At a glance, NPR liberal bias
Tom says find the NPR bias. I’m pressed for time but figure I’d do something. Well, a quick google and:
NPR’s coverage of the Israeli conflict.
Update: Rich found some bias there today.
12 Responses to “At a glance, NPR liberal bias”
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February 27th, 2004 at 4:24 pm
*Sigh* You’re going to have to do a lot better than that. Where to begin?
First, your “NPR Admits It” link. This concerned Fresh Air w/ Terry Gross; NPR has since apologized, and is taking corrective action. And anyway, my query specifically involved NPR’s news shows, specifically Morning Edition and All Things Considered. So you had to go outside the parameters I laid out to even find that one tidbit. That would be rather like me pointing to O’Reilly’s presence on Fox News and claiming it indicates that their regular news coverage is biased to the right (their news coverage does that for itself).
As for the Israel-Palestine thing, again, I specifically acknowledged and addressed that in the original post, but for lack of anything better, you ignored that, too.
That leaves us with the FAIR report. Did you even read the damn thing? It concludes that the “one-sided” liberal media debate was biased to the right:
You might be interested in what else FAIR has to say about the “liberal media.” Specifically, look at the policy scorecard. The media is consistently to the right of the public on 8 of 9 issues tracked. Liberal media my ass.
February 27th, 2004 at 4:26 pm
Please fix the hyperlink that I apparently forgot to close. It should end after “The FAIR report,” before “did you even.”
February 27th, 2004 at 4:39 pm
Done.
I did read the fair report and was looking for bias. Fair and balanced and all that.
I didn’t listen to NPR today, rich did and found something. Regardless, my contention is that individual reporters are those guilty of bias and predisposition. Has been all along. I just find NPR’s reporters tend to lean left.
There are biases (left and right) at most media outlets depending on who does the talking.
February 27th, 2004 at 4:41 pm
Oh, and to borrow from the Tom school of debate: there is bias there, too bad you can’t see it.
w00t!
February 27th, 2004 at 5:08 pm
Well, to be fair, in the Tom school of debate, you should actually be able to demonstrate the bias before making such an argument, as I did with two Fox News stories from the same morning.
So far, the only examples of bias that we’ve found on NPR are on talk shows (not part of the news challenge), are left/right neutral (as with Israel-Palestine), or are rightist biases (we’ve got at least two examples of this now).
Not exactly making a slam-dunk case that NPR has a “leftist” bias.
There are biases (left and right) at most media outlets depending on who does the talking.
This is impossible to avoid, and it’s where balance comes in. It’s okay to have a left-leaning talker if you also have a right-leaning talker.
Instead of demonstrating a “liberal media,” virtually all the evidence we’ve gathered so far indicates a decided slant to the right in the media. Thanks for finding that FAIR report, by the way…
February 27th, 2004 at 5:33 pm
I commented on this when it came up at NGD. There’s no doubt that on their entertainment shows, NPR slants hard to the left. Almost horizontally to the left.
Commentary also tends to slant left, however not so blatantly as many other outlets.
Their news programming, however, is the best out there. Any incicidental bias is not worth considering compared to the quality and depth of their coverage. No one can completely avoid any bias, but NPR seems to make every effort in their news programming. They are always careful when covering a controversial news story to include statements from representatives of all sides. If Fox News had the quality and breadth that NPR has, I would watch them despite their blatant bias.
February 27th, 2004 at 5:38 pm
I’m not sure what the fuss is about with on-air personalities spouting off on what they believe in off the air. Andrew Sullivan displays a clear bias on his blog, but still has writing gigs on “liberal media” outlets like Time. Having an opinion and expressing it off the air is not an indication of bias, simply an indication of being human.
February 28th, 2004 at 11:43 pm
Not what you were looking for, but here’s an example of how CNN covered damned-near identical employment stats under Clinton and Bush:
http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/006086.php
Yeah, I know. CNN and NPR aren’t related.
One reason people perceive bias in the media is that the media tends to telegraph to their audience whose side they’re on. This isn’t a liberal or conservative thing, by the way. It happens all across the political spectrum.
Sometimes it’s simply what issues they cover. Fox News is more likely to cover a widespread phenomenon in churches, which is of interest to their church-going audience. NPR is more likely to run something involving reminiscences or commemoration of events in the ’60s.
The fact that NPR is in touch with the interests of their Boomer audience doesn’t prove that they’re biased, but it feeds a sneaking suspicion. Ditto for Fox News and their selection of events to cover.
So you may be able to deduce a media outlet’s bias via sideband signals, even if you’re not always able to detect that bias in their main signal.
February 29th, 2004 at 12:01 am
Here’s one from Marginal Revolutions comparing the WaPo and NYT’s headline for the same event.
To be fair, this proves a bias. Is it pervasive, and is it liberal overall? Can’t say.
The 700 Club news is biased conservative, and MTV News is biased liberal. Lots of room in between.
February 27th, 2004 at 9:19 pm
Light Blogging
Heck with it. I’m not going to change anybody’s mind any time soon. So rather than ranting about politics, I’m…
February 29th, 2004 at 11:58 am
Media Bias
Tom at LeanLeft is challenging people to show him examples of bias in NPR’s news reporting (specifically, Morning Edition and All Things Considered). I’ve said before that I don’t think bias is restricted to any one part of the political…
October 13th, 2004 at 1:27 am
the orwellization of modern media
remember when journalism was a noble cause? when news was reported for the sake of itself? when the truth was sacred? no? neither do i. while the news has never been squeaky-clean, the line is being crossed from an organizational…