Media Professionals On Media Bias

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The rhetorical battle between Fox News anchor Chris Wallace and former President Bill Clinton last weekend was the stuff the news media strives on. But as I read about the clash in the Washington Post’s “Media Notes” column by Howard Kurtz, I found another aspect far more interesting, namely, the way Kurtz refers to and deals with the perennial issue of whether there is conservative or liberal media bias—or whether the media are fair and balanced. In the context of the Wallace-Clinton quarrel, Kurtz writes, “Fox, which employs a number of high profile conservative hosts, maintains that its reporting is straightforward but is viewed by many liberals and other critics as leaning toward the right.” Careful not to take a stand beyond saying that Fox News does have a number of conservative hosts, Kurtz points to the networks’ official position before mentioning the different views of “liberals” and “other critics,” whose ideological preferences are not revealed.

 

Further down in his column, Kurtz devotes some paragraphs to former Washington Post political reporter Thomas Edsall who told a conservative radio host that the "mainstream media presents itself as unbiased, when in fact there are built into it many biases, and they are overwhelmingly to the left." This should assure him a large audience for his just published new book. According to Kurtz, Edsall believes that reporters vote Democratic by somewhere between 15 to 1 and 25 to 1. Shouldn't the reader know whether these estimates are in the ball park? 

 Kurtz mentions also that for Edsall the main problem is "an inability to empathize with the way many people in red states think and feel" but that it is "possible" for journalists to set aside their views and report fairly. While Kurtz writes about this under the header “Liberal Media?” (Note the question mark), he points out that Edsall “is not some rabid right-wing critic.”

Does the information that Edsall is not a right-wing critic give his arguments so much weight that Kurtz does not see the need to mention “other critics,” who have different views on this? Eric Alterman (What Liberal Media?) would be one of those fitting the "other critics" bill.