Liberal media bias

About

"Liberal media bias", taken at face value, can refer to either of the following:

• media that is liberally biased: belief that much of the media (especially the mainstream media, especially in the United States) has a substantial liberal bias
• liberal bias in the media: belief that a given report or other piece presented within the media is an example of liberal bias

The former meaning seems to be more often intended though it's not always clear.

It should be noted that mainstream media in the United States is considerably more right-leaning than the media in Europe. Despite this, American media is accused of "liberal media bias" (most often by members of the political right) far more often than European media.

Such claims of bias are generally used in an attempt to discredit or dismiss any information which the right-wing establishment does not wish to address.

Terminology

Also known as: liberal media conspiracy, liberal media elite

Conclusions

Since freedom of speech (which includes freedom of the press) is a liberal concept, it would make sense if news media (whose ability to function properly depends heavily on such concepts) tended to favor liberal ideology. A properly-functioning press would rightly be seen as the anti-authoritarian antidote to the establishment's inevitable tendency towards creeping authoritarianism.

In reality, however, most of the mainstream media (especially in the US) is now owned by a very few companies whose aims seem to be authoritarian and plutocratic, so in practice today's media tend to display a distinct right-wing, authoritarian bias.

However: Even if the media were, in fact, biased towards liberal ideas, it's not clear why anyone, much less conservatives who claim to care about the well-being of American society, would feel this is bad for America, as America itself was founded on this and other enlightened liberal concepts (democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc.). The obvious conclusion to draw is that those who wield claims of "liberal media bias" as a form of attack don't really understand what they are saying, and are simply using it as a soldier argument or clique identity marker.

Related Pages

• Left gatekeepers are those in positions of respect or authority within the political left who feel it necessary to maintain their establishment connections (and hence their exclusive access to newsworthy establishment figures) by carefully avoiding or even repudiating any viewpoints which the right-leaning establishment has deemed "too radical".
• Liberal media bias is a subset of the more general claim of liberal bias.

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia redirects to media bias as of 2015-01-25
• Conservapedia
• RationalWiki: no information as of 2015-01-25 (but see liberal bias)

Blogs

• Right from the Right "Created to give example after example of media bias, left wing lies, and the PC world."