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Media bias. From nattering nabobs to the Fox News Channel. Are the media liberal?. Credit: Media Research Center. Washington reporters vote Democratic Do personal views affect fair coverage? Should we have balanced news staffs?. Age of objectivity. Partisan press gave way to mass media
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Media bias From nattering nabobsto the Fox News Channel
Are the media liberal? Credit: MediaResearch Center • Washington reporters vote Democratic • Do personal views affect fair coverage? • Should we have balanced news staffs?
Age of objectivity • Partisan press gave way tomass media • In first half of 20th century, opinion press was tiny • Broad cultural consensus,little ideology
McCarthy era • Coverage exposed limits of objectivity • Edward R. Murrow (left) challenged McCarthy • Accused ofmaking news,not reporting it
Civil-rights era • Media on the side of equal rights • Opponents portrayed as ignorant • Backlash gaverise to modern conservative movement
Vietnam War • Reporters like David Halberstam (left) reported war was going badly • Media blamed for losing the war • Parallels today to the war in Iraq
Nixon and the media • “Silent Majority” was unhappy with cultural change • White middle-class voters were trending Republican • Media seen asliberal elitists
Spiro Agnew • Denounced media as “nattering nabobs of negativism” • Battled press over Pentagon Papers and Watergate • Accusation against the media lived on
Ronald Reagan • Perception was that media were tough on him • Lowest moment was Iran-Contra affair • Little evidence of negative coverage
Rise of conservative media • Rush Limbaugh and other radio hosts attract millions • Wall Street Journal editorial page • Fox News Channel appeals to sense of resentment
William Kristol “I admit it — the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures”
The so-called liberal media • Whitewater a scandal that wasn’t • Lewinsky a bigger deal with the press than the public • Gore was smeared with phony claim that he’d “invented the Internet”
A theory of media bias • Mainstream is liberal on cultural issues like gay marriage • Small but influential conservative press “works the refs” • Political reporters strain not to beseen as biased
Voices on the left • Small publications like The Nation • Radio hosts like Ed Schultz (left) and Stephanie Miller • Left-leaning Web sites like the Daily Kos and Blue Mass. Group