Here is a response to my "Kent" op-ed (From The Boston Globe, May 4, 2006). Note that one of main themes of my article was to point out how politically divided our nation is.
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"I was four when that happened, and as I reflect on that day, I deeply regret that the National Guard didn't shoot more of them."
Economics, not reporters, dictate the news
Michael Corcoran
You have to hand it those on the right. They have somehow managed to convince almost everyone, including many liberals, that our media is slanted to the left. I suppose if the public hears something enough over time it just becomes accepted as fact, to hell with logic or evidence.
Well, I have news for you: that "liberal media bias" we hear about all the time simply does not exist. In fact, it is complete and utter folly-as mythical as the tooth fairy or those weapons of mass destruction that were never found in Iraq.
In the eyes of the pundits who perpetuate this myth, there is simply no debate to be had. The conversation starts with the presumption that our media is a liberal thought machine, preaching secularism and anti-Americanism to the masses. In his book Bias, conservative author Bernard Goldberg writes, "Everybody to the right of Lenin is a 'right-winger' as far as media elites are concerned." Moreover, talk-show host Bill O'Reilly has alleged, "liberal bias is a way of life at many media organizations," while the ever-quotable Ann Coulter said in her book Slander, "The public square is wall to wall liberal propaganda."
Clearly, media bias is an issue conservatives like to run with.
Who controls the media?
The arguments made by the likes of Goldberg, O'Reilly and Coulter are largely based on their beliefs that there are substantially more liberal reporters than conservative ones-a justifiable claim based on the 2004 PEW Research Center study, which concluded that 34 percent of reporters consider themselves to be liberal, whereas only 7 percent identified themselves as conservatives. (54 percent claimed to be moderate and 5 percent said they didn't know.)
These pundits, however, fail to acknowledge one painfully obvious truth: reporters do not decide what goes in the newspaper-their editors and publishers do. This is where the liberal media argument begins to disintegrate. A survey conducted during the 2000 presidential election by Editor & Publisher magazine reported that of all newspapers in national circulation, 58 percent endorsed President Bush over Al Gore. Oddly enough, Goldberg didn't point that out in his book.
Moreover, the political leanings of editors and publishers-whatever they may be-are as trivial as those of reporters when you consider yet another pink elephant in the room that conservatives rarely acknowledge: news is a business. The ultimate goal is to make money. In fact, publicly traded companies are legally bound to their shareholders to put the bottom line ahead of everything else, even the public good. When you seriously think about the economics of news outlets, the notion of a liberal media bias not only seems false, but also positively absurd.
According to a report by The Nation, the media is essentially owned and managed by 10 enormous corporations, all of which bring in revenues in the billions. Now couple that with the fact that most of their revenue stems from other large, profit-driven corporations in the form of advertisements. Given these realities, do you really think the decision makers at Disney, Viacom or News Corporation would really allow a pro-labor, anti-big-business, liberal agenda to be printed or broadcast under their watch? These are the types of conspiracy theories that I thought were reserved for The Flat Earth Society.
The media does not have a liberal bias. Nor does it have a conservative bias. What it has is a profit bias.
It just so happens that the motives-to earn as much money as possible-are far more aligned with conservative policies than liberal ones. Read More »
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