A n 9 1 n 0 9 iv th 2 er 3 sa -2 r 0 y 1 Res earc her 3 Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com Is slanted reporting replacing objectivity?

n unprecedented number of Americans view the media as biased and untrustworthy, with both conservatives and liberals complaining that coverage A of political races and important public policy issues is often skewed. Polls show that 80 percent of Americans believe news stories are often influenced by the powerful, and nearly as many say the media tend to favor one side of issues over another. The proliferation of commentary by partisan cable broadcasters,

talk-radio hosts and bloggers has blurred the lines between news At MSNBC, which features left-leaning commentator Rachel Maddow, 85 percent of airtime is dedicated to commentary — rather than straight news — and opinion in many people’s minds, fueling concern that slanted compared to 55 percent at and 46 percent at CNN, according to the Pew Research Center. Some reporting is replacing media objectivity. At the same time, news - media analysts say the public’s growing perception of media bias is due partly to the rise of opinion- dominated TV and radio talk shows. papers and broadcasters — and even some partisan groups — have launched aggressive fact-checking efforts aimed at verifying I statements by newsmakers and exposing exaggerations or outright N THIS REPORT S lies. Experts question the future of U.S. democracy if American THE ISSUES ...... 403 I voters cannot agree on what constitutes truth. BACKGROUND ...... 409 D CHRONOLOGY ...... 411 E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 416 CQ Researcher • May 3, 2013 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 417 Volume 23, Number 17 • Pages 401-424 OUTLOOK ...... 418 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 422 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 423 MEDIA BIAS CQ Re search er May 3, 2013 THE ISSUES OUTLOOK Volume 23, Number 17 MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri • Should journalists try to Dizzying Changes [email protected] 403 418 Journalists worry that the de - be objective? ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch • Has the rise of media cline of traditional media will [email protected] watchdog groups fostered increase partisanship in news coverage. SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: the perception of bias? Thomas J. Colin • Are the media biased in [email protected] favor of President Obama? SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost STAFF WRITER: Marcia Clemmitt BACKGROUND Coverage of Democrats 404 Was More Negative CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, ’s ‘Dark Ages’ Most partisan quotes in 2012 Peter Katel , Reed Karaim, Robert Kiener, 409 Partisanship was the norm election were from the GOP. Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks during journalism’s early SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR: Olu B. Davis days. Most See Media as 405 Politically Biased ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa The Press Transformed More than 75 percent of FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris 410 Republicans and 54 percent Beginning in the 1830s, EDITORIAL INTERN: Ethan McLeod the “penny press” offered of Democrats see tilt. less partisan news. Negative Views of Press 408 Growing Electronic Media Over 75 percent of Americans 412 The invention of radio in say the press is biased. the 1920s, and later TV, An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. transformed the media. Chronology VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, 411 Key events since 1690. HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: Michele Sordi New Media 413 All-news cable channels Media Bias Seen as Threat EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ONLINE LIBRARY AND 412 to Democracy REFERENCE PUBLISHING: such as Fox and CNN “I don’t know if democracy Todd Baldwin changed the face of objec - can survive without an actively tive TV news. free press.” Copyright © 2013 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other Blurring the Lines Fact Checkers Proliferate rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. 415 Talk radio and Internet- 412 — and So Do Their Critics No part of this publication may be reproduced based websites and Services expose deception; electronically or otherwise, without prior written offered a variety of ideo - partisans often ignore them. permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis- logical slants on the news. sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of 417 At Issue: federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. Do the mainstream media CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional have a political bias? CURRENT SITUATION Quarterly Inc. New Entities CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- 416 FOR FURTHER RESEARCH free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 5) Agenda-driven nonprofit (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. news organizations are on For More Information 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - the rise. 421 Organizations to contact. tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Annual full-service subscriptions start at $1,054. For and More Bibliography pricing, call 1-800-818-7243. To purchase a CQ Re - 416 Journalists increasingly use 422 Selected sources used. searcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), Twitter, Facebook and visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single blogs to reach readers. The Next Step reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and 423 Additional articles . electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at 423 Citing CQ Researcher additional mailing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress Sample bibliography formats. chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Cover: AFP/Getty Images/Karen Bleier Wash ing ton, DC 20037.

402 CQ Researcher Media Bias BY ROBERT KIENER

2013, 40 per cent were either THE ISSUES Republicans or conservatives, and only 29 per cent were De - total embarrass - mo crats or liberals, complained ment.” “A fawn - the left-leaning media watch - “A ing interview.” “A dog group Media Matters. Cen - targeted barrage of softballs.” trist, nonpartisan and ideo - A wide variety of jour - logically neutral guests made nalists and media critics used up 31 per cent . 7 those disparaging terms to at - The claim that the main - tack CBS reporter Steve Kroft’s stream media — or as former Jan. 27 “60 Minutes” i nterview vice presidential candidate and with President Obama and out - Alaska governor Sarah Palin going Secretary of State Hillary calls them, the “lamestream” Rodham Clinton . 1 media — lean to the left has The Atlantic compared it been a favorite theme of the

to Scott Pelley’s earlier, much y Republican Party for years. a

tougher “60 Minutes” interview K “As a conservative I’ve long c M

with President George W. Bush believed that there is an in - s i r

and proclaimed “a glaring h herent media bias, and I C /

double standard” favoring s think that anyone with ob - e

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Democrats. The Washington a jectivity would believe that m I

Post called Kroft’s sit-down with that’s the case,” vice presi - y t Obama and Clinton a “soft-as- t dential candidate Rep. Paul e premium-tissue” interview. 3 G Ryan, R-Wis., said last Sep - Conservative talk show hosts such as have Fox News claimed the in - found huge audiences — mainly among Republicans — tember. “I think most peo - terview “totally epitomizes at Fox News. Some media critics trace the rise of ple in the mainstream media liberal media bias in the partisan programming to the government’s 1987 are left of center.” 8 modern era.” 4 The Wall Street decision to abandon the Fairness Doctrine, which The media are “out of Journal ’s editorial page required broadcasters to devote airtime to policy debates control with a deliberate and and offer contrasting views on those issues. dubbed it “embarrassing” The government said the rapid growth of unmistakable leftist agenda,” evi dence of “the mainstream cable outlets made the rule unnecessary. the , a media fawn-a-thon toward conservative media watch - the current president.” 5 the plan, while some have even taken dog group in Alexandria, Va., charged The complaints are only the latest to actively soliciting the public to con - in an August 2012 “open letter” to the in a rising chorus of charges that the tact [the senators] directly” to express “biased” during last year’s nation’s mainstream media — major their displeasure, reporter Dylan Byers presidential race. “To put it bluntly: , newsweeklies and broad - wrote in Politico. “The decision by you are rigging this election and tak - casters — lean either to the left or to some members of the media to come ing sides in order to pre-determine the the right. And polls show that the per - down so firmly on one side of a pol - outcome.” ception of media bias is growing, and icy debate has only served to rein - During the 2012 presidential elec - that it comes from both sides of the force conservatives’ longstanding sus - tion, however, Democrats received more political spectrum. picions that the mainstream media has negative coverage than Republicans, For example, some mainstream a deep-seated liberal bias.” 6 according to the 4thEstate Project, which media outlets were accused of slanting The Sunday talk shows also are criti - examined three months’ worth of 2012 their coverage of the Senate’s recent cized for hosting Republican and election coverage. It found that 37 per - refusal to mandate background checks conservative guests more often than cent of Obama’s coverage was nega - on gun purchases. “Television hosts, Democrats or liberals. Of 400 guests tive, compared to 29 percent of Rom - editorial boards and even some re - hosted by the major Sunday morning ney’s. About 60 percent of the partisan porters have aggressively criticized and talk shows on ABC, CBS, NBC and quotes came from GOP- oriented shamed the 46 Senators who opposed Fox during the f irst th ree months of sources. 9 (See graph, p. 404. )

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 403 MEDIA BIAS

reporters being blindsided by the Coverage of Democrats Was More Negative 2007-09 recession. 13 Republican-oriented sources accounted for about 60 percent of the Tim Groseclose, a political science partisan quotes during three months of media coverage of the 2012 professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has developed a presidential campaign, according to the 4thEstate Project, which statistical model for measuring the “slant conducts statistical analysis of the media. It also found that media quotient” of news stories. In his 2012 coverage of health care, the economy and social issues was more book Left Turn: How Liberal Bias Dis - negative for President Obama than for GOP challenger Mitt torts the American Mind , he concludes Romney. Thirty-seven percent of total election coverage during the that “every mainstream national news period was negative for Obama, compared to 29 percent for Romney. outlet in the has a liberal bias.” Of the 20 news sources he stud - Party Affiliation of Nature of Coverage of ied, 18 were left of center, he said. 14 Partisan Newsmakers Presidential Candidates, But David D’Alessio, an assistant Quoted in Election May-July 2012 professor of communications sciences Coverage, May-July 2012 at the University of Connecticut, Stam - ford, says his research shows that “while some individuals may produce biased (Percentage) reporting, over time both sides tend 60% to balance one another. There is no

50 clear bias for one side or the other.” Many observers agree that distrust 40 Positive Democrat Romney of the media often depends on one’s 41% Republican 30 Negative political leanings. “Democrats trust 59% Romney everything except Fox, and Republi - 20 Positive Obama cans don’t trust anything other than 10 Negative Fox,” said a Public Policy Polling press Obama release announcing its latest survey 0 15 Total Coverage of media credibility. “If Fox tilts right, that doesn’t bother conservatives; they : “Liberal Media Bias: Fact or Fiction,” 4thEstate Project, July 2012, don’t necessarily see it as bias,” said specialreports.4thestate.net/liberal-media-bias-fact-or-fiction/ Bernard Goldberg, a Fox contributor and author of Bias and other books Others see a conservative, pro-GOP every week, and among the country’s on media partiality. “And when slant at some popular media outlets. top 10 (as ranked by the MSNBC goes left, liberals . . . see it Fox News is “vital” to the conservative number of papers that carry them), as ‘truth.’ ” 16 movement, said Republican Jim Gilmore, five are conservative, two centrist and “Fox is perfectly entitled to be a former governor of . 10 And a three liberal. 12 conservative news organization” said 2009 Pew Research poll found that Fox A classic study by the media watch - former Times executive edi - News is considered the most ideologi - dog group Fairness & Accuracy in Re - tor Bill Keller. “I will always defend their cal channel in America, with 47 percent porting (FAIR) found in 1998 that most right to be that. My criticism of Fox is of respondents saying Fox is “mostly journalists were relatively liberal on so - that a lot of the time they pretend that conservative.” 11 cial policies but significantly more con - they’re not. And I think that just tends Measuring media bias is an inexact servative than the general public on to contribute to cynicism about the science, and researchers who try to quan - economic, labor, health care and for - media. All news organizations, includ - tify it have found mixed results, with eign policy issues. Journalists “nearly ing the ones that try very hard to play some studies showing a left-leaning bias always” turn to government officials fair and to be even-handed in their re - and some a rightward tilt. and business representatives — rather porting and writing, get tarred by the A Media Matters survey found that than labor representatives or con - Fox brush.” 17 about 60 percent of the nation’s news - sumer advocates — when covering Despite the inconclusiveness of the papers publish more conservative syn - economic policy, a practice that crit - studies, skepticism about media credi - dicated columnists than liberal ones ics say led to the nation’s business bility is growing. For instance:

404 CQ Researcher • A 2013 Public Policy Polling sur - vey of news media trustworthiness Most Americans See Media as Politically Biased found that Fox’s credibility had dropped More than three-fourths of Republicans consider the media politi - significantly: 46 percent of those sur - cally biased, a perception shared by 54 percent of Democrats and veyed said they do not trust the net - 63 percent of Independents. Sixty percent of Americans say they work — up 9 points since 2010. 18 have little or no confidence in the media to report news fully, • A 2011 Pew Research Center poll found that 77 percent of respondents accurately and fairly. believed news organizations “tend to favor one side” — up from 53 percent Percentage of Americans Who Say the Media Are in 1985. 19 Politically Biased, 1985-2011 (by Party Affiliation) • A September 2012 Gallup survey found that 60 percent of respondents (Percentage) said they had “not very much” or no 80% trust or confidence that the mass media 70 report the news fully, accurately and fair - 60 ly — up from 46 percent in 1998. 20 “These are big increases, says Mark 50 Jurkowitz, a former Boston Globe jour - 40 nalist and media reporter and now the 30 associate director of the Pew Research 1985 1987 1999 2001 2002 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 Project for Excellence in Journalism. “For the last three decades there has been Republicans Democrats Independents a seriously embedded, growing thought among the public that the media, es - pecially the liberal media, are biased.” Trust and Confidence in Mass Media to Report News Fully, Larry Light, editor-in-chief of the fi - Accurately and Fairly, 1997-2012 nancial website AdviceIQ.com, con - tended that public antipathy toward (Percentage) the news media is the result of what 60% he called the right-wing’s ongoing “war against journalists,” which he maintained has stepped up its tempo recently. The 50 perception of bias “has nothing to do with people’s individual observations” but everything to do with “a jugger - 40 naut of conservative, anti-media pro - 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 paganda that has grown more and more powerful,” he wrote. “The propagan - Great deal/fair amount Not very much/none at all dists repeat the phrase ‘biased liberal media’ a zillion-fold everywhere. That Sources: Lymari Morales, “U.S. Distrust in Media Hits New High,” Gallup, September it is a crock of baloney is beside the 2012, www.gallup.com/poll/157589/distrust-media-hits-new-high.aspx; “Views of point.” 21 the News Media: 1985-2011,” Pew Research Center, September 2011, p. 11, www. Some observers blame the chang - people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/9-22-2011%20Media%20Attitudes%20Release.pdf ing perceptions on the rise of cable television, radio talk shows and In - erals such as Rachel Maddow of partisan outlets and the more objec - ternet sites and blogs, which have en - MSNBC, along with news sites such tive mainstream media,” says S. Robert abled thousands of new players to as the right-leaning Drudge Report Lichter, director of the Center for spread their often partisan messages. and left-leaning Huffington Post , have Media and Public Affairs at George Commentators such as conservatives helped blur the line between straight Mason University in Annandale, Va., Sean Hannity of Fox News and radio news and opinion. “The public does and co-author of the 1986 book The personality Rush Limbaugh, and lib - not always differentiate between these Media Elite.

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 405 MEDIA BIAS

Indeed, 63 percent of respondents ers, bloggers, Twitterers and others “The big problem with objectivity is cited cable news — particularly CNN adding their often-partisan views to that it has no bias toward truth,” says and Fox — when asked what comes those of the established media — many Eric Alterman, a journalism history pro - to mind when they hear the term “news media analysts are asking if journalistic fessor at the City University of New organizations,” according to Pew. 22 objectivity is becoming passé. York (CUNY) Graduate School of Jour - Pew also found that opinion and com - But for many mainstream media or - nalism and a liberal . “You can mentary, as opposed to news report - ganizations, objectivity is a core part quote both sides of an issue, and they ing, fill 85 percent of MSNBC’s air - of their brand and very much worth can both be false. This doesn’t bring time, 55 percent of Fox’s and 46 percent preserving. “Objectivity is like virtue; readers any closer to the truth.” of CNN’s. 23 it’s . . . the thing that you always strive “Good journalism, like good sci - Some say the public’s perceptions toward” in search of the truth, said ence, starts out with a hunch, not with about media bias may also have been New York Times conservative colum - an observation, and then builds its influenced by the growth of media nist David Brooks. 27 case from there” says Reuters media watchdog groups, such as Media Mat - He and other journalists say being critic Jack Shafer. “It’s the method the ters and the Media Research Center, objective means not playing favorites, journalist uses to arrive at his conclu - which track inaccurate reporting, media regardless of one’s personal views. “It sion that has to be objective.” bias and political gaffes. Often financed means doing stories that will make Some journalists have held that being by wealthy partisans, the groups comb your friends mad when appropriate objective means producing “balanced” the media searching for examples of and not doing stories that are actu - stories — stories that give various sides perceived right- or left-wing bias. ally hit jobs or propaganda mas - of an issue. But many now see that “Part of their message is, ‘The other querading as journalism,” said Alex approach as misleading and often pro - guy is lying to you,’ ” says Jurkowitz. S. Jones, director of Harvard Univer - ducing weak reporting. That helps to convince the public that sity’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the “There is no such thing as objec - “the media are biased,” he says. Press, Politics and Public Policy and tivity, and the truth . . . seldom nes - Others say fact-checking groups a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. “It tles neatly halfway between any two such as PolitiFact and FactCheck.org is essential that genuine objectivity opposing points of view,” the late Texas may also have increased the percep - should remain the American journal - Molly Ivins declared. “The tion that the media are biased. ( See side - istic standard.” 28 smug complacency of much of the bar, p. 414. ) In its Handbook of Journalism , the press . . . stems from the curious no - Surveys repeatedly have shown that Reuters news service warns journalists: tion that if you get a quote from both most mainstream journalists in New “As Reuters journalists, we never iden - sides . . . you’ve done the job. In the York City and Washington, D.C., have tify with any side in an issue, a con - first place, most stories aren’t two-sided, liberal leanings, but most reporters say flict or a dispute.” 29 they’re 17-sided at least. In the sec - they separate their personal views from But many media specialists today ond place, it’s of no help to either the their reporting. 24 “An opinion is not a question whether journalists can ever readers or the truth to quote one side bias,” said Michael Kinsley, former edi - be truly objective or neutral. “No jour - saying, ‘cat,’ and the other side saying tor of the online publication Slate. 25 nalist is completely objective,” says ‘dog,’ while the truth is there’s an ele - Longtime Washington Post political re - Pew’s Jurkowitz. “There are subjective phant crashing around out there in porter David Broder once famously de - judgments made in every story: what the bushes.” 30 clared that “the charge of ideological quote a reporter uses in his lead, the After seeing his reporting reduced bias in the newsroom [is] laughable. prominence he gives to certain facts, to a formulaic, he-said-she-said news There just isn’t enough ideology in the who gets one or two quotes, the lan - story, former Los Angeles Times reporter average reporter to fill a thimble.” 26 guage used, etc.” Ken Silverstein complained to his edi - As scholars, journalists and news “Objectivity is in the eye of the be - tors that “balanced” reporting can be consumers explore bias in the quick - holder,” says Barrie Dunsmore, a for - “totally misleading and leads to utter - ly changing media world, here are mer ABC News foreign correspondent. ly spineless reporting.” In the end, he some questions they are asking: “It’s not just reporting both sides, which continued, “It’s just an easy way of often aren’t equivalent in terms of avoiding real reporting and shirking Should journalists try to be ob - moral, legal or sociological balance. It our responsibility to inform readers.” 31 jective? has to be coupled with knowledge of Constantly demanding balance can As the media landscape grows a subject. It’s easy to be objective if lead to a false equivalence, critics argue. more varied — with cable broadcast - you don’t know anything.” “ says about 97 percent of

406 CQ Researcher climate scientists agree that global ganizations have to be clear about their dropped the term “illegal immigrant” warming is real and manmade, but motives and agendas. Transparency is from its AP Stylebook. ) 37 only about 50 percent of news reporting the new objectivity,” he says. • Fairness & Accuracy in Report - will say that, because they . . . want ing complained that the mainstream to give equal weight to both sides,” Has the proliferation of media media “failed” to properly question the says Alterman. watchdog groups fostered percep - Bush administration’s justification for “The term ‘balance’ implies equal tions of media bias? the by neglecting to suffi - time, and that’s not sufficient for accu - Much of the criticism of the “biased ciently question the existence of rate and fair reporting,” says Dunsmore. right-wing press” and the “lamestream weapons of mass destruction and “It is more important to be accurate media” has originated with self-styled other assertions. 38 and fair than merely showing both sides media watchdog groups that exist main - These groups have “created the per - of an issue in order to be balanced.” ly to monitor the media in hopes of ception that the media is more biased Longtime Washington observers Nor - discovering bias, inaccuracies or in - than it really is,” says Si Sheppard, an man Ornstein, a resident scholar at the consistencies. Often funded by politi - assistant professor of political science conservative American Enterprise Insti - cally inspired financial backers such at Long Island University and author tute, and Thomas Mann, a senior fel - as conservative billionaire brothers of The Partisan Press: A History of low at the centrist Brookings Institu - Charles and David Koch or liberal fi - Media Bias in the United States. “That’s tion, recently excoriated the mainstream nancier George Soros, these groups their objective. They like to say that press for insisting on writing balanced comb the media searching for exam - the media play favorites, but studies news stories that gave equal weight to ples of bias. have shown that there has not been often-outlandish political views, such as “An entire cottage industry exists to consistent favoritism in reporting over the comment by former Rep. Allen highlight the media’s alleged failings,” the last few decades.” West, R-Fla., that “78 to 81” members wrote Paul Farhi, a reporter at The Others say that because these of Congress are communists. Washington Post. 34 groups are open about their own bi - “Our advice to the press: Don’t seek By publicizing failings, groups such ases, their findings do not unfairly taint professional safety through the even- as the Media Research Center (MRC), the press. “Everyone has to parse every - handed, unfiltered presentation of op - Media Matters for America, Fairness & one’s arguments for themselves,” says posing views,” they said. Instead, re - Accuracy in Reporting and others also Reuters media critic Shafer. “I find these porters should ask: “Which politician have ratcheted up the volume in the groups valuable.” is telling the truth? Who is taking national conversation about media But others say the groups have crossed hostages, at what risks and to what bias. “Their message that the media the line from unbiased critics to politi - ends?” 32 Choosing balance over com - are biased has certainly seeped into cal partisans. “When watchdog groups mon sense does the public a disser - the public consciousness,” says Pew’s push their political agenda to the detri - vice, they said. Taking a “balanced Jurkowitz. ment of facts, they are becoming biased treatment of an unbalanced phenom - For example: political operators,” says Andrew R. Cline, enon distorts reality.” 33 • L. Brent Bozell, founder and pres - associate professor of journalism at Mis - Others, such as George Mason’s ident of the conservative MRC, said the souri State University, in Springfield. “They Lichter, differentiate between objectivi - mainstream media are “the ‘shock troops’ stop doing a good service.” ty and balance. Objectivity is “such a of the Obama administration because “Media criticism has become polit - valuable gift from America to the world they are the ones doing all the dirty ical criticism by another name,” says of journalism that I’d hate to lose it,” work for him so that he doesn’t have George Mason’s Lichter. he says. “We owe a debt of gratitude to do it.” 35 But the MRC’s Bozell disagrees. to the wire services and papers such • Left-leaning Media Matters said Fox “Data is data, numbers are numbers. as for making ob - News often uses “offensive words” to While our interpretation of those facts jectivity their goal.” refer to undocumented immigrants. The may be subjective, we aren’t forcing But some journalists today argue group claimed that between Nov. 7, the public to see bias everywhere. that reporters should not be afraid to 2012, and Feb. 15, 2013, Fox’s prime- We are showing them what different declare their biases. With many new- time hosts and their guests used what news organizations are reporting and media platforms producing journalism Media Matters called anti-immigrant the way they are reporting and let that is increasingly laced with opinion, language — such as “illegals,” “illegal them decide.” it’s more important than ever to know aliens” and “anchor babies” — 99 “By awakening the public to bias, a reporter’s agenda, says Jurkowitz. “Or - times. ” 36 (Recently The Associated Press these watchdogs are doing a favor,”

