Is the mainstream media liberal biased?

Introduction

A growing number of viewers are becoming increasingly convinced that the mainstream media (in the US) is unfairly biased towards liberals and liberal viewpoints… and unfairly biased against conservatives and conservative viewpoints.

Note that by "mainstream US media", we are referring to TV outlets such as ABC, CBS, MSNBC, and newspapers such as NYT (New York Times) and LAT (Los Angeles Times).

So, is the mainstream US media liberal biased?

To answer this question, we would have to gather some facts and evaluate what we find, using something like the following methodology:

Consider 100 news stories (for instance) on a relevant topic.

Of those 100 news stories, do 50 stories present facts or viewpoints favorable to liberals and unfavorable to conservatives; and the other 50 stories present facts or viewpoints favorable to conservatives and unfavorable to liberals. If so, our study of these 100 news stories would indicate that the mainstream media is unbiased.

If 55 of the stories are favorable towards liberals then the mainstream media is 5% liberal biased; and if 55 of the stories are favorable towards conservatives then the mainstream media is 5% conservative biased.

Kerry vs. Bush

During the period leading up to the election… If the mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should have been favorable towards Kerry and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should have been favorable towards Bush.

What did we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the war and what it is accomplishing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the war and what it is accomplishing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards Christianity and what it is accomplishing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards Christianity and what it is accomplishing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards Roman Catholicism and what it is accomplishing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards Roman Catholicism and what it is accomplishing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards Israel and what it is accomplishing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards Israel and what it is accomplishing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards Palestine and what it is doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards Palestine and what it is doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards Arafat and the results of his leadership and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards Arafat and the results of his leadership.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the Homosexual movement and what it is doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the Homosexual movement and what it is doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards Abortion movement and what it is doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the Abortion movement and what it is doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the Pro-life movement and what it is doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the Pro-life movement and what it is doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards Partial-birth abortion and its results and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards Partial-birth abortion and its results.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should speak of the various studies that indicate that the fetus can and does feel pain during abortion procedures and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) can ignore these studies.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should speak of the various studies that show that women can experience, and many have experienced, severe negative health and psychological consequences from an abortion, and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) can ignore these studies.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should clearly indicate the strong link between out-of-wedlock motherhood and poverty (i.e., the strongest, or close to strongest, indicator of poverty in the US is motherhood out of wedlock) and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could ignore this link.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the Feminist movement and what it is doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the Ultra-Feminist movement and what it is doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the liberal AIDS activist movement and what it is doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the AIDS activist movement and what it is doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the conservative AIDS-preventative voices and what they are recommending and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the conservative AIDS-preventative voices and what they are recommending

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the Liberal Minority activists and what they are doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the Liberal Minority activists and what they are doing

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards conservative Minority voices and what they are doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the conservative Minority voices and what they are doing

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards conservative politicians and what they are doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards conservative politicians and what they are doing

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards liberal politicians and what they are doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards liberal politicians and what they are doing

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards accountability-free welfare programs and what they are doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards accountability-free welfare programs and what they are doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards alternate life-styles and their results and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards alternate life-styles and their results.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should clearly indicate the strong link between homosexuality and AIDS (i.e., homosexual behavior is the highest indicator of the presence and spread of AIDS) and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could ignore this link.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should clearly indicate the strong link between drug-use and homelessness (i.e., most homelessness is a direct consequence of drug-use by the individuals concerned) and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could ignore this link.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should clearly indicate the strong link between open-access pornography and sexual predation by men… (i.e., there is a > 90% correlation between sexual predators and use of open-access pornography, particularly of the kinds linked to violence) and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could ignore this link.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should clearly indicate the strong link between out-of-wedlock motherhood and crime (i.e., the strongest, or close to strongest, indicator of crime in the US is children resulting from out-of-wedlock single motherhood) and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could ignore this link.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should show the successes of conservative social programs and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could ignore this link.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should show the failures of liberal no-accountability welfare programs and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could show their successes (if any).

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should show the successes of social programs when accountability is strongly linked to the services provided, and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) could ignore this link.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the global warming movement and what it is doing and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be unfavorable towards the global warming movement and what it is doing.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the various scientists who are skeptical of the alleged link between global warming and human activity and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) can ignore these scientists and their scientific reasons to be skeptical of the alleged link between global-warming and human activity.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the various scientists who are skeptical of the alleged proofs of Darwinism and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) can ignore these scientists and their scientific reasons to be skeptical of the alleged proofs of Darwinism.

What do we find in practice?

If the mainstream mainstream media is indeed unbiased towards liberalism, then 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) should be favorable towards the studies that show that legal private gun-ownership actually REDUCES crime in neighborhoods and 50% of the stories (and the facts presented) can ignore these studies.

What do we find in practice?

Grace and Peace to you.