If you don’t think there’s a liberal bias in most of the news media …

… you need to have your head examined.

Some pro-life demonstrators were outside an abortion clinic. A man pulled a handgun on them.

The Associated Press originally reported this as “Delaware police arrest man with gun at Planned Parenthood.”

They have since corrected the headline to “Delaware man charged with pulling gun on abortion opponents.”

28 thoughts on “If you don’t think there’s a liberal bias in most of the news media …”

  1. I’d be the last person to deny that when a group overwhelming consists of people who share a worldview, that the output of that group will tend to display that view. Since the media’s overwhelmingly liberal, their biases are liberal.

    But I have to admit there’s journalistic malpractice which isn’t politically motivated too.

    I had a friend in college whose uncle was murdered. The news described the victim as having been “known to police”, which is not-very-secret code for “someone who gets mixed up with the police regularly, probably for minor-to-moderate crimes”.

    Well, yeah, he was indeed “known to police”. *He was a retired cop*. I’m willing to bet isn’t what anyone thought when they heard “known to police”.

    1. For sure. As a general rule, never assign to bias what can be easily blamed on incompetence.

      But once it happens a thousand times ….

  2. Indeed there is liberal media bias. As well, there’s conservative media bias. For nearly every liberal biased story, there can be an example of a conservative biased story.

    Interesting, the most watched network in the US is controlled by a conservatives. They influence millions each day. They constantly spew their biased perspectives…sometimes doing the very thing they accuse the liberal media of doing. Case in point, good ole Tucker Carlson recently bemoaned how he was harassed by the liberal media. Ironically, he’s done likewise. The subjects of his recent rant have been harassed by his supporters (aka goons). Still, we are to believe Tucker is the victim and ignore his “reckless” journalism. After all, they are biased liberals, what does it matter?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/17/we-know-where-you-live-beware-911-call-household-put-blast-by-tucker-carlson/

    This dynamic on both sides isn’t new and it’s not likely to change any time soon. Yes, you’d need to get your head examined to believe there isn’t liberal bias in some media. Yet, you’d be an idiot if you didn’t believe the same occurred within conservative media. So, what’s the point?

    1. Yes, thank God we finally have conservative media as another option. But the liberal media still has an edge in its effect on the culture. The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc.

      And there are still people who dispute that the liberal media is biased.

  3. QUOTE: But the liberal media still has an edge in its effect on the culture.

    Do you have data to verify that statement?

    And there are still people who dispute that the liberal media is biased.

    There are still people who dispute that conservative media is biased. Despite that, their tactics are the same as the liberal media…such as our good buddy Tucker Carlson with his reckless rant. Hannity has yet to retract the lies he spewed about the murdered DNC worker. Can’t forget the hypocritical Laura Ingram…with her “shut up and dribble” rant to athletes….except ones she agrees with. That’s just scratching the surface.

    So, as I said, you’d need to get your head examined to believe there isn’t liberal bias in some media. Yet, you’d be an idiot if you didn’t believe the same occurred within conservative media. So, what’s the point?

    1. > So, as I said, you’d need to get your head examined to believe there isn’t liberal bias in some media. Yet, you’d be an idiot if you didn’t believe the same occurred within conservative media. So, what’s the point?

      Eh? If 90-95% of the media are liberal — even stipulating for purposes of argument that conservative and liberal media are equally likely to be unfairly biased — the resulting actually observed bias in the media will be wildly asymmetrical in favour of the left.

      That’s the point, or at least one point, and I don’t think it’s a particularly subtle one.

    1. Yeah, all the major media outlets have now been taken over by the ‘blue wave’. For the last two years at least, Fox has been moving left. Except for the commentators (Hannity, Bartiromo, Ingraham, etc.), Fox is now a ‘blue’ network. And, of course there’s still Tucker Carlson. They’d probably like to fire him, but his high popularity helps boost Fox’s sagging ratings.

      1. Trump was so outrageous and belligerent that he gave the liberal media great credibility. If they simply quoted his mean tweets, that would have been damaging. But they also had various conservative guests to support their thesis that Trump is a horrible president and a horrible person, not at all a conservative as we came to understand this in the heyday of conservatism (with Ronald Reagan at the helm with W. F. Buckley cheering him on). Now we are in a situation where the Republican Party and their support in the media will have to find a way to become respectable again. If Biden has any measure of success in dealing with Covid and getting the economy up and running again, the followers of Trump (possibly with him at the helm) will become more marginalized (in the direction of QAnon and the like). But far be it from me to say that this is the only way it can go. A presidency always has holes in it and open to potshots. Maybe we will get a new Buckley to replace these shrill people such as Hannity and Carlson, but probably not.