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 407 MEDIA BIAS

While conservative commentators Negative Views of Press Growing used this outburst as proof of their oft- The public’s assessment of the press has become increasingly negative repeated claim that much of the media since the mid-1980s. Two-thirds of Americans say reports often are favored Obama, others said all it showed was that reporters, like anyone else, inaccurate, compared to about one-third in 1985. Seventy-seven enjoy a good debate comeback. percent say the press shows bias on political and social issues, while Many conservatives, such as the 80 percent say the media often are influenced by powerful people Media Research Center’s Bozell, say and organizations. Experts say the rise of cable television and the the media are pro-Obama and his ad - Internet has led more media outlets to engage in partisanship, with ministration. “Saying the media aren’t less regard for accuracy. Obama-biased is like saying ducks don’t waddle,” says Bozell. Public Views on Press Performance, 1985 and 2011 David Freddoso, editorial page ed - 80% itor of the conservative Washington 70 77% 80% Examiner and author of Spin Masters: 60 66% 53% 53% How the Media Ignored the Real News 50 and Helped Reelect , 40 34% 30 echoes the bias claims but believes 20 that much of it is unintentional. “A lot 10 of the mainstream media’s pro-Obama 0 bias is a product of the ‘liberal bubble Stories often are Press favors one side Press often influenced world’ most journalists live in,” he says. inaccurate. on political and by powerful people social issues. and organizations. “When you and most of your col - leagues are liberal, that can easily Source: “Views of the News Media: 1985-2011,” Pew Research Center, skew your perceptions.” 1985 September 2011, p. 1, www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/9-22 - Freddoso believes the mainstream 2011%20Media%20Attitudes%20Release.pdf 2011 media have “misrepresented Obama’s so-called economic recovery” in says UCLA’s Groseclose. “They are mov - “The fact that public trust in the media Obama’s favor and “emphasized Rom - ing people’s perceptions closer to the continues to fall says more about the ney’s gaffes during the campaign in - truth that the media is biased.” media than it does about media watch - stead of attacking Obama’s handling However, some media observers dogs. The media landscape is expand - of the Benghazi attack,” in which the say the groups make the media look ing beyond television and newspapers. American diplomatic mission in Beng - more biased than they really are. “These As it does, there is more of a need to hazi, Libya, was attacked by insurgents groups’ criticisms are certainly rein - combat misinformation from new sources.” in September, 2012. forcing that opinion,” says Lichter. “In - Some conservative journalists claim stead of just beating up the other side, Are the media biased in favor of there has been a double standard in there is more beating up on the media President Obama? coverage of the Obama and George W. for being biased.” During the Sept. 16, 2012, presi - Bush administrations. “There was no This is more than politically orient - dential debate, Republican candidate fear of affronting Bush,” said , ed criticism. “The new part of some of Mitt Romney implied that Obama’s executive editor of the conservative Week - these groups’ message is, ‘the media personal funds likely included invest - ly Standard. “He faced relentless scruti - are lying to you,’ ” says Jurkowitz. “That ments in China, a charge that had been ny. . . . The media raised questions has become a significant element of the leveled at Romney. about his motives, the constitutionality message that goes out on both sides “Mr. President, have you looked at of his policies, his brainpower. . . . of the spectrum.” your pension?” asked Romney. Obama’s adoption of these same poli - Lichter and others blame the pub - Obama shot back, “You know, I don’t cies has drawn minimal attention.” 40 lic’s declining trust in media in part look at my pension. It’s not as big as Lichter disagrees. “While Obama on the watchdog groups’ repeated al - yours, so it, it doesn’t take as long.” did get extremely positive coverage legations of bias. In a nearby room where reporters during his extended honeymoon pe - Media Matters executive vice- were watching the debate, a round of riod in 2009, the press since then has president Bradley Beychok disagrees. applause broke out. 39 been fairly balanced in its coverage of

408 CQ Researcher him and his admin - “If anything, our analy - istration.” sis suggests a media bias Other media crit - towards both Mr. Rom - ics claim journalists ney and Republicans.” 45 are so swayed by The organization also Obama’s personal found that the media story that it is hard discussed Romney more to “resist” him. “He than Obama: 41.8 per - b

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too powerful a com - e search poll found that g bination for the a Obama enjoyed a surge m I

media to resist,” y in positive coverage dur - t t wrote Peter Wehner, e ing the last week of the G / 47 a senior fellow at P campaign. F

the conservative A “But on the whole, Ethics and Public Pol - Conservatives claimed moderator Candy Crowley (center) of CNN both candidates got favored President Obama when she intervened on his behalf during the icy Center. “One gets Oct. 16, 2012, presidential debate. GOP candidate Mitt Romney equally negative cover - [the] sense that jour - repeatedly asserted that Obama took “days” to call the Sept. 11, 2012, age,” says George Mason’s nalists not only like attack on the Benghazi consulate in Libya an “act of terror,” while Lichter. Mr. Obama; they are Obama insisted he did so the day after the incident. When Romney in awe of him. ” 41 refused to accept Obama’s answer, Crowley said the president “did in fact” call the incident an act of terror on Sept. 12. Crowley later said But NBC chief she was only trying to move the debate along to other topics. White House corre - spondent Chuck Todd called such said the press coverage of Obama was charges “mythology.” He said conserv - “too easy,” compared to just 4 percent atives increasingly believe, without cause, of Democrats . 44 BACKGROUND that the “big, bad non-conservative While critics point to negative cov - media is out to get conservatives.” erage of Romney as an example of However, Light, the editor of Advice media bias, others say it reflected the Journalism’s ‘Dark Ages’ IQ.com, wrote, “anti-media critiques nature of political reporting: Journal - are often absurdly one-sided. Their ists tend to cover politics as a horse istorians are quick to point out anti-media world is one where you race, and gaffes make for entertaining H that the roots of American jour - whine about perceived slights to your copy. A lot of Romney’s negative cov - nalism were deeply embedded in par - side and conveniently ignore bad erage, they say, was due to his nu - tisan soil. Bias was the norm during jour - press that Democrats get. Anything merous gaffes, such as his critical com - nalism’s formative years in this country. that doesn’t embrace the right-wing ments about how London was handling Indeed, the very idea of an unbiased line is, by definition, biased.” 42 security for the Olympics or his blam - press was anathema to the nation’s Likewise, Romney strategist Stuart ing Palestine’s lack of economic suc - early citizens. Stevens said after Romney’s loss in the cess on cultural differences with Israel. Newspapers reflected the opinions election that the media were not “in The 4thEstate study found no pro- of their owners and publishers. “For the tank” for Obama nor were they Obama bias during the election period most of American history . . . there too sympathetic to him. 43 it examined. From May 1 to July 15, was only opinion, and highly partisan The public as a whole believes the 2012, Republicans were quoted in news opinion at that,” said Sheppard of Long press was fair in its coverage of the reports 44 percent more often than Island University. 48 In The Partisan candidates. During the 2012 election, Democrats, and negative coverage of Press , Sheppard cites several early 46 percent of those polled by Pew said Obama was 17 percent higher than such owners and publishers the coverage of Obama was fair, and coverage of Romney, the group said. who attacked the ideas of balance an equal percentage said Romney’s “Our data does not support the thesis and objectivity: coverage was fair. However, when only of a liberal media bias as it relates to • On Sept. 4, 1798, the Newark Republicans were polled, 60 percent Election 2012 coverage,” 4thEstate said. Gazette described giving equal time

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 409 MEDIA BIAS

to both sides of the political divide a porters even worked part-time for politi - approach was more inclusive and could, “ ‘folly that should not be tolerated.’ ” 49 cians. 55 Others were key party lead - in turn, attract more advertising. By mid- • On July 17, 1799, The Washington ers. 56 Some have called the first quar - 19th century the penny press’ less par - Mirror said treating parties equally was ter of the 19th century the “Dark Ages tisan approach dominated journalism. impossible, and that “printers who ‘pre - of American journalism.” 57 “Henceforth the reader would typ - tended’ neutrality succeeded only in “Even Jefferson, who famously pre - ically be viewed as a consumer rather willfully misleading the people.” 50 ferred newspapers without government than a partisan, and the nostrums of • On March 10, 1800, the New York to government without newspapers, later private enterprise would replace those American Citizen called impartiality “ ‘in - complained that newspapers made t heir of political ideology in paying the jurious to the best interests of readers less well informed because ‘he bills,” wrote Lichter. 59 mankind.’ ” 51 But the penny papers Newspapers and were not apolitical. They their political pam - often endorsed candi - phlet cousins were dates, sometimes from “mouthpieces” for more than one party. With the political parties “a business model incor - of the era. 52 porating the indepen - Many newspapers dence of action afforded

were even support - a by financial self-reliance, m

ed directly by politi - a the critical first steps to - T

o cians. For example, i wards objectivity had r a

Thomas Jefferson M been established,” ex - /

s 60 helped pay for the e plained Sheppard. g startup and running a Toward the end of m I

y

of the National t the 19th century, rapid t Gazette , and Alexan - e industrialization and G der Hamilton sup - Antiwar demonstrators protest the mainstream media’s Iraq War urban growth increased ported the Gazette coverage outside NBC headquarters in on March 15, the audience for news - of the United States. 2006. Critics said the press was too willing to accept the papers. Entrepreneurial Bush administration’s assertions that Iraq had weapons of “This gave an ac - mass destruction before the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003. publishers such as rimonious tone to No such weapons were ever found. Joseph Pulitzer and public discourse, William Randolph Hearst since newspapers had no incentive to who knows nothing is nearer to truth helped develop a profitable formula temper the language they used to crit - than he whose mind is filled with false - that relied heavily on a sensationalist icize opponents,” wrote George Mason hood and errors,’ ” wrote Lichter . 58 mix of sex, crime and gossip that came University’s Lichter. 53 In addition, to be known as “.” newspapers often had lucrative gov - A combination of factors soon pushed ernment printing contracts, which also ‘Penny Papers’ newspapers to become less sensation - promoted biased reporting. al. Their increased reliance on adver - To temper the political bias of the he rise of the “penny papers” in tising made them reluctant to offend press, the government — led by Presi - T the 1830s transformed journalism’s readers and led papers to improve their dent John Adams’ Federalist Party — partisan character. Edited for the mid - product and expand circulation. The passed the Sedition Act of 1798, which dle and working classes rather than for expansion of the railroad and telegraph made it a crime to publish “false, scan - the elites, cheap, tabloid-style papers created new demand for instantaneous dalous and malicious writing” about the such as were able news from isolated communities where president or Congress. It enabled the gov - to prosper by offering an entertaining, political sentiments might differ from ernment to close down many opposition informative product less dependent on the paper’s hometown. Wire services, Republican newspapers but caused such partisan politics — for a penny apiece. such as The Associated Press, formed a voter backlash that Adams was not re- This was largely an economic deci - in 1846, prospered by supplying sub - elected. The act expired in 1801. 54 sion. A partisan approach would inevitably scribing newspapers with concise, ac - The partisan press also placed party alienate a large sector of a paper’s po - curate and objective copy. above accuracy. Some editors and re - tential readership, while a less political Continued on p. 412

410 CQ Researcher Chronology

1851 1981 1690-1798 News - Believing that a free, indepen - Survey by George Mason University papers move from partisan ap - dent press is important to an ed - journalism professor S. Robert Lichter proach to more independence. ucated populace, the Post Office shows that 81 percent of mainstream offers a cheap mailing rate for journalists voted for Democrats for 1690 newspapers. president between 1964 and 1976. Publick Occurrences becomes first newspaper published in America. 1870 1985-1986 Nearly 5,100 newspapers are pub - Non-journalistic corporations buy 1702 lished in the United States. all three major television networks, Daily Courant becomes first English- sparking cost cutting and staff re - language daily newspaper. 1878 ductions in the news departments. University of Missouri begins offering 1791 nation’s first journalism courses. 1987 First Amendment is added to U.S. FCC drops Fairness Doctrine, saying Constitution, guaranteeing the right 1896 the growth of cable and broadcast to publish news, information and Adolph Ochs buys The New York outlets make it unnecessary. opinions without government inter - Times “to give the news impartially, ference. without fear or favor, regardless of • any party, sect or interest.” 1798 The Alien and Sedition Acts prohibit • 2000-2013 News - publishing anything “false, scandalous paper circulation drops; many and malicious” about the president or papers cease publication. Cable Congress. More than 20 editors are 1900-2000 broadcasting surges; social arrested; some are imprisoned. The Government regulates, then media play an increasing role laws later expired or were repealed. deregulates, the broadcast in . media. Radio, television and • then the Internet change the 2001 face of media. Fox becomes most-watched cable- news network. 1800s-1900 1934 Newspapers flourish as the Communications Act creates Federal 2007 “penny press” gains in popu - Communications Commission (FCC) Nearly 1,500 newspapers sell larity; journalism becomes a to regulate radio. 55 million copies daily. profession. 1940 2012 1830 American Institute of Public Gallup survey finds 60 percent of United States has 715 newspapers. Opinion says 52 percent of Americans have no or not very Americans rely on radio for politi - much trust that the mass media 1833 cal information; 38 percent rely report the news accurately and New York Sun is launched, marking on newspapers. fairly, up from 46 percent in 1998. beginning of “penny press.” Pew Research Center finds that 1949 36 percent of Twitter users follow 1846 FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine” requires the news, compared with 19 per - Newspapers with varied political broadcasters to devote airtime to cent of social media users. views create the nonpartisan Asso - controversial issues and to offer ciated Press wire service . contrasting views. 2013 Pew Research Center finds that opin - 1850 1963 ion and commentary fill 85 percent Only 5 percent of U.S. newspapers TV surpasses newspapers as the of MSNBC’s airtime, 55 percent of are “neutral and independent.” leading source of daily news. Fox’s and 46 percent of CNN’s.

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 411 MEDIA BIAS

Media Bias Seen as Threat to Democracy “I don’t know if democracy can survive without an actively free press.”

ow important is a free and vibrant press to a healthy not only is slanting the news but choosing not to cover news democracy? The nation’s founders, even though they that could cast an ideology or party in a bad light. Such bias H were not always pleased with the partisan newspapers by omission, said Caddell, has led the media to make “them - that proliferated at the time, thought it was vital. selves a fundamental threat to the democracy, and, in my opin - “No government ought to be without censors, and where ion, made themselves the enemy of the American people.” 3 the press is free, no one ever will,” Thomas Jefferson told At the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), George Washington in 1792. 1 The First Amendment to the an annual political conference attended by conservative activists Constitution offered special protection to the press by barring and elected officials, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said, “When the Congress from abridging its freedom. media don’t report the facts, Americans can’t make good decisions. Throughout American history, the press has been viewed as And if Americans can’t make good decisions, our democracy is at such an important source of checks and balances on the gov - risk. So media bias, to me, is a major threat to our democracy.” 4 ernment that it became known as the “” — as im - “If society doesn’t have knowledge of the workings of portant to democracy as the legislative, executive and judicial government, how can it pass judgment on government?” asks branches of government. However, while the founders stressed L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a con - the need for a free press, they never claimed, for example, that servative media watchdog group “I don’t know if democracy the press should be nonpartisan. can survive without an actively free press.” As Americans increasingly complain that the media are be - Not everyone agrees that today’s media threaten democra - coming more biased, some media critics are asking if such a cy. “When anyone tells me that the media is so biased that trend is healthy for democracy. democracy is at risk, I remind them that even at the begin - “We designed a constitutional system with many checks and nings of our democracy the media was much, much more par - balances,” said Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell. “The one that tisan,” says S. Robert Lichter, director of the Center for Media had no checks and balances was the press, and that was done and Public Affairs at George Mason University and co-author under an implicit understanding that, somehow, the press would of The Media Elite. “There were no boundaries then, and peo - protect the people from the government and the power by telling ple were accused of all sorts of heinous, outlandish things. We — somehow allowing — people to have the truth. That is being survived then, and we will now.” abrogated as we speak, and has been for some time.” 2 A continuing decline in the number of journalists and the Caddell and others argue that an increasingly partisan press closure of print and broadcast outlets in recent years could be

Continued from p. 410 papers and on wire services doubled famously used his iconic “fireside chats” When Adolph Ochs purchased The from 1897 to 1914. “Having previously to circumvent what he considered to New York Times in 1896, he an - served the common good by stand - be a hostile Republican press and speak nounced his intention, “to give the ing aside from the world of politics, directly to the people. news impartially, without fear or favor, the press would now do so by stand - Because the airwaves were con - regardless of any party, sect, or inter - ing above it,” noted Lichter. 62 sidered a public resource, radio was est involved.” 61 As journalism history regulated. Under the Communica - professor Alterman says, “We can date tions Act of 1934, created by the Fed - the beginning of serious, objective re - Electronic Media eral Communications Commission porting in America with Ochs’ pur - (FCC), stations could lose their li - chase of The New York Times. ” adio, which burst onto the scene censes if their broadcasts were con - In part because of Ochs’ paper, ob - R in the 1920s, soon transformed sidered too controversial, and stations jectivity began to play a more im - the media landscape. Between 1927 had to offer equal time for political portant role in journalism. Journalism and 1934 the number of homes with candidates. schools proliferated after the turn of radios jumped from 25 percent to By the 1940s radio was the main the 20th century and taught the im - 65 percent. Politicians, some angered source of political information for 52 per - portance of objectivity along with ac - by what they perceived as a biased cent of the public, compared to 38 per - curacy and ethical reporting. Accord - press, saw radio as a medium to get cent who relied on newspapers, ac - ing to a study cited by Lichter, the their unfiltered message directly to the cording to a 1940 American Institute of proportion of objective stories in news - public. President Franklin D. Roosevelt Public . 63

412 CQ Researcher more of a threat to democracy than partisan media, say other terests — this makes them dependent in large measure on observers . “There is no end in sight to job losses in journalism,” whoever is in power in Washington,” said Rather, who now says Eric Alterman, a journalism history professor at CUNY Grad - anchors the news on the cable channel AXS TV. “I think we uate School of Journalism. “Losing journalists means people will can all agree that we don’t want to have a few very large cor - be far less informed as citizens, and that’s bad for democracy. porations, working in concert with a powerful political appa - Also, the bad guys will be able to get away with a lot more ratus in Washington, deciding what we see, read and hear — because there won’t be as many people watching them.” and they do, to a very large degree.” 6 Others are concerned about the growing concentration of media ownership, which could result in corporate influ - — Robert Kiener ence on what is covered and how it is covered. Six corpo - rations (Disney, News Corp, Viacom, Time-Warner, Comcast 1 The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia (1900), p. 130, http://books.google.com/books?id= ZTIoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=%E2%80%9CNo+government+ought and CBS) control 90 percent of the nation’s news and en - +to+be+without+censors,+and+where+the+press+is+free,+no+one+ever+will,% tertainment media, up from 50 percent in 1983. 5 “Rupert E2%80%9D+Thomas+Jefferson+told&source=bl&ots=vamgnUacT4&sig=gHinV3 Murdoch owns and The New York U0Chb16W3EjRdujaEhRo4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X7x2UZu6IcXy0QGL9oD4Ag&ved =0CEMQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CNo%20government%20ought Post , and he and the Koch brothers are reportedly trying to %20to%20be%20without%20censors%2C%20and%20where%20the%20press%20 buy the Los Angeles Times,” says Alterman, referring to is%20free%2C%20no%20one%20ever%20will%2C%E2%80%9D%20Thomas%20 wealthy, conservative billionaire brothers who have donat - Jefferson%20told&f=false. 2 Patrick Caddell, “Mainstream media is threatening our country’s future,” Fox ed millions of dollars to libertarian, free-market advocacy News, Sept. 29, 2012, www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/29/mainstream- groups and conservative politicians. “That would result in media-threatening-our-country-future/. much less of a national conversation.” 3 Ibid. Former “CBS Evening News” anchor , who re - 4 “Congressman Smith speaks at CPAC 2013 Re: media bias,” , March 14, 2013, http://lamarsmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?Docu cently described a free and independent press as “the red, beat - mentID=324058. ing heart of democracy and freedom,” warned of the dangers 5 Ashley Lutz, “These 6 companies control 90% of the media in America,” of such concentrated ownership. Business Insider , June 14, 2012, www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations- “These big corporations, for whom news is only a small control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6. 6 Brad Martin, “Dan Rather warns of media control,” American Libraries , part of their business — they manufacture defense products June 24, 2012, http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/annual-conference/dan- and weapons, they run theme parks, they have all kinds of in - rather-warns-media-control.

Meanwhile newspapers continued To guarantee that the public air - their interpretative coverage and news to become more objective. As pub - waves exposed audiences to a variety analyses, where print held a compet - lishers realized readers were attracted of viewpoints, the FCC’s 1949 Fairness itive advantage,” wrote Lichter. “Main - by objective, authoritative reporting, a Doctrine required broadcasters to de - stream journalism began to take on church-state-style wall separated the vote airtime to controversial matters of a sharper point of view, often in - advertising and news sides of the public interest and to offer contrasting cluding opinion and advocacy in its business. Robert McCormick, publish - views on those issues. The act also reporting. . . . For the next decade, er of the Chicago Tribune , took this forbade stations from censoring cam - reporters were thrown onto the front separation so seriously that he had paign or political ads. Another FCC lines of political battlegrounds that two sets of elevators installed in his rule, calling for “equal time” for polit - ranged from the civil rights movement headquarters building in the early ical candidates, did not apply to news - to campus protests, the 20th century; one was for reporters casts, documentaries, entertainment pro - and the Watergate scandal.” 66 and editors, the other for the busi - grams or political advertising. ness side . 64 Television’s popularity was a fac - After World War II, television tor in the closure of the nation’s af - New Media emerged as the dominant news medi - ternoon newspapers, which could not um. Nearly half the nation’s house - compete with the immediacy of the he 1980s were marked by major holds had a television as early as 1953, evening news broadcasts. However, T changes in American media. In and by 1963 television was America’s many papers responded to the new 1985 and ’86, non-journalistic corpo - leading source of daily news. 65 journalistic competitor by “expanding rations bought all three major televi -

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 413 MEDIA BIAS

Fact Checkers Proliferate — and So Do Their Critics Media services expose deception, but partisans often ignore them.

