Liberal media bias

About

The idea of liberal media bias, i.e. that the mainstream media (especially in the United States, where this is actually less true than in Europe) displays a strong bias towards liberal interpretations of the available evidence, is a popular claim on the Right. (Presumably it goes without saying that the newer media, such as blogs and Wikipedia, are hopelessly mired in their liberal roots – except for those explicitly declared to be of a conservative bent in order to counter this disturbing trend towards liberalism.)

This claimed bias is then used to effectively discredit any information which the right-wing establishment wishes to dismiss without actually having to rationally argue against it.

Terminology

• Also known as: liberal media conspiracy, liberal media elite
• Related: "Liberal media bias" is a subset of the more general claim of liberal bias.

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) tended to favor liberal ideology.

In reality, however, most of the mainstream media 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 bias.

Even if the media were, in fact, biased towards liberal ideas, it's not clear why anyone, much less conservatives, 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 tribal identity marker.

Related Pages

• The phrase "left gatekeepers" refers to 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 powerful establishment figures) by carefully avoiding or even repudiating any viewpoints which the right-leaning establishment has deemed "too radical".

Links

Reference

• Conservapedia: Media bias | Liberal bias

Blogs

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