While between 65 and85 percent of thepublic reports that they believe that the news media slantthe news in onedirection or another the nature and impact of bias is actuallyquitecomplicated. On the one hand news coverage can be politicallybiasedthat is specific media outlets could favor one political agendaover another. Apopular claim usually from the political right is thatthe media are liberallybiased.
Former CBS News reporter Bernard Goldbergwho claims that he isin dependent argues in his best- selling bookBias that most reporters areliberal and therefore slant the news (evenunknowingly) to favor liberal positionson issues. In fact President Bushfamously carried a copy of Goldbergsbook when it first appeared on themarket! Media critic and self- professedliberal Eric Altermans WhatLiberal Media? is a response of sorts to Goldbergsbook as it debunkssome of the claims Goldberg makes and offers anargument that the mediaare mostly conservatively biased (especially when itcomes to theideological persuasions of radio hosts and television politicalpundits).
Of course political/ideological bias is butone way that the media can slantcoverage. News and entertainmentprogramming can be corporately biased. Corporate bias is news coverage thatfavors large corporations such as advertisersand media conglomerates. Forexample if bad news befell GeneralElectric (which owns NBC) or Disney(which owns ABC) and NBC failed toreport on GEs troubles or ABC put apositive spin on Disneys problems wecould label their coverage ascorporately biased. By the same token if a prominentnewspaper advertiserlaid off workers was indicted or had a bad fiscalquarter that thenewspaper either failed to cover or covered in a way that madetheadvertiser look good we could once again conclude that the coveragewascorporately biased.
Another kind of bias is concerned with theactual value of media programmingitself. Commercial bias is bias that isdesigned to titillate readers listenersor viewers even if theinformation is not all that useful. For instance atelevision news programsfocus on the latest scandals involving Paris Hiltonmight encourage peopleto watch even though a story on which technologyjobs are growing at thefastest rate might be more useful to news consumers.
Commercial bias is often calledinfotainment a slightly derogatory termfor news coverage that is moreflash than substance.
DISCUSSION1:Which kind of bias do you think is the most dangerous?Why?
DISCUSSION2:Which kind of bias do you see the most when youare watchingreading or surfing for information? Does the most prominentbias vary bywhether you are consuming news or entertainmentinformation?