ere’s the truth the president won’t tell you,” said ers that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., at this year’s U.S. politics.” 3 “H Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), But as fact-checking programs have proliferated, so have an annual political conference attended by conservative activists their critics. Not surprisingly, many of these criticisms fall along and elected officials. “Of every dollar that you hold in your ideological lines. On its conservative-leaning editorial page, The hands, 70 cents of that dollar that’s supposed to go to the poor Wall Street Journal argued that fact checking is “overwhelming - doesn’t. It actually goes to benefit the bureaucrats in Wash - ly biased toward the left,” while liberals, such as City University ington, D.C. — 70 cents on the dollar.” 1 of New York journalism professor Eric Alterman, often claim there True? Not exactly. is a growing conservative bias among the fact checkers. 4 ’s ’ “Fact Checker” column found that Likewise, candidates have been accusing the fact checkers Bachmann was off by at least a factor of 10 — or even a factor of bias. During the 2012 presidential election, fact checkers la - of 200 — depending on what was included in her figures. It award - beled as deceptive a Mitt Romney campaign advertisement de - ed her four “Pinocchios” — its worst rating — “for such mislead - picting President Obama as saying, “If we keep talking about ing use of statistics in a major speech.” 2 the economy we’re going to lose.” Although the fact checkers Written by veteran reporter Glenn Kessler, “Fact Checker” is explained that Obama was merely quoting Republican Sen. just one of many fact-checking operations that have sprung up John McCain, Romney’s strategists quickly went on the offen - over the last decade or so — including those at CNN, The As - sive. “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact- sociated Press, Fox and ABC — to examine the accuracy of checkers,” said Romney campaign pollster Neil Newhouse. 5 statements made by politicians and public officials. Such op - After Romney lost the election, Media Research Center’s re - erations also fact-check major speeches, most notably after pres - search director, Rich Noyes, said his defeat was due partly to idential debates, major addresses such as the State of the Union opponents “pounding Romney with partisan fact checking.” 6 and claims made in campaign ads. In fact, both parties often attacked or simply ignored fact Groups such as PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning site start - checkers’ claims of inaccuracy or deceit. “Both candidates’ cam - ed in 2007 and a project of the Tampa Bay Times (formerly St. paigns laid out a number of whoppers, got clobbered for doing Petersburg Times ), and FactCheck.org, a project of the Annen - so, and then kept right on saying them,” said New York Times berg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, de - media critic David Carr. 7 scribe themselves as nonpartisan. FactCheck.org, for example, Bill Adair, the departing editor of PolitiFact, agrees. “I think there says it is a “nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘consumer advocate’ for vot - has always been a calculation by political campaigns to forge ahead sion networks, leading to sweeping broadcast media consolidation via pered by the need to present both cost-cutting and staff reductions in the mergers and buyouts. sides of an issue, filled the airwaves and news departments. Meanwhile, competitive constraints prospered. Meanwhile, public perceptions that and government regulation of cable Many journalists were shocked “that the media were fair were plummet - channels were relaxed by the Cable they were widely perceived as just an - ing. By 1984, 38 percent of those sur - Communications Policy Act of 1984. other cog in a distant establishment, veyed said newspapers were “usually The industry boomed, with hundreds an elite group of wealthy and influ - fair,” down from two-thirds who felt of stations reaching households across ential snobs who had forgotten their the press was “fair” in 1937. the country. Soon, thanks to advances roots,” said Lichter. 68 Surveys repeat - The FCC dropped the Fairness Doc - in cable and satellite technology, all- edly confirmed that the mainstream trine in 1987, arguing that the growth news “24/7” cable channels such as media were generally to the left of the of cable and broadcast outlets made it CNN and later Fox News and MSNBC American public on such hot-button unnecessary. The decision, favored by would change the face of television issues as gun control and abortion. 69 Republicans, is seen as one of the main journalism. Outspoken conservative Many GOP politicians agreed with causes of the rise of conservative talk hosts such as Sean Hannity and Bill the perception that the media were radio in the 1980s and ’90s. 67 Legisla - O’Reilly would find a lucrative audi - left-leaning and fanned the flames. For tion that liberalized media-ownership ence, mainly among Republicans, on example, during the 1996 presidential restrictions, such as the 1996 Telecom - Fox News. And equally sharp-tongued election, Republican candidate Bob munications Act, led to widespread hosts on talk radio, no longer ham - Dole exhorted, “We’ve got to stop the

414 CQ Researcher m o c . s s e r

with a falsehood if they think p 1

d Glenn Kessler, “Bachmann’s claim r

it will score the points they o that 70 percent of food stamps go to

8 w want to score.” . ‘bureaucrats,’ ” The Washington Post , n March 19, 2013, www.washingtonpost. o

A recent rise in partisan c com/blogs/fact-checker/post/bachmanns - u t

fact-checking organizations, r claim-that-70-percent-of-food-stamps- i

v go-to-bureaucrats/2013/03/18/3f85d04 a

such as Conservative Fact i 2-8ff5-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_blog. n Check and the Media Matters- i g html. r i 2 sponsored Political Correc - v Ibid. .

tion, has led to even more w 3 “About Us,” Factcheck.org, www.fact w check.org/about. charges of bias. w 4 “The term ‘fact check’ can The online fact-checking organization PolitiFact — James Taranto, “The Pinocchio press,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning site started in 2007 by the The Wall Street Journal , Sept. 4, 2012, easily be devalued, as peo - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000 St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times ) — ple throw it onto any sort 87239639044430170457763147049349 uses a “pants on fire truth-o-meter” to show 5792.html. of an opinion that they have,” when a politician is not telling the truth. 5 As The New York Times pointed out, said Brendan Nyhan, an as - “The truncated clip came from a sistant professor of government at Dartmouth College. “The par - speech Mr. Obama gave in 2008 talking about his opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona.” The full Obama quote was: “Senator McCain’s campaign tisans who pay attention to politics are being conditioned to dis - actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going regard the fact checkers when their own side gets criticized.” 9 to lose.’ ” See Michael Cooper, “Campaigns play loose with truth in a fact-check age,” Fact checking has proved to be a valuable resource, but media The New York Times , Sept. 1, 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/us/politics/ fact-checkers-howl-but-both-sides-cling-to-false-ads.html. experts warn that it is no substitute for sampling a diverse range 6 Mike Burns, “Fox blames Romney loss on the ‘biased’ fact-checkers,” Media of news and views. As Northeastern University journalism pro - Matters, Nov. 7, 2012. fessor Dan Kennedy noted, “Perhaps the biggest lie of all is that 7 David Carr, “A last fact check: It didn’t work,” The New York Times , Nov. 6, fact-checking can act as some sort of short-cut to the truth. For 2012, http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/a-last-fact-check-it- didnt-work. news consumers, there’s really no getting around the time-intensive 8 Cooper, op. cit. work of paying attention to multiple sources of information and 9 Ibid. 10 making their own judgments.” 10 Dan Kennedy, “PolitiFact and the limits of fact checking,” The Huffington Post , Dec. 13, 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kennedy/politifact-and-the- — Robert Kiener limits_b_1144876.html.

liberal bias in this country. . . . Don’t izing legislative changes and technolog - Madison director read that stuff! Don’t watch television! ical developments, opened a new chap - James Baughman wrote, “In contrast Don’t let them make up your mind ter in the history of the American media. to the fractious newspaper culture of for you!” 70 Television and radio airwaves were soon the mid-19th century, today’s media Also in 1996, Fox News was populated with a growing band of com - culture is in fact divided between the launched by Australian-born news mag - mentators and who helped blur new partisan media of the radio, In - nate Rupert Murdoch, who appointed the line between journalism and opin - ternet and cable, and those news out - former GOP media consultant Roger ion for many media consumers. lets that still endeavor to report the Ailes as CEO. The media landscape changed dra - news seriously. Serious news services Says Lichter, “The idea that jour - matically. Talk radio, cable news net - won’t, for example, provide platforms nalists were presenting news from works, Internet-based websites and for those who insist the president was their own point of view was growing blogs fragmented the media but also born in Kenya, or that the Bush ad - among the public.” have made them more populist. The ministration was behind the destruc - new partisan media, much like their tion of the World Trade Center.” 71 historic predecessors, the National While new media outlets sometimes Blurring the Lines Gazette and other 18th century pub - offer biased slants on the news, the lications, have offered a wide variety mainstream — or what some term the he growing belief that the media of ideological slants on the news. “elite” — media that still strive to be T were biased, coupled with liberal - As former University of Wisconsin- nonpartisan attract the larger audiences.

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 415 MEDIA BIAS

But, some media experts say, as the study of Franklin Center-sponsored sto - news site Daily Caller was launched media landscape becomes more parti - ries found that 41 percent were pro- with 21 reporters and editors. Other san, that grip may become more and conservative versus 11 percent that fa - sites such as Breitbart.com report more tenuous. vored the left. 74 news with a conservative agenda. Lib - Some media observers also accuse eral, for-profit news sites include The the center of not being transparent. CJR Huffington Post and the Talking Points said “a reader of one of the local and Memo political . CURRENT regional newspapers that run Franklin “Efforts by political and corporate Center statehouse reporting might not entities to get their messages into news even be aware of the Franklin Center coverage are nothing new,” according SITUATION and its agenda or ‘point of view.’ ” 75 to Pew. “What is different now . . . is Says Steven Greenhut, Franklin’s vice that news organizations are less president of journalism, “I reject the equipped to question what is coming Agenda-Driven News description of us as partisan. We have to them or to uncover the stories them - a free-market philosophy and have done selves, and interest groups are better ach day in more than 20 states plenty of stories that have offended equipped and have more technologi - E across the country, some 35 re - both conservatives and liberals, Re - cal tools than ever.” 76 porters are investigating topics such as publicans and Democrats.” More is not necessarily better. “I have government waste, corruption and fraud. This sort of nonprofit, sometimes warned conservatives to be careful But they are not employed by tradi - agenda-driven, news organization is a what they wish for,” explains the Media tional newspapers or television stations. relatively new phenomenon. Since 2000, Research Center’s Bozell. “With the old Rather, they are part of a nonprofit cash-strapped newspapers have lost media, at least there were rules, such media program that has quietly been 30 percent of their news personnel, ac - as the two-source rule. In the new media hiring and training reporters in state cording to Pew, and few can afford the there’s the no-source rule. Stories can capitals. The Franklin Center for Gov - personnel for complex or investigative be written by innuendo. The public is ernment and Public Integrity is an in - stories. Nonprofit organizations have finding it harder to differentiate be - vestigative nonprofit based in Alexan - moved in to fill some of that void. tween news and conjecture.” dria, Va., that is funded by the State Think tanks and partisan organiza - Policy Network — a group of conser - tions, such as the conservative Heritage vative think tanks — and other con - Foundation, also have begun hiring “news Tweeting and More servative organizations such as the Rich - reporters” to help spread their messages mond, Va.-based Sam Adams Alliance to a wider audience. “This is the wave bout 35 percent of Americans turn and by the Koch brothers. of the future,” says George Mason’s Lichter. A to online sources for news, and The center, which the Columbia “Heritage Foundation and others have as more and more do so, journalists Journalism Review (CJR ) called “the realized they don’t need to depend on have responded by using blogs, social most ambitious conservative news or - a few gatekeepers at major media out - media sites like Facebook and, more ganization you’ve never heard of,” lets to run their material. They merely recently, Twitter to reach their audience. hires journalists to report on govern - have to put it on the Web themselves.” “Tweet your beat” is a common re - ment waste and public unions, usual - Nonprofit organizations such as frain among online journalists. Accord - ly from a pro-free-market, anti-labor ProPublica produce nonpartisan, non- ing to recent surveys, only 3 to 4 per - viewpoint. Its news stories are pub - ideological , often cent of the public gets its news either lished on its website, Watchdog.org, in partnership with other major media regularly or sometimes via Twitter, but and elsewhere. 72 Often, the stories outlets. The Kaiser Health Foundation that number is reportedly growing. 77 are picked up by blogs and by often- produces objective health-related news Twitter’s immediate and direct (and understaffed regional newspapers, but stories under the brand Kaiser Health usually unedited) nature creates a more only some of the papers tell readers News. The stories are regularly pub - intimate relationship between journalist the stories originated with the center. lished by newspapers such as The Wash - and reader than existed in the past. As Although the center describes itself ington Post , but the stories are clearly a Pew Research Center report noted, as nonpartisan, the liberal Washington identified as coming from those sources. “Twitter users appear to be more close - Monthly called it “more like a politi - For-profit ideologically driven jour - ly connected to professional journalists cal attack machine than a traditional nalistic operations also are proliferat - and news organizations than their social- 73 news machine.” A Pew Research ing. In 2010 the conservative online Continued on p. 418

416 CQ Researcher At Issue:

Do yes mainstream outlets have a political bias?

