberal bias, your honor..."
Again, it's like Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well known liberal bias."
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