        1. Trump is outrageous and belligerent, but never quite as outrageous or belligerent as the left / media wants to portray him.

          1. I don’t know what you mean by “left wing media.” The Lincoln Project? They have posted long discussions on youtube with some liberal and some conservative guests and bring forth fresh insights into how horrible Trump is. Most of the portrayals I have seen in the course of the present year have been extremely rich in raw material (tweets, press conferences, speeches, etc.). There may have been an exaggeration here and there, but it didn’t take a whole lot of work. Of course I may have missed something where he stepped forth in a truly presidential and kind-hearted way, but there has certainly been precious little of that, if any at all. And most Republicans seem to follow him without a question – as they still do! So they are enablers. (Such an enabling is a constant theme of the Lincoln project.) This is a pity, because I want to see both of the main party as dignified and benevolent. Otherwise the people’s ox will get gored, and that is the only ox we should ultimately care about.

            1. To say ‘I don’t know what you mean by “left wing media.”’ is, to me, about the same as saying ‘I don’t know what you mean by “carrots.”‘

              Trump is a reaction to the unhinged left / media, which has reacted to him by becoming even more unhinged. It’s a nasty spiral.

              In a way, Biden might slow (or even end) that spiral, but at the cost of leftist ideology becoming the default position.

              1. If you pointed to green beans and said that they were carrots, I would definitely ask what you mean by “carrots.” John Bolton, George Will, David Frum, Bill Crystol, Steve Schmidt, Colin Powell, and a host of others (a lot of them appearing via the Lincoln Project) have been red hot in the rejections of Trump in no uncertain terms. If you call them “liberal,” I indeed have no other choice that you are deeply infected with Trump Derangement to the point where you have lost the ability to apply the proper nomenclatures.

              2. If you pointed to green beans and said that they were carrots, I would definitely ask what you mean by “carrots.” John Bolton, George Will, David Frum, Bill Crystol, Steve Schmidt, Colin Powell, and a host of others (a lot of them appearing via the Lincoln Project) have been red hot in the rejections of Trump in no uncertain terms. If you call them “liberal,” I indeed have no other choice but to conclude that you are deeply infected with Trump Derangement to the point where you have lost the ability to apply the proper nomenclatures.

              4. From what I have seen, the Lincoln Project has Trump pegged very precisely. Or of course we can quote many conservatives prior to his presidency about Trump being a pathological liar. That was not just the heat of the argument. It was an accurate assessment as indicated by all the available data. There is nothing liberal in indicating it. Now Trump and his followers are of course playing that game of liberal vs. conservative, but it all falls flat, most likely due to the efforts of the really honest conservatives who realize that the dignity and character is at stake.

          2. QUOTE: Trump is outrageous and belligerent, but never quite as outrageous or belligerent as the left / media wants to portray him.

            Much of what I’ve seen is merely reporting on what he says in his tweets and press conferences. No true amplification was required by the media. For instance, disinfectant manufacturers had to issue a warning that their products should not be used internally after Trump publicly mused about the injection of disinfectant into the body as an exploratory treatment of Covid-19. Interestingly enough, it seems accidental poisonings increased after his statement.

            Trump is toxic on his own…he didn’t need much of a push from the media. Nearly every day for the past 4 years there’s been a tweet or statement that dominated the news cycle. Generally, the media just capitalized on him being the “crazy uncle” in the White House. He’s been a great cash-cow for them.

      2. Scott, I think you’re right that (apart from the commentators) Fox News has been moving somewhat to the left. I wish they’d move towards just reporting the news. 🙂

      3. It’s interesting how Fox News loyalists turned on the network because they happened to tell the truth about the election. Seems these turncoat viewers want propaganda and lies versus facts, news and truth. If it wasn’t so sad, it’d almost be amusing.

        1. It’s funny how you characterize pre-emptively calling states for Biden as telling the truth.

          1. It’s projecting on the basis of statistical analysis. It’s been done as long as all of us can remember.

          2. The same was done for Trump in 2016 and it’s funny how that was accepted as “truth” by those who now take issue with it. LOL!

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