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THE LEFT-WING MEDIA FALLACY
Jeremy Bowen, The BBC, And Other National Treasures
It is a mistake to imagine that media corporations are impervious to all complaints and criticism. In fact, senior editors and managers are only too happy to accept that their journalists tend to be 'anti-American,' 'anti-Israel,' 'anti-Western,' indeed utterly rotten with left-wing bias.

In June 2007, an internal BBC report revealed that Auntie Beeb had long been perpetrating high media crimes, including: "institutional left-wing bias" and "being anti-American". ('Lambasting for the "trendy Left-wing bias" of BBC bosses,' Daily Mail, June 18, 2007)

Former BBC political editor, Andrew Marr, applied his forensic journalistic skills, noting that the BBC was comprised of "an abnormally large proportion of younger people, of people in ethnic minorities and almost certainly of gay people, compared with the population at large". This, he deduced, "creates an innate liberal bias". (Nicole Martin, 'BBC viewers angered by its "innate liberal bias",' Daily Telegraph, June 19, 2007)

On the other hand, despite the fact that the media system is made up of corporations that are deeply dependent on corporate advertisers (for revenue) and official government sources (for subsidised news), other possibilities are unthinkable. If one were crazy enough, one might ask, for example:

'Is it accurate to describe the corporate media as servile to concentrated power? Or, as a key component of the state-corporate system, is media propaganda best described as a form of self-service?' continued...

http://medialens.org/alerts/09/090508_the_left_wing.php

[RufusW]

That was a struggle to read, not very well written.

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the BBC and the job it does. Although it obviously does have problems presenting an unbiased view (every viewpoint is biased in some way) overall it does a good job. It also does a good job of reigning in the right-wing. Sky News can't go as far as they (Murdoch) want because they'd look silly.

I always watched Channel 4 news in the UK and was occasionally surprised at how 'lefty' it was, but they probably do the best job at investigating and exposing important issues. Honestly I think their reportage is a league above American news. And Snow grills people properly.

I think the BBC itself makes a good case for tax funded news. The entertainment will slowly and surely be cut off.

"Reality has a well-known liberal bias" Colbert.

[dporter]

[AmericanExile]

It all depends on your perspective. It turns out most papers anger most people who define themselves as very political. Why? Because no paper is usually 100% liberal or conservative. A conservative could read the Chicago Tribune (famously conservative) read 20 articles and get think the paper is liberal because 2 of those articles have a liberal slant. Those things which contradict our beliefs stand out much more than those things we agree with. It happens to me (a liberal), when I read the New York Times (famously liberal). So, like any good homer I stick with the Tribune. I'm gonna be irritated anyway, so I may as well be annoyed by locals. Plus, I can keep my eye on the other side that way.

I do think media outlets have started a more liberal slant after 8 years of Bush. They smelled blood and went for the jugular. Obama has had a honeymoon, but things will shift more conservative. Reports question those in power. Right now that is the dems in the states, so media will start to seem conservative soon enough.

Finally, I had a prof who taught that all media was inherently conservative. They may be for democrats. They may be for republicans. However, they all support the system, and rarely ever even question it. Examples, do we need a president with the expensive elections or would a prime minister be better? In the era of internet where people have access to information and can dicuss things worldwide instantly, do we need a government or could we just vote on everything ourselves? Media outlets don't ask these questions. They support the status quo. QED: conservative. That was his argument.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

medialens is a FAR left wing site. Buyer beware.

[ernie]

when considering an organization's 'political leanings', i think it makes far more sense to consider who OWNS the company instead of who works for it. using the same logic of those people who claim a 'left-wing media bias', we could say that the nike corporation is communist because their sweatshop workers are chinese.

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[Ya-ta Boy]

[AmericanExile]

[bacasper]