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Putting Another Dent in the 'Liberal Bias' Myth

Thank goodness for Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog group that is finally doing what media watchers should have been doing all along: holding the media accountable for pushing conservatism unevenly over progressive politics. Media Matters has already recorded how Sunday talk shows feature far more Republicans than Democrats and right-leaning panels than left-leaning ones; now they have analyzed the syndicated columnists featured in American newspapers in their report "Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns"(See the report here: http://mediamatters.org/reports/oped/)

Already drawing the ire of right-wing newspapers such as The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Media Matters' report has some alarming findings, including that 60% of American newspapers feature more conservative columnists to progressive ones, 38 states have more conservative columnists featured more than progressive editorial writers, and newspapers in the West, Southwest, and South feature (you guessed it) more conservative columnists than progressives.

I would recommend any activist to get involved in promoting a more equitable distribution of viewpoints in newspapers and in contemporary media overall. Already, I've contacted my local newspaper, the Courier Post, which favors conservative columnists over progressive ones by a 6-1 margin, to ask that they feature progressive political opinion in their op-ed choices. And so goes another myth perpetuated by the right concerning the faux idea of a "liberal media bias."

posted by Michael Martin @ 12:10 PM