The Myth of Liberal Media

In another article I wrote for another source (that was rejected) I take a break from my normal musings about the world of comic books, sci-fi, etc and get political. I can assure you I do not make a habit of writing such articles but I enjoyed this one so much I figured I'd share it. Hopefully I will get back to the super heroes and sci-fi soon:

Ever since I became an adult and found myself wading into the world of politics I have continued to hear this claim of “The Liberal Media.” Now I consider myself a Liberal and I do enjoy studying the Media so I of course am curious how true this label is. Does the media really lean to the left?

As much as Conservatives try to convince you it is by screaming about “Media Bias” the sad fact is that the media is no where near as Liberal as people think. In reality, the media is far more controlled by the right than they care to admit. Now yes, I will admit, the Entertainment side of the media has many liberals working in it. Creative people tend to lean left and creativity is what drives the Entertainment Industry. But that doesn’t matter. When people scream about “Liberal Media”, they’re not talking about entertainment programming. No one cares about Liberal Entertainment. “Liberal Media” is the label given to News and Opinion by people on the Right whenever they disagree with something.

Sadly over the past several decades, media companies have been consolidated so that now everything we see on TV, read in a newspaper, watch in a movie, or hear on the radio is the product of only six companies (I think, I may be wrong and it is actually even less now but last time I checked it was six). Six companies control all media. Right there shows proof that the media is less Liberal than people think. Corporate interests tend to lean right, as the desire to ever increase profits does not mix well with Liberal beliefs of equality and social assistance. So does that mean there are no Liberals working at any of these media companies? No, of course not. It merely means that those ideals are being suppressed in favor of the corporate good.

Now, establishing that most corporations are for the most part not Liberal, you realize that Media is even less Liberal when you consider that one of the six Media companies that control all that you see and hear (like The Outer Limits) is NewsCorp, parent company of Fox News, and owned by notorious Conservative, Rupert Murdoch. Many people who are fans of Fox News try to argue that this channel lives up to its tagline “Fair and Balanced.” I believe these people should be on some sort of anti-psychotic medication. A recent Gallup poll confirmed that nearly 90% of the Fox News audience is made up of Republicans, or people who identify themselves as Conservative leaning. As far as I know, there are no Liberal hosts on that network (I will hit the next person who tries to tell me Bill O’Reilly is a Liberal. If he is, he doesn’t play one on TV). Many of the hosts argue that they are “Independent” but I find that to be a blatant lie meant to mollify their many critics. If the position they argue for is Conservative then they are Conservative. I say I am a Liberal because I tend to agree with Liberals.

So if we establish that one entire media company is Conservative, does that eliminate the argument that the media is Liberal? Well no, it doesn’t. But it certainly doesn’t help the claim being made by people that primarily Liberals control the media. One sixth of the Media we have looked at so far is definitely Conservative. Even more so if we take into account NewsCorps’ huge monopoly on print media in this country. So let us take a look at the other news channels. Perhaps there we will find more of this supposed Liberal Media.

The most obvious culprit of being called Liberal Media is MSNBC and NBC News programming in general. Many of the hosts of the various programs on MSNBC have made no secret that they have Liberal ties. Certainly they are more honest than the individuals on Fox, a channel that enjoys using the word Liberal as an insult and some sort of negative pejorative. But whereas Fox has no Liberals hosting its shows (and Bob Beckel does not count since he is part of a five person panel and not a host), MSNBC actually DOES have a Republican on its payroll as a host. The morning show Cup of Joe is hosted by Joe Scarborough, a former Congressman and outspoken Republican. That’s right, a Republican hosting a show on MSNBC, the “Liberal News Network”. It’s hard to believe in our polarized political environment. But more than being a nice sign of bi-partisanship, it is further proof that Liberals are not as in control of the media as people believe. If even the one identifiable Liberal News station is not exclusively Liberal then how can this claim of Liberal Media persist?

For the most part CNN and HLN, the other major News Networks tend to be pretty balanced. They have Liberal hosts and they have Conservative hosts and will usually draw the ire of both ideologies, complaining that the network is too far to the left or right whenever they hear something they disagree with. In reality, the bias people see in media tends to be a mere reflection of their own sense of entitlement. They have a unique view of the world and whenever the facts contradict this view, they assume it must be due to bias from the reporters, rather than simply the nature of reality. This habit seems to be more common in Conservatives than it is in Liberals.

Now being a Liberal, I admit I might be biased myself. But the many encounters I have had with Conservatives on message boards and Facebook pages have lead me to come to a very simple truth: Most Conservatives don’t know what Liberal actually means. That is to say, they don’t actually care what Liberal means. The word “Liberal” is merely a label they use to put a face to all that enrages them. If it is something they disagree with then it must be “Liberal” regardless of whether or not it is actually something reflected by Liberal ideology. Even things that are obviously Conservative will be called “Liberal” by Conservatives if it enrages them. I have seen Mitt Romney, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and a host of other individuals called Liberals because they said something at one time or another that did not completely fall in line with Hard Right Republican values. I can assure you, if any of those people were Liberal then I would definitely not be. But they are not and so I am.

The problem with the Media is that it is an industry that exists solely on perception. So if the Media is Liberal it is only because people are perceiving it as so. It is not because it actually is. And as I explained in the previous paragraph, many people don’t know what Liberalism is. I’m not sure I completely know what it is either. I just know that the things I believe and agree with tend to be described as Liberal by people far more intelligent than myself. That doesn’t however mean I describe all the things I DON’T AGREE with as Conservative. Which in the end is the most important thing. We need to care about what WE are, not what the media or anything else tells us to be.