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MEDIA - MEDIA BIAS and the
MYTH of LIBERAL MEDIA
EVIDENCE
FOR MEDIA BIAS/MYTH OF LIBERAL MEDIA: ANTI-DEMOCRAT, ANTI-LIBERAL + MEDIA USE OF RIGHT-WING (RW) AND GOP TALKING POINTS
You may select any
of the links below to view our growing collection but we encourage you
to first read our comments
below. If
you would like to submit data-driven, evidence-based examples of media
bias against specific individuals or groups, or just have some
comments (politeness is strongly requested) please do so by emailing
us at feedback-at-eriposte-dot-com.
MAILING LIST:
If you want to get on our mailing list for notifications on updates to
this page, let
us know by emailing to feedback-at-eriposte-dot-com.
Last Update: 1/12/03
WHY?
It is increasingly clear that there
is a significant conservative to right-wing bias in mainstream U.S.
media and in radio talk shows. In the above pages, we will attempt to
feature articles and reports on this bias - focusing on bias against Democratic or
left-leaning politicians, individuals or groups, and highlighting some of the
distasteful and truly egregious right-wing dominated trash
that parades as news and reality in some of today's media.
We
started this project on 12/7/02 and compiled what we consider a
reasonable set of evidence by 12/8/02, thanks to remarkable
writers/investigators like Bob Somerby (Daily
Howler), the folks at Spinsanity
and others. We picked up where we left off around the end of December
and significantly bolstered up the evidence chart for the Clintons
page. The effort continues.
APPROACH
Why is our web page (and for that matter eRiposte) different?
Well, we tend to believe that in the information flooded world of
today, the best way to catch people's attention, imagination, and
interest, is to present information in a simple form that makes it
easier for people to review and assimilate the facts. We
therefore tend to present our compiled (as is the case here,
or original) results in a single table in the hope that people with
little time, will notice quickly the degree to which right-wing bias
is pervasive, while providing links to the detailed analysis and
evidence (provided by dedicated and sharp bloggers and writers) for
those who want more detailed access to the facts. Our goal here is to
enable better access to facts, nothing more.
We have no time to read volumes of books (except perhaps one or two
outstanding ones) and we have no money to
invest in accessing Lexis Nexis or anything like that. All we did was
use Google. In that sense, our data set could potentially have been
higher. Thank Heavens for the Internet and thanks to Al Gore for
having taken the initiative in bringing us the Internet.
WHY NOT
PRO-LIBERAL BIAS?
Some of you may ask - why not focus on left-leaning media that falsely trashes the right?
Or media that has a liberal bias. The answer is simple. The right
wing dominates even mainstream news and media today to a substantially
(and astonishingly) higher degree than any transgressions from the left - so as
a matter of priority the balance has to be reset with a focus on the
right wing media barrage. Let it be clear that we are not
saying that no anti-conservative or pro-liberal views exist in the
media today. What we are attempting to do is merely bring back some
balance.
OTHER COMMENTS
It is hard to generalize and
state that the
U.S. media is terrible. We do however think there are many individuals
and groups in the media that
have their own agenda - that often completely lack objectivity and honesty.
Does this mean every one of the
"perpetrators" we have identified in our compilations is a
liar? Of course, some of them did
blatantly lie, but many others either propagated myths, or
misled/misinformed their audience, or expressed unfair bias/(false) denial/just plain
B.S. on a specific issue - either through incompetence (sometimes
called "laziness") or through a vested interest in
propagating a certain view based on prejudice. So, we'll let the jury
decide what is the case. What is exceedingly clear in the end is that the enormity of the journalistic
malpractice and incompetence and the significant amount of deliberate deception
shows an ingrained bias in the mainstream press in the U.S. against
leading liberals and Democrats. While it may be difficult to
prove unambiguously that the mainstream media "bows to
conservative power" (borrowing a phrase from a recent exchange
between Tapped and The Daily Howler) it is hard to argue against that
if one looks at the facts. We will address this further - in the
future.
RUNNING COMMENTARY
As we continue our effort to document anti-liberal
media bias, we will also from time to time feature here interesting
snippets on this topic.
12/18/02 The
myth of liberal bias in the media
12/13/02 Why
did it take so long for the mainstream media to cover the Trent Lott
issue?
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