Is media bias fact or fiction?

DallasBlog.com | Scott Bennett:

“Is the media biased? I think so, and I’ll share a personal experience to prove my point.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Mr Bennett covers a lot of ground in his blog, but let's start with his headline question. Yes, the media is biased. Talk radio skews right. Hollywood entertainment skews left. Television news has both kinds of networks. Newspapers, too. There are even some outlets that try to be fair and balanced, presenting both sides of issues, but these tend to be viewed as liberal anyway, as tolerance is itself a liberal trait.

If Mr Bennett insists on claiming that, on the whole, on average, the media is more liberal than conservative, I'll even grant him that, not because I necessarily believe it, but because I don't think there's any way to prove it one way or the other. You won't even get agreement on the definitions of liberal, conservative, and media. So, just grant the assertion and let's move on.

Mr Bennett's own evidence is a single anecdote. It's an interesting story, but hardly proof of anything. He went on one junket to Eastern Europe with a dozen journalists, most of whom, but not all, expressed liberal views in private. The subject was the first Gulf War. The liberals expressed relief that "civilized" George H.W. Bush occupied the White House at that time, not Ronald Reagan, the "gun slinging cowboy." Mr Bennett applauds himself for knowing better than his cohorts on the junket that Bush 41 would go through with his threat of war.

As history unfolded, President Bush 41 limited the war and consciously chose not to invade Iraq. Because of this, his war was a great victory. His son, President Bush 43, who models himself more after the "gun slinging cowboy" than his father, chose otherwise, and his war has led to the disastrous consequences foreseen by those liberals on that junket all those years before.

From this vantage point, it appears there was something to learn from the biases of both sides on that long ago junket. Maybe bias isn't all bad.