TIM GRAHAM S. ROBERT LICHTER DIRECTOR OF MEDIA ANALYSIS , M EDIA DIRECTOR , C ENTER FOR MEDIA AND PUBLIC RESEARCH CENTER , A LEXANDRIA , V A. AFFAIRS , G EORGE MASON UNIVERSITY ; CO -AUTHOR , THE MEDIA ELITE WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MAY 2013 WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MAY 2013

ne can tell the tilt of the “mainstream” media merely by iberal media bias is an article of faith to conservatives, who li stening to conservatives and liberals complain about the see the news as a reflection of journalists’ well-documented o tone of the news. Conservatives demand that the media l liberal perspectives and Democratic voting preferences. cover both sides of public policies and controversies. Liberals However, the truth is more complicated. such as President Obama lament that the media too often pre - First, the media aren’t the closed shop they used to be. sent a “false balance” — that conservatives get any air time to The Internet hosts a thriving competition between left-wing be blatantly incorrect. This suggests the media’s default is to and right-wing websites and blogs, and any reasonable defini - favor liberal views and downplay or ignore conservative ones. tion of the “mainstream media” would have to include Fox In 2011, former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller News and conservative-dominated talk radio. wrote, “If the 2012 election were held in the newsrooms of Second, both conservative and liberal media watchdog America and pitted Sarah Palin against Barack Obama, I doubt groups have long lists of complaints about biased stories. Palin would get 10 percent of the vote. However tempting the What’s missing is evidence of a broad pattern of coverage that newsworthy havoc of a Palin presidency, I’m pretty sure most consistently favors one side. For example, a meta-analysis of journalists would recoil in horror from the idea.” every scholarly study of election news found no systematic In 2008, thye Pew Researech Center surs veyed 222 journalists bias in the amonunts of good ando bad press given to Republi - and news executives at national outlets. Only 6 percent said can and Democratic presidential candidates. Another study they considered themselves conservatives, compared to 36 percent compared news coverage of measurable conditions, such as of the overall population that describes itself as conservative. unemployment and murder rates, under Democratic and Re - Most journalists — 53 percent — claimed they are moderate; publican administrations at every level of government. It too 24 percent said they were liberal and 8 percent very liberal. found no consistent evidence of partisan favoritism. Only 19 percent of the public consider themselves liberal. Journalists do suffer bouts of “irrational exuberance,” when And it’s not much of a leap to presume many of the 53 percent they wear their feelings on their sleeves. Yet, even Barack who describe themselves as “moderate” are really quite liberal, Obama’s well-documented media honeymoon in 2008 and since Keller thinks most are horrified by a President Palin. 2009 soon gave way to the highly critical coverage that every Our studies of TV news repeatedly show a liberal tilt. recent president has suffered. By 2012 Obama’s campaign Media Research Center news analysts reviewed all 216 gun- coverage was as negative as Mitt Romney’s. policy stories on the morning and evening shows of ABC, So why do conservatives see liberal bias at every turn? CBS and NBC in the month after the Newtown, Conn., school One answer is what’s called the “hostile media effect.” Parti - shooting. The results showed staggering imbalance: Stories ad - sans treat criticisms of their own side as bias, while assuming vocating more gun control outnumbered stories opposing gun criticisms of the other side are well-founded. control by 99 to 12, or a ratio of 8 to 1. Anti-gun sound bites But some aspects of don’t affect both were aired almost twice as frequently as pro-gun ones (228 to sides equally. In their role as a watchdog over the rich and 134). Gun-control advocates appeared as guests on 26 occasions, powerful, journalists see the world in terms of competing eco - compared to seven for gun-rights advocates. nomic and political interests, with the media standing above But the most insidious bias is what the national media the battle and serving the public interest. They are sympathetic choose not to cover. For example, in 2012 there was only toward those who define themselves the same way, such as one network mention (on ABC) that Obama promised to cut “public interest” groups or social movements demanding the deficit “by half by the end of my first term in office.” equality for excluded groups. Inconvenient clips of tape go missing, while network anchors Thus, what conservatives see as liberal bias is often the can find the time to ask the president about Dr. Seuss books byproduct of a professional norm that runs parallel to liberal values. And journalists can filter their personal political views and wnho ich superhero’s power he would like to possess. out of their stories more easily than their professional identities. So the problem for conservatives is not just that journalists are liberals, it’s that they’re journalists.

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 417 MEDIA BIAS

Continued from p. 416 guidelines for reporters would hold true knowledging that posting on Twitter networking counterparts when it comes in social networking or any other ways and blogging can be like “flying with - to relying on them for online news.” 78 they conduct themselves in their life out a net,” it reminds its reporters that “Twitter is a venue “social networks en - for news but also courage fast, constant, opinion,” says Pews’ brief communications; Jurkowitz. “It’s tempt - journalism calls for com - ing to say something munication preceded by memorable and pithy fact-finding and thought - in 140 characters or ful consideration. Jour - less.” As some jour - nalism has many ‘unsend’ nalist have found, buttons, including edi - however, tweeting tors. Social networks and blogging opinion have none. ” 84

can prove disastrous: o Whatever side a jour - n a i • CNN’s senior l nalist takes on the so - g u

editor for Middle P cial media debate, there’s

l l Eastern Affairs, Oc - i no denying the power B / tavia Nasr, was fired s of the new technology. e g

after posting this a This February, moments m I comment on Twit - after NBC’s Todd claimed y t t

ter: “Sad to hear of e that charges of a liber - G the passing of Former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor al media bias were “a Sayyed Moham - Sarah Palin has been highly critical of the nation’s major newspapers mythology,” his Twitter mad Hussein Fadal - and other mainstream media, calling them the “lamestream media” feed and others were lah. One of Hezbol - and alleging they are biased against conservatives. Studies on filled with tweets, pro lah’s giants I respect media bias have produced mix results. and con. After watching a lot.” CNN called the messages pour in, her tweet “an error of judgment,” and outside of work,” said Martin Kaiser, edi - he tweeted, “when you want to spark said, “It did not meet CNN’s editori - tor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. a conversation on Twitter, simply talk al standards.” 79 “It’s the same way [that] we don’t want about media bias.” 85 • The Washington Post rebuked man - reporters putting bumper stickers on aging editor Raju Narisetti for tweeting, their cars for candidates.” 82 “Sen. Byrd (91) in hospital after he falls Those who get their news from so - from ‘standing up too quickly.’ How cial networks prefer unbiased reports, OUTLOOK about term limits. Or retirement age. according to a recent Pew poll. More Or common sense to prevail.” 80 than half of the respondents preferred Narisetti — who has since moved nonpartisan news: 52 percent of those Dizzying Changes to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp as a who get their news on Twitter and senior vice president and deputy head 56 percent of those who get news on he numbers are grim. Nearly every of strategy — subsequently closed his social networks prefer news sources T week brings news of another news - Twitter feed. The Post promptly drew without a particular point of view. 83 paper or magazine cutting staff, shrink - up new guidelines, saying its jour - Not all journalists agree that opinion ing the publication, reducing frequen - nalists “must refrain from writing, tweet - should be banned from reporters’ so - cy or even closing. Television stations, ing or posting anything — including cial media outlets. “It’s time to get rid especially local operations, are trimming photographs or video — that could of the hoax that all reporters are ob - staff, and national networks are down - be perceived as reflecting political, jective,” says journalism professor Alter - sizing and closing bureaus. racial, sexist, religious or other bias man. “I am all for journalists exposing The Internet has essentially “blown or favoritism that could be used to their personal biases on Twitter, their up” the old media world and trans - tarnish our journalistic credibility.” 81 blogs or wherever.” formed the way news is delivered and Other papers have drawn up simi - Reuters takes a more balanced ap - consumed. Given the dizzying changes lar conduct codes. “I think that the same proach in its social media policy. Ac - in the media world and the speed with

418 CQ Researcher which they have altered the landscape, A more fragmented media will offer many experts say it’s impossible to know more choice but would also further Notes the future of bias. change the public’s perceptions of the “Remember, it wasn’t until the 1990s press. “The decay of the traditional agen - 1 “Obama and Clinton: The 60 Minutes inter - that we even had Web browsers,” says da-setting function of the press will con - view,” “60 Minutes,” CBS News, Jan. 27, 2013 , George Mason University’s Lichter. “Since tinue, and with it the idea of ‘the pub - www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57565734/ then, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook lic’ as a large, interconnected mass of obama-and-clinton-the-60-minutes-interview/. have completely changed the way peo - news-consuming citizens,” said a recent 2 Conor Friedersdorf, “Steve Kroft’s Softball ple interact with media. One thing is Columbia School of Journalism study. Obama Interviews Diminish ‘60 minutes,’ ” sure: We will see a lot more innovations “Choice in available media outlets will The Atlantic , Jan. 29, 2013, www.theatlantic. that change the way people think about continue to expand, leading not so much com/politics/archive/2013/01/steve-krofts-soft the media and its biases. It is difficult to echo chambers as to a world of many ball-obama-interviews-diminish-60-minutes/27 to see what’s ahead, but if current trends overlapping publics of varying sizes.” 2611 /. 3 Erik Wemple, “Kroft on Obama-Clinton in - continue it looks like the media will be “Seen in this light, the long-term terview: 30 minutes not enough!” The Wash - becoming increasingly partisan.” collapse of trust in the press is less a ington Post , Jan. 28, 2013, www.washington Some even see an end of tradition - function of changing attitudes toward post.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/01/28/ al “hard news” coverage. Bozell believes mainstream media outlets than a side kroft-on-obama-clinton-interview-30-minutes- “journalism is losing its seriousness. The effect of the continuing fragmentation not-enough /. line between news and is of the American media landscape.” 86 4 Noel Sheppard, “The transformation of ‘60 being blurred.” Others worry that as news - Will there be an increase in trans - Minutes’ — now the place for swooning, soft - papers continue cutting back and pro - parency? “The media will be more open ball interviews,” Fox News, Jan. 30, 2013, ducing less hard and investigative news, about their views because they real - www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/30/trans readers will continue to desert them, as ize people want a point of view in formation-60-minutes-now-place-for-swooning- the Pew surveys and others suggest. their news,” says CUNY journalism softball-interviews /. 5 Peggy Noonan, “So God Made a Fawner,” “Infotainment is luring more and professor Alterman. “There will always The Wall Street Journal , Feb. 7, 2013, http:// more people away from solid journal - be an audience for trustworthy news online.wsj.com/article/SB100014241278873234 ism, so I think the news will be play - organizations such as The New York 52204578290363744516632.html . ing a lesser role in people’s lives than Times , but media with strong points 6 Dylan Byers, “Gun vote triggers media out - it does today,” says Sheppard, the Long of view will increase. Fewer people cry,” Politico , April 18, 2013, www.politico.com/ Island University journalism professor. will complain about media bias.” story/2013/04/gun-debate-triggered-media-bias - “Kim Kardashian has over 17 million As long-established and valued news - 90306.html#ixzz2Rsfg1FgP . Twitter followers, and many of those papers face closure or purchase by par - 7 “REPORT: Partisanship And Diversity On The people are probably following her in - tisan owners, many journalists believe Sunday Shows In 9 Charts,” Media Matters, stead of reading the news. There’s a the nation will be worse off. Many ques - April 5, 2013, http://mediamatters.org/research/ worry for the future of the republic!” tion how democracy can continue to 2013/04/05/report-partisanship-and-diversity- on-the-sunday/193482 . Many media experts claim the media function if voters become so inundat - 8 “Ryan: As a Conservative I’ve long believed will grow increasingly partisan, resem - ed by “” that they there’s inherent media bias,” Real Clear Politics , bling the early days of journalism. “I see give up trying to even make an ob - Sept. 30, 2012, www.realclearpolitics.com/ the wheel turning, not full circle, but jective, informed decision or simply dis - video/2012/09/30/ryan_as_a_conserva tive_ive_ toward more partisan narrow-casting,” engage from the democratic process al - long_believed_theres_inherent_media_ bias.html . says Sheppard. “We will see the media together. ( See sidebar, p. 412. ) 9 “Liberal Media Bias: Fact or Fiction,” 4thEs - creating more partisan information, which “The world will not be a better tate Project, July 2012, specialreports.4thestate. will then be seized upon by ideologi - place when these fact-based news or - net/liberal-media-bias-fact-or-fiction /. cal audiences.” ganizations die,” said former New York 10 Quoted in Reed Richardson, “GOP-Fox Cir - According to Sheppard and others, Times correspondent Chris Hedges. “We cus Act,” The Nation , April 29, 2013, pp. 11-15. 11 the financial success of Fox News and will be propelled into a culture where “Fox News Viewed as Most Ideological Net - work,” Pew Research Center for People & the talk radio will likely spawn even more facts and opinions will be inter - Press, Oct. 29, 2009, www.people-press.org/ imitators, each hoping to serve a changeable, where lies will become 2009/10/29/fox-news-viewed-as-most-ideologi niche, partisan market. However, if the true and where fantasy will be ped - cal-network /. ideological middle disappears in the dled as news. I will lament the loss 12 “Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: media, some worry that new media of traditional news. It will unmoor us the Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op- will merely be “preaching to the choir.” from reality.” 87 Ed Columns,” Media Matters, 2007, http://media

