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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 453 -- Media Bias Alive.

Mainstream Media = Neither Mainstream Nor Media-

Today, the Republican candidates for the White House debate in Dearborn, Michigan. Stay tuned for coverage of the debate, here at WILLisms.com.

Chris Matthews, deputy to Democrat Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill during the Reagan era, will moderate the debate. This is the same Chris Matthews who has been so embarrassingly vocal in his erroneous denouncements of Rush Limbaugh.

Chris Matthews is just one among many left-wing activists in the establishment media, however.

Fortunately, most Americans see these activists for what they are, according to a recent Gallup poll:

The Governance survey shows that only 9% of Americans say they have a great deal of trust and confidence in the mass media to report the news "fully, accurately, and fairly," while another 38% say they have a "fair amount" of trust in the media to do this.

Confidence in the media establishment is low. Perceptions of liberal bias are high:

But those are just opinions. Just perceptions. Sure, they are important. They mean a lot, in our information-driven world. But they remain just opinions.

Opinions based on years of undeniable bias.

Anecdotal bias. Documented bias. And empirical bias based on undeniable factual data, such as the August study on morning media coverage of 2008 hopefuls, by the Media Research Center (.pdf):

*The networks offered nearly twice as much coverage of the Democrats. More than half of all campaign segments (284, or 55%) focused on the Democratic contest, compared with just 152 (29%) devoted to the Republicans. The remaining stories either offered roughly equal discussion of both parties or did not focus on the major parties.

*All three Democratic frontrunners received more attention than any of the top Republican candidates, with New York Senator Hillary Clinton receiving the most coverage of all.

*Undeclared liberal candidates such as former Vice President Al Gore and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received more network TV attention than many of the declared Republican candidates.

*The network morning shows doled out nearly three times as much airtime (4 hours, 35 minutes) to interviews with the various Democratic campaigns. In contrast, the Republicans received just 1 hour and 44 minutes of interview airtime.

*In their interviews with the candidates, the network hosts emphasized a liberal agenda. Of the substantive questions that could be categorized as reflecting a political agenda, more than two-thirds (69%) of the questions to Democrats reflected a liberal premise, and more than four-fifths (82%) of the questions to Republicans came from the same perspective.

It seems as if American perceptions of media bias are simply in line with reality.

For example, how is this even possible in an ostensibly neutral media (.pdf):

Embarrassing.

Or this:

Al Gore! Seriously?

Or this:

How can these three media outlets, which-- in viewership numbers-- still dominate the news landscape, even pretend to be fair brokers in America's political discourse?

The GOP hopefuls should come to today's debate prepared to speak over the rotund noddle of Chris Matthews, directly to the American people. Republican activists want to support a candidate who will be able to-- like Ronald Reagan did so effectively-- good-naturedly zing a hostile press corps and take an unapologetically conservative philosophy directly to the American people.

It's easy to point out how left-wing today's major media are. It's even easier to complain about it. The Republican base wants to see its '08 candidate transcend the media bias.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Taxes Are Unfair.

Posted by Will Franklin · 9 October 2007 01:24 PM

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