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Media Bias Continues to Deceive Americans Armstrong Williams Please don't tell me you really believe that the press operates in a completely objective manner. That's just a bunch of pabulum put out for public consumption. The American media are largely composed of liberals. In fact, a 1994 survey of Washington bureau chiefs reported that 61 percent of the reporters and editors considered themselves liberals, while only 2 percent described themselves as conservatives. Not surprisingly, the same survey reported that 89 percent of the reporters and editors voted for Clinton in '92, while only 7 percent supported Bush.
Such biases can reveal themselves in subtle ways, such as determining who gets the last word in an article. They also can lead the media to employ politically charged labels that shape perceptions. For example, the media have taken glee in labeling Bush's Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito as a member of the "the extreme right." NPR's Nina Totenberg labeled Alito "very conservative." On "Good Morning America," Jessica Yellen labeled Alito as having "conservative credentials." Charles Gibson called Alito "the most conservative member" of an otherwise "liberal appellate court." Story Continues Below
In short, the media have dubbed Alito a conservative extremist because he does not support abortion. But these same media members never refer to abortion rights advocates as "the extreme left." When Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated 12 years ago, she was depicted in the mainstream media as a "centrist," despite her wholesale opposition to abortion and pathologically liberal track record with the ACLU.
Even more disturbing is the way conservative activists are far more likely to be identified as religious fundamentalists, even when their religious beliefs have no logical relation to the story. For instance, a recent Associated Press headline proclaimed: "Alito Would Tip Court to Catholics." The obvious implication is that Alito would vote based upon his religious beliefs, and not upon the law. Rarely are liberal activists identified by their religious affiliations. Indeed, there would be an outcry if the AP said this about Jews or minorities. But for some reason the press has no problem subtly depicting Republicans as a coterie of Catholic extremists who operate outside the mainstream.
CBS news correspondent Bernard Goldberg says the double standard can be blamed on media bias: "The old argument that the networks and other 'media elites' have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it's hardly worth discussing anymore. No, we don't sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we're going to slant the news. We don't have to. It comes naturally to most reporters."
Though journalists cannot admit it, their personal beliefs invariably season their stories. Consider that journalists can never simply report. Rather, they must take an angle. Far from being unbiased recorders of facts, then, reporters are telling us what they think is most important. Therefore, their personal beliefs play a vital role in arbitrating what to report and what to discard. It is not surprising, then, that liberal journalists exaggerated the deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina and hammered the president on his poll numbers, but dedicated almost no attention to the fact that Iraq just voted on its constitution. The image of millions of people risking their lives to vote for the first time is the image of good triumphing over the evil of oppression. But you would hardly know it from the dearth of press coverage. For that matter, where is the media coverage of plummeting gas prices?
I'm not suggesting that there is a vast liberal conspiracy. But it does seem clear that there is a lack of diversity of political opinion within the news media and that this lack of diversity is radically shortchanging the accomplishments of this administration. If the media are to carry out their professed goal of informing the public, they will have to broaden their talent pool. Otherwise, the increasingly insular nature of the media threatens to squash a centuries-old tradition of reporting news to the American people with accuracy and integrity.
www.armstrongwilliams.com Editor's note:
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