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 419 MEDIA BIAS

matters.org/research/oped /. in Journalism, 2013, Key Findings, http://state 35 “MRC launches $2.1 million campaign de - 13 “Examining the ‘Liberal Media’ Claim,” Fair - ofthemedia.org/2013/overview-5/key-findings /. manding liberal media ‘tell the truth!’ ” News - ness & Accuracy in Reporting, June 1, 1998, 23 Ibid. busters, Oct. 5, 2010, http://newsbusters.org/ http://fair.org/press-release/examining-the- 24 Tim Groseclose, Left Turn (2011), pp. 99- blogs/nb-staff/2010/10/05/new-2-1-million- quotliberal-mediaquot-claim /. 110. campaign-demands-liberal-media-t0ell-truth . 14 David Freddoso, “Press pass: In a new book 25 Michael Kinsley, “Gore Carries Slate,” Nov. 7, 36 Salvatore Colleluori, “Roger Ailes’ Latino out - a journalist explains how the media tilts the 2000, Slate , www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ reach at odds with Fox News’ anti-immigrant scales for Obama,” New York Post , Jan. 7, 2013, politics/readme/2000/11/gore_carries_slate.html . rhetoric,” Media Matters, Feb. 19, 2013, http:// www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/books/press_ 26 David Broder, Behind the Front Page (2000), mediamatters.org/research/2013/02/19/roger- pass_CAbPXffNvA4ntrqbMNIkOI . p. 332. ailes-latino-outreach-at-odds-with-fox-ne/192714 . 15 “4th Annual TV News Trust Poll,” Public 27 David Brooks, “Objectivity in Journalism,” 37 Paul Colford, “ ‘Illegal immigrant’ no more,” Policy Polling, Feb. 6, 2013, www.publicpoli Catholic Education Resource Center, www. The Definitive Source , April 2, 2013, http://blog. cypolling.com/main/2013/02/4th-annual-tv-news- catholiceducation.org/articles/media/me0054.html . ap.org/2013/04/02/illegal-immigrant-no-more /. trust-poll.html . 28 Alex S. Jones, “An Argument Why Journal - 38 Jim Naureckas, “The media didn’t fail on 16 Joseph Cotto, “Bernie Goldberg on media ists Should Not Abandon Objectivity,” Niema n Iraq; Iraq just showed we have a failed bias in the ‘Unites States of Entertainment,’ ” Reports, Fall 2009, www.nieman.harvard.edu/ media,” Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, The Washington Times , Oct. 25, 2012, http:// reports/article/101911/An-Argument-Why-Jour March 25, 2013, www.fair.org/blog/2013/03/ mobile.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/ nalists-Should-Not-Abandon-Objectivity.aspx . 25/the-media-didnt-fail-on-iraq-iraq-just-showed- conscience-realist/2012/oct/25/bernie-goldberg - 29 “Freedom from Bias, Reuters Handbook of we-have-a-failed-media /. media-bias-united-states-entertain /. Journalism,” Reuters, http://handbook.reuters. 39 Stephen Dinan, “Reporters applaud Obama’s 17 Joe Strupp, “Bill Keller Speaks Out On Judy com/index.php?title=Freedom_from_bias . slam on Romney’s wealth,” The Washington Miller, Iraq War Coverage, And Fox News,” 30 Chris Hedges, “The Creed of Objectivity Times , Oct. 17, 2012, www.washingtontimes. Media Matters, June 3, 2011, http://media Killed the News,” TruthDig, Feb. 1, 2010, www. com/blog/inside-politics/2012/oct/17/reporters- matters.org/blog/2011/06/03/bill-keller-speaks- truthdig.com/report/item/the_creed_of_objec applaud-obamas-slam-romneys-wealth /. out-on-judy-miller-iraq-war/180289 . tivity_killed_the_news_business_20100131 . 40 Fred Barnes, “The four-year honeymoon,” 18 “4th Annual TV News Trust Poll,” op. cit. 31 Ken Silverstein, “The Question of Balance: The Weekly Standard , Jan. 14, 2013, www. 19 “Pluralities Say Press is Fair to Romney, Revisiting the Missouri Election Scandal of weeklystandard.com/articles/four-year-honey Obama,” Pew Research Center for the People 2004,” Harpers , May 8, 2007, http://harpers. moon_693769.html . & The Press, Sept. 22, 1012, www.people- press. org/blog/2007/05/the-question-of-balance- 41 Peter Wehner, “Media bias in the age of org/files/legacy-pdf/9-22-2011%20Media%20 revisiting-the-missouri-election-scandal-of-2004 /. Obama,” Commentary , Jan. 30, 2013, www. Attitudes%20Release.pdf . 32 Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, commentarymagazine.com/2013/01/30/media- 20 Lymari Morales, “U.S. distrust in media hits “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the bias-in-the-age-of-obama /. new high,” Gallup Politics, Sept. 21, 2012, problem,” The Washington Post , April 27, 2012, 42 Light, op. cit. www.gallup.com/poll/157589/distrust-media- http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-04-27/ 43 Jon Nicosia, “Top Romney strategist Stuart hits-new-high.aspx. opinions/35453898_1_republican-party-party- Stevens says media not ‘in the tank’ for Presi - 21 Larry Light, “The right’s propaganda vic - moves-democratic-party/3 . dent Obama,” Mediate, Feb. 24, 2012, www. tory over the ‘liberal’ media,” The Huffington 33 Ibid. mediaite.com/tv/top-romney-strategist-stuart- Post , Dec. 11, 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/ 34 Paul Farhi, “How biased are the media, stevens-says-media-not-in-the-tank-for-presi larry-light/the-rights-propaganda-vic_b_22796 really?” The Washington Post , April 27, 2012, dent-obama /. 25.html . http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-04-27/ 44 “Pluralities say press is fair to Romney, 22 “The State of the News Media 2013,” The lifestyle/35451368_1_media-bias-bias-studies- Obama,” Pew Research Center for the People Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence media-organizations . & the Press, Sept. 25, 2012, www.people- press.org/2012/09/25/pluralities-say-press-is- fair-to-romney-obama /. About the Author 45 “Liberal media bias: fact or fiction?” op. cit. 46 “Romney discussed more than Obama in Robert Kiener is an award-winning writer based in Ver - election coverage,” 4thEstate, Aug. 1, 2012, mont whose work has appeared in The London Sunday http://election2012.4thestate.net/romney-dis Times , The Christian Science Monitor , The Washington Post , cussed-more-than-obama-in-election-coverage /. Reader’s Digest , Time Life Books and other publications. 47 “Low marks for the 2012 election,” Pew For more than two decades he worked as an editor and Research Center for the People & the Press, correspondent in Guam, Hong Kong, Canada and England. Nov. 15, 2012, www.people-press.org/2012/11/ He holds an M.A. in Asian studies from Hong Kong Uni - 15/section-4-news-sources-election-night-and- versity and an M.Phil. in international relations from Eng - views-of-press-coverage/press . 48 Si Sheppard, The Partisan Press (2008), p. land’s Cambridge University. 19. 49 Ibid. , pp. 18-19.

