Liberal Bias in the Media

[Theige]

The media is generally made of well educated people, and well educated people are generally liberal.

Case closed.

 

[KaiserElectric]

Pretty much sums up my thoughts as well Theige.

 

[Leoreth]

It is in the subtext and the sensational style of reporting. While the reporters don't get to say what they believe, I think if they could it would be more honest than pretending to not have an agenda and officially having no editorial control over their content.

I think I can agree with you that the phenomenon you describe exists, but I don't think it means that every journalist is secretly pushing a "statist" agenda, to use your terminology. It's just that being a journalist requires catching peoples attention, and sensationalism is a good way to achieve this. And nothing is more sensationalist than loudly yelling "why doesn't anybody do something about this??".

So we see that this behaviour is explicitly encouraged by journalists competing in a free market and thus must not be criticized

 

[kochman]

The media is generally made of well educated people, and well educated people are generally liberal.

Case closed.

Case overwhelmingly stupid and over generalized... with a smugness that tends to be off-putting to those of us in the center...

The media is generally made of liberal arts majors, and they tend to be liberal.

There are plenty of educated people that are generally conservative... just in different fields. Practicing MDs (as opposed to those in the academic side) tend to be conservative, I think they are pretty well educated.

 

[warpus]

The military, by and large, will be conservative.
Journalism, higher education, liberal...

Are you really saying that educated people have a liberal bias?

Isn't that an insult to conservatives? (The implication being that the uneducated have a conservative bias)

 

[kochman]

Are you really saying that educated people have a liberal bias?

Isn't that an insult to conservatives? (The implication being that the uneducated have a conservative bias)

No... in the US military, officers all have college degrees after the rank of Captain, and many get masters and PhDs...
MDs tend to be conservative, etc, etc, etc...

By higher education, I meant professors in higher education.

 

[bernie14]

That's relative to US politicians, who are world renowned for being among the most conservative people on the planet.

Did you read that paper? It's not great. It defines the center as the average American voter, so the center is already right-shifted.

how egocentric of me....i had not noticed if any other media was being discussed other than american media....to me, your statements are like "yeah, it's really cold in antartica...well, not compared to pluto"......

in regards to this study, american media, american politicians and american voters, the numbers are valid.....

 

[warpus]

No... in the US military, officers all have college degrees after the rank of Captain, and many get masters and PhDs...
MDs tend to be conservative, etc, etc, etc...

By higher education, I meant professors in higher education.

So it's only those with phd degrees (you need one to be a professor) who have a liberal bias?

The liberal bias doesn't kick in until you are REALLY educated?

 

[kochman]

Ummmm. No... not sure where you are getting that from...
Not what I am saying...
Though, I did read overall that PhDs lean liberal...
Highly educated doesn't mean highly right either... some people experience life from ivory towers and are out of touch with reality even if what they are saying seems like it should be right.

Anyhow, my point was only that what lucyduke said was over the top... too absolute. I don't like absolutes... I know it was tongue in cheek, and I think we're now definitely overexamining the situation.

 

[Traitorfish]

From a British perspective, the American media has a heavy tinge of right-wing populism. Take from that what you will.

 

[Murky]

One way to look at is to learn who controls it through ownership

The U.S. media landscape is dominated by massive corporations that, through a history of mergers and acquisitions, have concentrated their control over what we see, hear and read. In many cases, these giant companies are vertically integrated, controlling everything from initial production to final distribution. In the interactive charts below we reveal who owns what.

http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main

 

[warpus]

Ummmm. No... not sure where you are getting that from...
Not what I am saying...
Though, I did read overall that PhDs lean liberal...

You were saying that university professors tend to have a liberal bias which implies that the more educated you are, the more of a liberal bias you have, as professors are required to hold a phD.

 

[Crezth]

how egocentric of me....i had not noticed if any other media was being discussed other than american media....to me, your statements are like "yeah, it's really cold in antartica...well, not compared to pluto"......

in regards to this study, american media, american politicians and american voters, the numbers are valid.....

Beyond that, the paper in general is kind of sloppy.

 

[kochman]

You were saying that university professors tend to have a liberal bias which implies that the more educated you are, the more of a liberal bias you have, as professors are required to hold a phD.

Ummm... you're taking a step or two too far...
There are other PhDs out there that aren't liberal.

University professors =/= all of most educated

 

[warpus]

Ummm... you're taking a step or two too far...
There are other PhDs out there that aren't liberal.

University professors =/= all of most educated

A phD represents one of the highest levels of education possible. And yeah, those who are educated don't hold a "liberal bias" or whatever, that's what I've been saying all along.

 

[Glassmage]

Liberal Arts majors would not have a job in this day and age without science and engineering majors. Case closed.

 

[Crezth]

Liberal Arts majors would not have a job in this day and age without science and engineering majors. Case closed.

Is there a point to this unnecessarily antagonistic post?

 

[kochman]

A phD represents one of the highest levels of education possible. And yeah, those who are educated don't hold a "liberal bias" or whatever, that's what I've been saying all along.

Right, overall they don't... but college professor tend to be more liberal...
You'd agree with that, right?

I think I did read that, overall, PhDs tend to lean a bit liberal... but anyhow, it doesn't mean they are smarter, just means educated. I've met some very smart people who didn't even graduate high school...

 

[warpus]

I went to University, I didn't see any "liberal bias" from any of my professors. Their political views almost never even came up, so I have no idea who they vote for.

So yeah, I'll have to disagree. This whole "our professors have a liberal bias" thing sounds like a talking point more than anything else.

 

[kochman]

I went to University, I didn't see any "liberal bias" from any of my professors. Their political views almost never even came up, so I have no idea who they vote for.

So yeah, I'll have to disagree. This whole "our professors have a liberal bias" thing sounds like a talking point more than anything else.

Well, you can disagree, but again, this is pretty much common knowledge... here are some stats to back it up...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/education/edl-24notebook-t.html?pagewanted=all

Neil Gross, a professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, whose previous work showed that Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 4 to 1 among professors, by at least 6 to 1 at elite universities, and by still higher ratios in departments of the humanities and social sciences.

I really don't understand the point of pretending these biases don't exist... it isn't necessarily a bad thing, yet some of you are getting very defensive and demanding evidence... perhaps if you come firmly from that side of the pendulum you don't see it?