Friday, June 03, 2005

Media Bias?

In this article, Senator Kerry is complaining about the right wing media. There are some other examples (Alter's What media bias?), that purport to show that the MSM is really a propaganda organ for the right, wealthy whites.
I would propose that you can make a systematic evaluation of any media to determine whether or not bias exists.
First, look for articles that describe Democrats and Republicans. Which has the unnecessary adjectives - "Radical, Liberal, right or left wing. Count up the number and see if there is parity between the two parties.
Next, look for articles that describe a politician doing something wrong. My bet is that in more than 90% of the cases, that if the politician is a Republican, you will be told that in the first three paragraphs, and a 75% chance that it is in the first paragraph. Now if you checked the same politician doing the same thing who is a Democrat, I bet that the earliest you would find their political affiliation would be in the 4th paragraph.
Columbia School of Journalism - where are you to test my theory? Oh yeah, they already have their minds made up.

No comments: