Difference between revisions of "Liberal bias"

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<!-- couldn't this be generalized into a "political bias in media" article? I don't see a reason for a specific article about the leftist version-->
 
<!-- couldn't this be generalized into a "political bias in media" article? I don't see a reason for a specific article about the leftist version-->
'''Liberal bias''' is partisan support for [[liberal]] positions or policies. This bias pervades encyclopedias, periodicals and [[broadcast media]], and the Internet. It is expressed by reporters and other journalists in mainstream media and by teachers in [[public school]] and in many private schools.{{fact}}  It includes techniques such as [[placement bias]], [[photo bias]] and [[liberal style]].  There is a difference between being liberal, having a liberal perspective, and having a liberal bias.
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'''Liberal bias''' is partisan support for [[liberal]] positions or policies. This bias pervades encyclopedias, periodicals and [[broadcast media]], and the Internet{{fact}}. It is expressed by reporters and other journalists in mainstream media and by teachers in [[public school]] and in many private schools.{{fact}}  It includes techniques such as [[placement bias]], [[photo bias]] and [[liberal style]].  There is a difference between being liberal, having a liberal perspective, and having a liberal bias.
  
 
<!-- Original says "in absence of rule to prevent the bias". I'm not sure what the idea behind taking a jab at the first amendment is, but I'm modifying it -Noam -->
 
<!-- Original says "in absence of rule to prevent the bias". I'm not sure what the idea behind taking a jab at the first amendment is, but I'm modifying it -Noam -->
 
Such a bias could manifest itself as one or more of the following:
 
Such a bias could manifest itself as one or more of the following:
*political correctness
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*political correctness{{fact}}
*a tendency to exaggerate and deceive to attract attention <!-- I don't think that's called liberal bias. I believe the term is "sensationalism"-->
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*a tendency to exaggerate and deceive to attract attention{{fact}} <!-- I don't think that's called liberal bias. I believe the term is "sensationalism"-->
*a reliance on obscenity to attract attention <!--same, except for george carlin, who was awesome-->
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*a reliance on obscenity to attract attention{{fact}} <!--same, except for george carlin, who was awesome-->
*an attempt to be consistent by treating men and women alike
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*an attempt to be consistent by treating men and women alike{{fact}}
*an obsession with race where images are used
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*an obsession with race where images are used{{fact}}
 
<!-- *apparent [[blindness]] towards the blatant bias in the above activites --> <!-- Don't repeat yourself-->
 
<!-- *apparent [[blindness]] towards the blatant bias in the above activites --> <!-- Don't repeat yourself-->
  
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==U.S. Universities==
 
==U.S. Universities==
  
Liberal bias is rampant in American university campuses. Leftist [[professor values|professors]] dominate the universities.{{fact}} "Because of this slant, it is virtually impossible for political balance in our universities and, as a result, the curriculum, the culture, the values, the atmosphere and the underlying currents of thought resemble indoctrination." <ref>[http://www.thefire.org/pdfs/4134_2453.pdf?PHPSESSID=14d1b6b722914bc403636c401f9792ee Universities' liberal bias is real], Fred Singer, [[Denver Post]], January 29, 2003</ref>
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Liberal bias is rampant in American university campuses{{fact}}. Leftist [[professor values|professors]] dominate the universities.{{fact}} "Because of this slant, it is virtually impossible for political balance in our universities and, as a result, the curriculum, the culture, the values, the atmosphere and the underlying currents of thought resemble indoctrination." <ref>[http://www.thefire.org/pdfs/4134_2453.pdf?PHPSESSID=14d1b6b722914bc403636c401f9792ee Universities' liberal bias is real], Fred Singer, [[Denver Post]], January 29, 2003</ref>
  
 
"College faculties are not only mostly liberal, but lean even further to the left than conservatives have imagined."
 
"College faculties are not only mostly liberal, but lean even further to the left than conservatives have imagined."

Revision as of 00:18, July 30, 2008

Liberal bias is partisan support for liberal positions or policies. This bias pervades encyclopedias, periodicals and broadcast media, and the Internet[Citation Needed]. It is expressed by reporters and other journalists in mainstream media and by teachers in public school and in many private schools.[Citation Needed] It includes techniques such as placement bias, photo bias and liberal style. There is a difference between being liberal, having a liberal perspective, and having a liberal bias.

Such a bias could manifest itself as one or more of the following:

The Media Confronts Liberal Bias

Ann Coulter wrote:

  • To obscure the overwhelming liberal dominance of the media, the few designated media "conservatives" are cited tirelessly in testimonies to the ideological diversity in the nation's newsrooms. Democrats in the media are editors, national correspondents, news anchors, and reporters. Republicans in the media are "from the right" polemicists grudgingly tolerated within the liberal behemoth. Republican views must be accompanied by a conspicuous warning: "Partisan Conservative Opinion Coming!" Neutral news slots are reserved for Democrats exclusively. "Balance" is created by having a liberal host a debate between a liberal and a moderate Republican. [1]

Although many prominent liberal journalists and teachers deny being biased - or indeed that liberal bias exists at all in the media - same have freely admitted it (e.g., Andy Rooney).[Citation Needed]

New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. has denied the the New York Times has a liberal viewpoint and has stated the New York Times has an "urban" viewpoint.[2] However, in the summer of 2004, the newspaper's then public editor (ombudsman), Daniel Okrent, published a piece on the Times' liberal bias and cited the example of their coverage of homosexual marriage.[3][4] In regards to the Western World, although the New York Times has a particularly heavy bias when it comes to the homosexuality issue, the New York Times is not unusual in regards to the media having a liberal bias when it comes to the subject of homosexuality; see Homosexuality in the Media. John Stossel is an author, consumer reporter, and a co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20. Cybercast News Service states the following regarding regarding the influence of the New York Times and Washington Post:

While the newspapers reach only a fraction of people compared to the television networks, he said radio and television producers rely heavily on their contents.

"The reason the Times, and to a lesser extent the Post, are so important, and they are, is because the TV and radio - all of the media - copy it sycophantically," he [John Stossel] said. "That's how bias at the Times becomes bias in other media."[5]


Liberal Bias.png

The following persons, organizations, television programs or media outlets have well known liberal bias:

U.S. Universities

Liberal bias is rampant in American university campuses[Citation Needed]. Leftist professors dominate the universities.[Citation Needed] "Because of this slant, it is virtually impossible for political balance in our universities and, as a result, the curriculum, the culture, the values, the atmosphere and the underlying currents of thought resemble indoctrination." [9]

"College faculties are not only mostly liberal, but lean even further to the left than conservatives have imagined." [10]

"The political tilt on campuses is decidedly to the left. If you're looking for balance, you're not going to find it." [11]

Even the students admit the liberal bias. "Here at Columbia, as at most top universities, we enjoy belittling conservative beliefs." [12]

Media

Associated Press

AP has a consistent anti-police bias, for example, referring to "the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day". Their article is designed to create sympathy for a person who talked and acted like he had a gun and then resisted arrest. The AP account reads more like an editorial than a straight news story. It is not until 400 words into the story that you read the judge's reason for acquitting the accused cops. [1]

CBS News

CBS insider Bernard Goldberg wrote the definitive book on liberal bias in the media, simply entitled Bias.

  • He asserts that an "inability to see liberal views as liberal views ... is at the heart of the entire problem."
  • He wrote: "Pauline Kael, for years the brilliant film critic at the New Yorker, was completely baffled about how Richard Nixon could have beaten George McGovern in 1972: 'Nobody I know voted for Nixon.' Never mind that Nixon carried 49 states. She wasn't kidding." [13]

Goldberg also suggested liberals don't even see their liberal values as "liberal":

  • "Their views on all the big social issues ... aren't liberal views at all. They're simply reasonable views, shared by all the reasonable people the media elites mingle with ..." [14]

During the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union was the principal ally of Communist North Vietnam, providing weapons and training in what was a major conflict of the Cold War that took 58,000 American lives.[Citation Needed] CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite regularly carried news reports from its Moscow Bureau Chief, Bernard Redmont. When peace negotiations commenced with North Vietnam in Paris, Redmont became CBS News Paris Bureau Chief. What Redmont never reported during the ten year conflict was, Redmont had been a KGB operative since the 1930s, and member of the notorious Silvermaster group. [15] Redmont was the only journalist to whom his fellow Comintern party member, and North Vietnamese chief negotiator, Mai Van Bo, granted an interview to bring the Communist point of view into American living rooms in what has been called, "the living room war.[Citation Needed]"

New York Times

Peter D. Feaver of the Boston Globe noted on the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that MoveOn.org ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times accusing General David Petraeus of activities befitting a traitor. The advertisement alleges, without evidence, that Petraeus would not give an honest, professional assessment of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Feaver noted, "The MoveOn.org ad is vicious ... a deliberate attack on the senior Army commander, in a major daily newspaper, with the intention of destroying as much of his credibility as possible...part of an elaborate effort to undermine public support for the Iraq war, and was foreshadowed by an unnamed Democratic senator who told a reporter, "No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV . . . The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us." The effort is funded by powerful special interests, and has all the trappings of a major political campaign.[16] Within a day it was discovered the New York Times gave MoveOn.org a “hefty discount” for its ad questioning Petraeus’ integrity. According to the director of public relations for the New York Times, “the open rate for an ad of that size and type is $181,692.” A spokesman for MoveOn.org confirmed that the liberal activist group paid only $65,000 for the ad - a reduction of more than $116,000 from the stated rate.[17] In July, 2008, the New York Times rejected an opinion piece written by John McCain, which was responding to earlier piece written by Barack Obama.[18] This came after the New York Times had previously published at least seven op-ed pieces by McCain since 1996, and endorsed him in the 2008 Republican Presidential primaries. The reason the New York Times cited for the July 2008 rejection was that they were asking the McCain campaign to provide a more substantive piece which would contrast his positions with the details of the Obama piece on a point-by-point basis.[19]

Media Bias

A 2005 report[20] by Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo political scientists at UCLA concluded that, based on estimated ideological scores, all of the news outlets they examined, except Fox News’ Special Report and the Washington Times, showed a strong liberal bias (scores to the left of the average member of Congress). Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS' "Evening News," The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal. Only Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter.

