Updated: 11/15/2011

Does TV Have A Liberal Bias?

A recent book, Bias, by a CBS insider Bernard Goldberg, sets out to document how the media regularly distorts the news with a liberal bias. Goldberg makes some persuasive arguments for his point of view. TV Viewer

He points out, for example, that a 1996 study showed that most journalists were Democrats. Eighty-nine percent of them voted for a Democrat for President (generally considered liberal) compared to 43 percent of the general population.

From the standpoint of many conservatives TV news tends to be liberal because it features stories on gay rights, civil rights abuses, antiwar demonstrations, women's rights, environmental issues, etc. -- all seen as being liberal causes.

But, from the standpoint of some liberals television is conservative because it's seen as being pro-business, without giving adequate time to alternative, non-mainstream views.

These arguments primarily surface in how news is covered.

According to Elaine Povich of the Freedom Foundation as reported by the conservative newspaper, the Washington Times -

More people who are of a liberal persuasion go into reporting because they believe in the ethics and the ideals. A lot of conservatives go into the private sector, go into Wall Street, [or] go into banking. You find that people who are idealistic tending toward the reporting end.

Generally speaking -- and there many exceptions -- people in business tend to be conservative and people who have a background in the social sciences — through education or working with people — tend to be more liberal. (We'll avoid trying to define the terms liberal and conservative at this point and go with the rather fuzzy, widely held definitions of what the terms seem to imply.)

People in the hard sciences also tend to be more conservative than people in the social sciences. The latter group includes many news people and actors, and some writers and artists — people whose ideas often surface in the media. Their views also tend to "push the envelope" of social change.

News Bias

When it comes to news, people show a preference for "news they agree with." This preference translates into ratings, which, of course, translates into profits.

Thus, there has been a recent emphasis on moving to a more selective, conservative tone in newscasts. Since this is best exemplified by FOX news, we'll spend a bit of time here examining that very popular source of news.

FOX vs. CNN bias FAIR, a liberal media watchdog group tabulated five months of two of the most popular TV news discussion shows -- Special Report with Brit Hume on FOX, and Wolf Blitzer Reports on CNN.

Both programs featured Republican guests (generally considered conservative) more often than Democratic guests (generally considered to be more liberal).

But, as shown here, the FOX News channel favored Republicans by a margin of about 8:1.

The same survey showed that FOX News featured white guests 93 percent of the time and male guests 91 percent of the time. According to the Nielsen Company, more than 95 percent of FOX News viewers are white.

According to a recent study by the Center For American Progress more than 90 percent of talk radio programming ranges from conservative to right-wing radical.

But is there a downside?

A University of Maryland study reported in late 2010 that the audience for FOX News was far less accurately informed about world and national events than the audiences of other news sources, especially public broadcasting (NPR, PBS) and MSNBC.

The study found that there was a direct relationship between the amount of time spend watching FOX News and holding false information on key issues of the day. No partisan divide was found in the study. People who watched FOX, and voted Democratic were just as likely to be incorrect on major issues as the FOX viewers who voted Republican.

liberal - conservative news perceptions

All this notwithstanding, the popular perception is that TV news is too liberal (45% vs. 14% that think it's too conservative).

The Conflict Between

Conservative Values and Profits

In late 2004, the FOX network, considered the most conservative in news, faced the largest fines ever levied by the Federal Communications Commission up to that point for sexually indecent programming.

Even the most conservative media owners and program managers regularly use sex and semi-nudity, which are not exactly associated with mainstream conservatism, to enhance profits.

Note below that in 2010 the FOX network was responsible for more complaints about program "indecency" as filed with the FCC than any of the other networks.

Percent of Program Indecency
Complaints to FCC by Network

FOX	48.0
CBS	18.6
ABC	18.4
NBC	14.5

(Source: Hollywood Reporter, 2010.)

Clearly, there is a frequently a conflict between profits and what many people see as traditional values -- with profits typically winning the contest. Other opinions on this topic can be found in this Business, Sex, and Morality Forum posting.

* In February, 2003, Eric Alterman's book, A What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News, was published. This exceptionally well documented book credits the shift to the right in the recent decade to efforts by well funded conservative think tanks and their financial backers. Other books on these topics include -

What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (2003), by Eric Alterman
Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative by David Brock (Hardcover)
The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk by Susan McDougal, et al (Hardcover)
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast (Hardcover)

** According to data, during the Iraq war Americans turned to foreign news sources in great numbers, especially at the beginning of the war, to get a more balanced and realistic perspective.

*** In the well-reviewed and thought-provoking book, The Sound Bite Society: Television and the American Mind, Jeffrey Scheuer argues that television relentlessly simplifies, and simplicity is the core principle of conservatism. TV likewise punishes complex ideas and messages, which are the core of liberalism. Scheuer notes, for example, that the causes of poverty, unemployment, the crime rate, gangs, etc. are complex and cannot be effectively addressed with quick sound bites and political slogans -- even though the latter come across best on TV and appeal to voters.

Thus, rather than being a "liberal medium," according to Scheuer, television strongly promotes an appealing, conservative, oversimplified, direct-solution approach to the complex social and political issues of our times. For example, rather than address the real causes of crime, the solution that's easiest to understand is: get tougher on crime and build more prisons. Although this simplistic good-evil view is attractive to voters, it doesn't confront the causes of the problem.

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