Question

To what extent do you believe the U.S. media are biased? In which ideological direction, if any, do you think the media is biased? What evidence can you provide to support this belief? How might we systematically examine whether the media is biased?

Answer 1

Media bias in the United States occurs when the US media systematically skews information, such as reporting news in a way that conflicts with standards of professional journalism or promoting a political agenda through entertainment media. Claims of media bias in the United States include claims of both liberal bias and conservative bias. Such claims have increased as the political parties have become more polarized. There are also claims of corporate bias, bias in reporting to favor the corporate owners of the media, and mainstream bias, a tendency for the media to focus on certain "hot" stories and ignore news of more substance. A variety of watchdog groups attempt to combat bias by fact-checking both biased reporting and unfounded claims of bias

Bias in entertainment media

Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV, a 2011 book by Ben Shapiro, argues that producers, executives and writers in the entertainment industry are using television to promote a liberal political agenda. The claims include both blatant and subtle liberal agendas in entertainment shows, discrimination against conservatives in the industry, and misleading advertisers regarding the value of liberal-leaning market segments. As one part of the evidence, he presents statements from taped interviews made by celebrities and TV show creators from Hollywood whom he interviewed for the book.

Comic strips are divided into "right" and "left" on the popular web page GoComics. The Doonesbury comic strip has a liberal point of view. In 2004 a conservative letter writing campaign was successful in convincing Continental Features, a company that prints many Sunday comics sections, to refuse to print the strip, causing Doonesbury to disappear from the Sunday comics in 38 newspapers. Of the 38, only one editor, Troy Turner, executive editor of the Anniston Star in Alabama, continued to run the Sunday Doonesbury, albeit necessarily in black and white. Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley and Prickly City by Scott Stantis are both conservative in their views. In older strips, Li'l Abner by Al Capp routinely parodied Southern Democrats through the character of Senator Jack S. Phogbound, but later adopted a strongly conservative stance. Pogo by Walt Kelly caricaturized a wide range of political figures including Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace, Robert F. Kennedy, and Eugene McCarthy. Little Orphan Annie espoused a strong anti-union pro-business stance in the story "Eonite" from 1935, where union agitators destroy a business that would have benefited the entire human race.