Media bias: Is it left or right?

 

Is the media biased? The short answer is “yes.” While a reporter is supposed to just report the facts and allow the audience to form its own conclusions, most of the news we get is no longer given in that format. News, for the most part, is now doled out by talking heads who give personal opinions about the day’s news and events. But each media source does have some exceptions.

 

Does the media bias lean left or right? We need to look closer at each media source to answer this question.

The four main media sources today are newspapers, television, radio and cable news shows.

 

Let’s start with radio, a format that is a right-wing powerhouse. Right-wing talk radio has the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Mike Savage. These men command audiences that are in the millions. These men are heard on hundreds of stations every day. The closest competition from the left is Air America, which is only heard on about 65 stations across the country. Their big name talk host is Al Franken, but he is no longer on the air because he is running for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota against Republican Norm Coleman. Other names that some may have heard of are Rachel Maddow and Randi Rhodes.

 

Now let’s look at Cable News channels. We have CNN, MSNBC and FOX News Channel.

The main shows on CNN are Lou Dobbs, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, AC 360 with Anderson Cooper, and the Glenn Beck Show.

The main shows on MSNBC are Hardball with Chris Matthews, Tucker with Tucker Carlson, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

 

And on Fox the main shows are: Special Report with Brit Hume, Hannity and Colmes with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, and The Factor with Bill O’Reilly.

Of these ten shows, six are hosted by men with right wing stands on the majority of issues. So, while there is a much better chance of hearing news from someone who is more moderate or liberal, the majority of shows are again right wing. Fox News Channel also has a much larger audience than CNN and MSNBC.

The next media format we will look at is network television, such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.

 

This media source — hands down — leans left when compared to Talk Radio or Cable News. But that does not mean that it is left wing; it merely means that it’s to the left of the other formats, and when you compare most other media sources to Talk Radio, everything is going to appear to the left, because Talk Radio leans about as far right as you can go.

The last format: newspapers, the oldest form of mass media we have. Most every city and town has at least one newspaper. 

But how can you tell which are left- or right-leaning papers?

Newspapers are usually right or left in their opinion sections and commentary, while the rest of the paper deals with feature stories and news.

So is the media bias? Absolutely! Does it lean more to the right or the left? Depends on the media source; but since I want to give a more precise answer, I would say that overall the media is somewhere between moderate and the right, and NOT left. If you listen to Hannity, or Limbaugh, everything is to their left.