T.L. Schilling
ts568115@ohio.edu
In today’s media there are certainly what seems to be
“biases” among the networks. If one watches television, especially around
this time of an election year, it clear to see. FOX news is synonymous with the conservative point of view while the major networks of ABC,
NBC, CBS, and notable cable station MSNBC are labeled liberal by some. There are facts to back up these claims as seen in an article from http://newsbusters.org/ regarding statements made about Mitt Romney. Below
are some numbers of where respondents of a recent poll said they derived their
news information from.
Whether or not you subscribe to the theory of bias in
the news media you should be reminded of the old adage of “perception is
reality”. For this very reason, I conducted my own survey to see if there is
any truth to this question.
I asked 10 people of whom I felt were conservative in their political views where they news information from. Of those 10 conservative view people asked, 7 of them said FOX news or the Huffington Post. I was somewhat surprised to hear that every one of those 7 who said either FOX News or The Huffington Post said so because they believed that the other media outlets were too liberal in their views and that those two media outlets were not as biased. I think you know where the next part of the story is going, right?
So then I asked 10 people of whom I felt would be more liberal in their views the same question I asked of the conservative group and got more staggering results. I was stunned to hear that 9 out of 10 said that they either watched or listened to anything but FOX News. The typical answers were CNN, MSNBC and of course the always reliable answer of “I don’t care; they’re all a bunch of liars anyway”. All of this says what about the media and the public’s view of them? It says that perception is reality.
I asked 10 people of whom I felt were conservative in their political views where they news information from. Of those 10 conservative view people asked, 7 of them said FOX news or the Huffington Post. I was somewhat surprised to hear that every one of those 7 who said either FOX News or The Huffington Post said so because they believed that the other media outlets were too liberal in their views and that those two media outlets were not as biased. I think you know where the next part of the story is going, right?
So then I asked 10 people of whom I felt would be more liberal in their views the same question I asked of the conservative group and got more staggering results. I was stunned to hear that 9 out of 10 said that they either watched or listened to anything but FOX News. The typical answers were CNN, MSNBC and of course the always reliable answer of “I don’t care; they’re all a bunch of liars anyway”. All of this says what about the media and the public’s view of them? It says that perception is reality.
The whole theory of bias in the news media, to me at
least, is no more apparent than with the first election of Barrack Obama some
of which can be read in this interesting article from the L.A. Times. The campaign of hope and change was inscribed into the national spotlight with a
barrage of massive media blitzes and high dollar affairs.
Obama's backers were a who’s who of America's elite and his campaign was masterfully orchestrated to reach the younger voters. This is when the “biased” battle lines seemed to be drawn a little deeper in the sand than ever before. It seemed to pit the younger more open minded generation against the old guard, more staunch conservatives wondering where the good old days of Mr. Reagan had gone. Yet one thing sticks out to me as much now as it did then. In keeping with the “time for change” theme, once Obama had been elected, he was hailed as the first African –American president of these great United States of America. The more accurate headline could have very well read “Obama, America’s bi-racial president”. Yes, his father is an African –American from Kenya, but his Caucasian mother is from Kansas (a fact usually left out of discussions).
Obama's backers were a who’s who of America's elite and his campaign was masterfully orchestrated to reach the younger voters. This is when the “biased” battle lines seemed to be drawn a little deeper in the sand than ever before. It seemed to pit the younger more open minded generation against the old guard, more staunch conservatives wondering where the good old days of Mr. Reagan had gone. Yet one thing sticks out to me as much now as it did then. In keeping with the “time for change” theme, once Obama had been elected, he was hailed as the first African –American president of these great United States of America. The more accurate headline could have very well read “Obama, America’s bi-racial president”. Yes, his father is an African –American from Kenya, but his Caucasian mother is from Kansas (a fact usually left out of discussions).
I don’t think that there will ever be a totally bias
free media. I think in today’s world of vast resources, we can talk ourselves
into just about anything we want to believe in. The main reason there may never
be a totally bias free media is: Perception is reality.
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