420 CQ Researcher 50 Ibid. 51 Ibid. 52 Quoted in ibid. , pp. 22-23. FOR MORE INFORMATION 53 S. Robert Lichter, “The Media,” in Peter H. Accuracy in Media , 4350 East West Highway, Suite 555, Bethesda, MD 20814 ; Schuck, Understanding America: The Anato - 202-364-4401 ; www.aim.org . Conservative media watchdog organization that my of an Exceptional Nation (2009), p. 187. searches for potential liberal bias. 54 Geoffrey R. Stone, Perilous Times (2004), p. 73. American Society of News Editors , 209 Reynolds Journalism Institute, Missouri 55 James L. Baughman, “The Fall and Rise of School of Journalism, Columbia, MO 65211 ; 573-884-2405 ; www.asne.org . Promotes Partisan Journalism,” Center for Journalism Ethics, ethical journalism, supports First Amendment rights, defends freedom of information University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 20, 2011. and open government. 56 Paul Starr, “Governing in the age of Fox News,” The Atlantic , Jan. 1, 2010, www.theatlan Center for Media and Public Affairs , 933 N. Kenmore St., Suite 405, Arlington, tic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/governing- VA 22201 ; 571-319-0029 ; www.cmpa.com . Nonpartisan research and educational organization that studies the news and entertainment media. in-the-age-of-fox-news/307845 /. 57 Sheppard, op. cit. , p. 22. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting , 104 W. 27th St., Suite 10B, New York, NY 58 Lichter, p. 187. 59 10001 ; 212-633-6700 ; www.fair.org . Liberal media watchdog organization that moni - Ibid. , p. 188. tors bias and censorship. 60 Sheppard, op. cit. , p. 76. 61 William Safire, “On language; default, Dear Media Matters , P.O. Box 52155, Washington, DC 20091 ; 202-756-4100 ; www.media Brutus,” The New York Times , Dec. 10, 1995, matters.org . Liberal media watchdog group that looks for potential conservative bias. www.nytimes.com/1995/12/10/magazine/on- language-default-dear-brutus.html . Media Research Center , 325 S. Patrick St., Alexandria, VA 22314 ; 703-683-9733 ; 62 Lichter, op. cit. , p. 190. www.mrc.org . Conservative media watchdog group that searches for potential 63 Ibid. , p. 32. liberal bias. 64 Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Ele - ments of Journalism (2001), p. 62. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press , 1615 L St., N.W., Suite 700, 65 Alan Greenblatt, “Media Bias,” CQ Re - Washington, DC 20036 ; 202-419-4300 ; www.people-press.org . Nonpartisan media searcher , Oct. 15, 2004, p. 866. research organization funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. 66 Lichter, op. cit. , p. 194. 67 Peter J. Boyer, “Under Fowler, FCC treated Poynter Institute for Media Studies , 801 Third St. South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 ; TV as commerce,” The New York Times , Jan. 19, 727-821-9494 ; www.poynter.org . Journalism education and research organization; 1987, www.nytimes.com/1987/01/19/arts/ ethics section of its website (www.poynter.org) includes articles, discussions, tips under-fowler-fcc-treated-tv-as-commerce.html . and case studies. 68 Lichter, op. cit. , p. 205. 69 For survey results, see Sheppard, op. cit. , Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee , 3909 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46208 ; 317-927-8000 ; www.spj.org/ethics.asp . Advises journalists p. 284. on ethical matters; website contains ethics resources and a blog. 70 Quoted in ibid. , p. 280. 71 Baughman, op. cit. 72 Justin Peters, “Serious, point of view jour - for the People & The Press, Sept, 27, 2012, 83 “In Changing News Landscape, Even Tele - nalism?” Columbia Journalism Review , Sept. 13, www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/section-2- vision is Vulnerable,” op. cit. 2012, www.cjr.org/united_states_project/serious_ online-and-digital-news-2 /. 84 Handbook of Journalism , Reuters, http:// point-of-view_journalism.php?page=all . 78 Ibid. handbook.reuters.com/index.php?title=Report 73 Laura McGann, “Partisan Hacks,” The Wash - 79 James Poniewozik, “CNN, Twitter and Why ing_From_the_Internet_And_Using_Social_Media . ington Monthly , May/June 2012, www.wash Hiding Journalists’ Opinions Is (Still) a Bad 85 “Chuck Todd discusses the ‘mythology’ of ingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1005.mc Idea,” Time , July 8, 2010, http://entertain media bias against conservatives,” Twitchy , gann.html . ment.time.com/2010/07/08/cnn-twitter-and- Feb. 19, 2013, http://twitchy.com/2013/02/19/ 74 “Non-profit News: Assessing a New Land - why -hiding-journalists-opinions-is-still-a-bad- chuck-todd-discusses-the-mythology-of-media- scape in Journalism,” Pew Research Center, idea /. bias-against-conservatives /. July 18, 2011, p. 11, www.journalism.org/sites/ 80 John Morton, “Staying Neutral,” American 86 C. W. Anderson, Emily Bell and Clay Shirky, journalism.org/files/Non-profit%20news%20 Journalism Review , Dec./Jan. 2010, www.ajr. “Post-Industrial Journalism,” Columbia Jour - study%20FINAL.pdf . org/article.asp?id=4837 . nalism School, 2013, p. 108, http://journalists 75 Peters, op. cit. 81 Stephanie Gleason, “Going Public,” Amer - resource.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ 76 “The State of the News Media 2013,” op. cit. ican Journalism Review , December/January TOWCenter-Post_Industrial_Journalism.pdf . 77 “In Changing News Landscape, Even Tele - 2010, www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4846 . 87 Hedges, op. cit. vision Is Vulnerable,” Pew Research Center 82 Ibid.

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 421 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books provided by numerous experts, says the author. Because of these lapses, the author claims, the bulk of the mainstream Alterman , Eric , What Liberal Media? The Truth About media and much of the blogosphere showed bias in favor Bias and the News , Basic Books , 2004 . of the war. A City University of New York journalism professor and liberal journalist says the news media are far more slanted Carr , David , “Tired Cries of Bias Don’t Help Romney,” toward conservative than liberal thought, contrary to the The New York Times , Sept. 30, 2012 , www.nytimes.com/ claims of many conservative media critics. 2012/10/01/business/media/challenging-the-claims-of- media-bias-the-media-equation.html?_r=0 . Freddoso , David , Spin Masters: How the Media Ignored Although the press is frequently accused of exhibiting a the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama , Reg - liberal bias when conservative candidates drop in the polls, nery Publishing , 2013 . the media increasingly are made up of right-leaning outlets, The editorial page editor of the conservative Washington says the Times media critic. Examiner contends the mainstream media manipulated cov - erage of the 2012 presidential candidates, were obsessed Chozik , Amy , “Conservative Koch brothers turning focus with Mitt Romney’s gaffes and refused to cover stories that to newspapers,” The New York Times , April 21, 2013 , could have portrayed President Obama in a negative light. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/business/media/koch- brothers-making-play-for-tribunes-newspapers.html?page - Groseclose , Tim , Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias wanted=all . Distorts the American Mind , St. Martin’s Press , 2011 . Charles and David Koch, the billionaire supporters of lib - A UCLA political science and economics professor concludes ertarian causes, reportedly are considering trying to buy the that nearly all mainstream media have a liberal bias, based on Tribune Co.’s eight regional newspapers, including the Los a formula he uses to analyze political content in news stories. Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Some in the media in - dustry are asking whether they would use the papers to fur - Hunnicut , Susan (ed.), At Issue: Media Bias , Greenhaven ther a conservative agenda. Press , 2011 . Media experts explore the history of bias, the meaning of Friedersdorf , Conor , “Steve Kroft’s Softball Obama Inter - objectivity, whether the mainstream media are biased toward views Diminish ‘60 Minutes,’ ” The Atlantic , Jan. 29, 2013 , Democrats or Republicans, whether bias in financial report - www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/steve-krofts- ing contributed to the nation’s financial crisis and more. softball-obama-interviews-diminish-60-minutes/272611 . An Atlantic staff writer argues that “60 Minutes,” which Sheppard , Si , The Partisan Press: A History of Media prides itself on tough investigations and probing interviews, Bias in the United States , McFarland & Co. , 2008 . limited its interview with President Obama and Secretary of An assistant political science professor at Long Island Uni - State Hillary Rodham Clinton to “softball” questions. versity places the debate about media bias in historical con - text. He tracks media bias from the early days of the na - Stray , Jonathan , “How do you tell when the news is biased? tion’s partisan press to the rise of objectivity in the 20th It depends on how you see yourself,” Nieman Journal - century to today’s technology-driven media alternatives. ism Lab , June 27, 2012 , www.niemanlab.org/2012/06/ how-do-you-tell-when-the-news-is-biased . Stroud , Natalie Jomini , Niche News: The Politics of New Recent research shows that people detect and judge bias Choice , Oxford University Press , 2011 . in news reporting based on such factors as how they see A journalism professor at the University of Texas-Austin ex - themselves, not on what journalists write. plores how consumers navigate the increasingly crowded and diverse new-media market and investigates the political Reports and Studies implications of those choices. “The State of the News Media 2013: An Annual Report Articles on American Journalism,” The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism , March 18, 2013 , Alterman , Eric , “Think Again: Why Didn’t the Iraq War http://stateofthemedia.org . Kill the ‘Liberal Media’?” American Progress , April 4, 2013 , The nonpartisan research group’s annual study includes re - www.americanprogress.org/issues/media/news/2013/04/ ports on how news consumers view the media’s financial 04/59288/why-didnt-the-iraq-war-kill-the-liberal-media . struggles, how the news landscape has changed in recent In reporting on the Iraq War, reporters ignored traditional years, an analysis of the main media sectors and an essay journalistic practices in order to dismiss counter-evidence on .

422 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Fact Checking Unattainable,” The Washington Times , Feb. 28, 2013 , p. A5 , www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/28/harper- Brown , Neil , “You Can Handle the Truth,” Tampa Bay (Fla.) journalists-ideals-of-objectivity-unattaina/?page=all . Times , Sept. 9, 2012 , p. P1 , www.tampabay.com/news/ Journalists cannot be consistently objective without their perspective/you-can-handle-the-truth/1250373 . personal biases being reflected in their reporting, says a Tem - Fact-checking websites have made many politicians think ple University journalism professor. twice before making a statement on the record, says the edi - tor of the Tampa Bay Times. Rutten , Andy , “A Solid Democracy Relies on Fair, Ob - jective Journalism,” South Bend (Ind.) Tribune , July 15, Bui , Lynh , “Separating News From Noise,” The Wash - 2012 , p. C11 , articles.southbendtribune.com/2012-07-15/ ington Post , April 13, 2013 , p. B1 , www.washingtonpost. news/32688630_1_journalism-opinion-objective . com/local/education/schools-demanding-news-literacy- Among the nation’s biggest problems is a lack of objective, lessons-to-teach-students-how-to-find-fact-amid-fiction/2013/ thorough journalism, says a columnist. 04/15/e67b9c26-963d-11e2-9e23-09dce87f75a1_story.html . Schools are focusing more on teaching students how to iden - Sullivan , Margaret , “When Reporters Get Personal,” The tify misinformation found on the Internet and social media. New York Times , Jan. 6, 2013 , p. SR12 , www.nytimes.com/ 2013/01/06/public-editor/when-reporters-get-personal.html . Cooper , Michael , “Fact-Checkers Howl, But Campaigns Personal biases in reporting can help expose the truth in Seem Attached to Dishonest Ads,” The New York Times , some instances but at the risk of making a journalist’s work Sept. 1, 2012 , p. A14 , www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/us/ seem to lack balance, says a columnist. politics/fact-checkers-howl-but-both-sides-cling-to-false- ads.html?_r=0 . Watchdogs Many political campaigns continue to run televisions ads con - taining statements that have been criticized by fact checkers. Farhi , Paul , “FCC Seeks News Transparency,” The Washing - ton Post , Jan. 4, 2012 , p. C1 , articles.washingtonpost. Obama Administration com/2012-01-03/lifestyle/35440083_1_fcc-report-corie- wright-stations . Batten , Taylor , “Obama, the Media and One Angry Read - Media watchdogs have praised a Federal Communications er,” Charlotte (N.C.) Observer , Oct. 7, 2012 , www.char Commission proposal that would require commercial TV lotteobserver.com/2012/10/07/3579557/obama-the-media- stations to disclose the corporate interests funding their and-one-angry.html . newscasts. Most journalists have a left-of-center political philosophy but it is unfair to say the media aided President Obama’s re-election, says a columnist.

Kelly , Jack , “The Media Flack for Obama,” Pittsburgh CITING CQ RESEARCHER Post-Gazette , May 27, 2012 , p. B3 , www.post-gazette. com/ Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography stories/opinion/jack-kelly/the-media-flack-for-obama- 637722 /. The media tend to dismiss or ignore stories that reflect include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats poorly on President Obama, says a columnist. vary, so please check with your instructor or professor.

Schaller , Thomas F. , “How Come We Don’t Hear About MLA STYLE ‘Conservative Media Bias’?” The Baltimore Sun , March 5, Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher 2 Sept. 2013 , articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-03-05/news/bs-ed- 2011: 701-732. schaller-media-bias-20130305_1_liberal-media-bias-fox- news-channel-opinion-media . APA S TYLE The corporate-owned American media are hardly liberal Jost, K. (2011, September 2). Remembering 9/11. CQ Re - when it comes to Obama’s tax policies and government reg - ulations, says a political science professor at the University searcher, 9 , 701-732. of Maryland, Baltimore County. CHICAGO STYLE Objectivity Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher , September 2, 2011, 701-732. Harper , Christopher , “Journalists’ Ideals of Objectivity

www.cqresearcher.com May 3, 2013 423 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

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