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are." [21]

Vision of the anointed

Economist Thomas Sowell in his book published in 1996, The Vision of the Anointed, discusses the anointed vision of liberals and liberalism to promote their agenda, and control the writing of history and the national consciousness.

Desperate evasions of discordant evidence, and the denigration and even demonizing of those presenting such evidence, are indicative of the high stakes in contemporary culture wars, which are not about alternative policies but alternative worlds and of alternative roles of liberals in these worlds. Opponents must be shown to be not merely mistaken but morally lacking. This approach replaces the intellectual discussion of arguments by the moral extermination of persons. This denigration or demonizing of those opposed to their views not only has the desired effect of discrediting the opposition but also has the unintended effect of cutting off the path of retreat from positions which become progressively less tenable with the passage of time and the accumulation of discordant evidence. The very thought that those dismissed as simplistic or maligned might have been right–even if only on a single issue–is at best galling and potentially devastating. Their last refuge in this situation are their good intentions.

For liberals, it is desperately important to win because their whole sense of themselves is at stake. Given the high stakes, it is not hard to understand the all-out attacks of liberals on those who differ from them and their attempts to stifle alternative sources of values and beliefs, with campus speech codes and ‘political correctness’ being prime examples of a spreading pattern of taboos. Here they are not content to squelch contemporary voices, they must also silence history and traditions–the national memory–as well. This too is a larger danger than the dangers flowing from particular policies.

History is the memory of a nation–and that memory is being erased by historians enthralled by liberalism. Open disdain for mere facts has been accompanied by adventurous reinterpretations known as ‘revisionist’ history. This is all yet another expression of the notion that reality is optional.

A very similar development in the law treats the Constitution as meaning not what those who wrote it meant, but what one small segment of the public today wants it to mean. This is the ‘living constitution’ of ‘evolving standards,’ reflecting what ‘thinking people’ believe. The law itself has been prostituted to the service of ideological crusades. The social cohesion that makes civilized life possible has been loosened by the systematic undermining of families and of commonly shared values and a common culture. [22]

Template:Examples of liberal bias

External links

See Also

  1. [[Slander (book)|]], P. 60
  2. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/weekinreview/25bott.html?ei=5088&en=452926dcb11511a3&ex=1248667200&pagewanted=all&position=
  3. http://www.cnsnews.com/facts/2007/facts2007914.asp
  4. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/weekinreview/25bott.html?ei=5088&en=452926dcb11511a3&ex=1248667200&pagewanted=all&position=
  5. http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200401/CUL20040128a.html
  6. Reporters and editors today are overwhelmingly liberal politically, as studies of the attitudes of key members of the press have repeatedly shown. Should you doubt these findings, recall the statement of Daniel Okrent, then the public editor at the New York Times. Under the headline, "Is the New York times a Liberal Newspaper?," Mr. Okrent's first sentence was, "Of course it is." [2]
  7. Townhall.com, Enabling media bias, Marvin Olasky, December 4, 2001.
  8. During a phone conversation, Bernard Goldberg asked him, "What do you consider the New York Times? Rather answered, "Middle of the road." (Bias, page 221)
  9. Universities' liberal bias is real, Fred Singer, Denver Post, January 29, 2003
  10. Liberal bias in colleges bleeds into classroom, Cal Thomas, Townhall, March 31, 2005
  11. Liberal Bias on Campus, John Eberhard, Intellectual Conservative, June 18, 2004
  12. Liberal Bias is A-OK, J.D. Porter, Columbia Spectator, November 9, 2007
  13. (Bias (book), page 222-223)
  14. (Bias (book), page 222)
  15. KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, Alexander Vassiliev, Notes on A. Gorsky’s Report to Savchenko S.R., 23 December 1949. Original document from KGB Archives [3].
  16. MoveOn's McCarthy moment, By Peter D. Feaver, Boston Globe, September 11, 2007.
  17. Time Gives Lefties a Hefty Discount for "Betray us" Ad, Charles Hurt, New York Post, September 13, 2007.
  18. http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/21/mccain-campaign-says-new-york-times-blocked-op-ed-response-to-obama/
  19. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/the-times-and-the-mccain-op-ed/
  20. A MEASURE OF MEDIA BIAS
  21. http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6664
  22. Thomas Sowell, The Vision of the Anointed, New York: Basic Books, 1996.