Is the Media Controlled by Liberals?

The media is controlled by entertainment and celebrity gossip....all you see on major 'news' networks are things like Susan Boyle, American Idol, Drew Peterson.....

Main Stream Media is totally controlled by the liberal agenda supported by liberal factions and by the very Federal Government.

This is the one of the mmost specious pieces of disinformation, equalled only by the left's belief that the media is totally controlled by conservatives. I can attest from my occasional stints in the industry that the media is driven by profit. If the corporate media empires believe a story will sell ads, not upset sponsors, etc., etc., it will be covered.

Gee, I wonder if Katie Couric is liberal. Nah. She's even more right-wing than Dan Rather was.

I believe there has been, over the past 5 years, a dramatic change in the liberal bias of the American media. I believe they've moved dramatically toward the center, in their coverage of most political issues and stories. If you're in your 30s, I don't blame you for not acknowledging the bias, because for most of the time you've been paying attention, it HAS been improving. But, calling Dan Rather's blatant attempt to smear a sitting president with a story based on falsified and forged documents, and without editorial verification, less than a month before a national election, while the country is at war, calling that a flub is like calling Hurricane Katrina a rainy drizzle. It's a lot more. It is a blatant attempt to influence the outcome of an election by someone (or people) who has a responsibility to remain objective. Like a ref or an umpire or some neutral observer helping one side win. A blatant liberal bias remains ingrained in a number of places: the NY Times, Boston Gl... Read more

Liberals have their medium, and conservatives have theirs. All in all, the country is still pretty evenly divided an the masses will flock to whatever media outlet that represents their views. The growing popularity of Talk Radio has certainly given those who once complained of a "liberal media" less to whine about, and then of course, there's Fox News (sorry John Spina). Given the fact that Fox is the most successful news network on television, I wouldn't say that liberals have an exceedingly firm grip on the media.

To all of you people who think the media is controlled by conservatives...by all means give me examples.......... OK. Now give me examples WITHOUT SAYING THE WORDS FOX NEWS CHANNEL. I am waiting. I am still waiting.

There's like 4000 channels on TV, 1200 major newspapers and periodicals, and a magazine for just about every fix, not to mention the internet...if your blaming a liberal on current media trends you'll have to be pretty far right to be that wrong.

No, it isn't that the media IS controlled by liberals. It's that the media ARE controlled by liberals. "Media" is a plural of "medium."

A shocking myth perpetuated by. . .the media. The media is only as liberal as the conservative business and political interests that control them. Come to the light, kids. . .

Is the Pope Catholic?

The organs of the media aspire to being profitable businesses. They sell readers or viewers to advertizers and print stories which do not offend either readers or advertizers, be they right wing or left wing. They put their news free into the internet. They sell their newspapers below cost. Why is that? Do they just pay for all of that hosting out of political convictions? Think again...

Yes, it's a well-known fact that the majority of journalists identify themselves as liberals, and unfortunately, many aren't the kind that can be unbiased all the time. So naturally the media as a whole is going to be liberally biased.

No, liberals don't control the media. The media is non-partisan. They are bloodhounds out to get the right, center and left-wingers. The point is to sell their story.

When liberal talk radio Air America was in the process of getting started, Jay Leno made a humorous but accurate point. He said A group of venture capitalists are in the process of developing their own liberal radio network to counter conservative shows like Rush Limbaugh. They feel that the liberal viewpoint is not being heard---except on TV, in the movies, in music, by comedians, in magazines and newspapers. Other than that, it's not getting out. The success of Fox news and conservative talk radio came about because average people who are not liberal elitists had no place for their views to be expressed. When their views were expressed by the mainstream media they were either lampooned or dismissed as not worthy of consideration. The liberals in the media stay within their own circle of like minded people who share a similar point of view and they can't seem to understand why network news is losing viewers and liberal talk radio is light years away in ratings from their conservative... Read more

Absolutely not. This is a notion that is perpetuated by right-wing zealots like Limbaugh and Hannity, but there is absolutely no basis on which people can ground an argument. For starters I would consider the necessary condition for a bias to be a political leaning that is so great it actually distorts the information and does a disservice to those who are exposed to it regularly. The only network that fits that description is Fox News whose viewers are less informed about the world and are more likely to have bizarre perceptions about particular events. The rest of the networks are almost obnoxiously centrist in there portrayl of events. Clinton's Presidency was defined by pointless scandals and investigations: File-gate, Travel-gate, Whitewater, and Oral Sex. While in office Bush has led an extremely secretive administration, the collapse of Enron, a war fought on false pretenses, and the september 11th attacks. Throughout it all Bush has gotten a pass from the media. Was he scrutini... Read more

I don't think they are neccessarily controlled by the liberals but they do have some liberal bias. It is not too hard to imagine. Most reporters have a journalism degree and have very little to no knowledge of economics. As journalists they are more likely to uncover negative news events, because that's what sells. They uncover stories of murder, robbery, environmental destruction, poverty, etc. These types of stories make viewers sit up in their chairs and listen. It's no surprise that these negative event which they encounter so much makes journalists more compassionate and makes them more likely to favor gun controls, welfare programs, business regulations, etc. Positive news events, such as improving race relations or improved air quality, is viewed as not being stimulating news content. Also I heard something like 75% of news reporters are atheists.

Depends on your definition of media and your definition of control. I think that many of the major TV channels have a liberal bias to them, and some of the more prominent newspapers do as well; Fox News and talk radio, on the other hand, seem to have a pretty conservative slant to them. There's plenty of latitude as to what the various networks cover, and some choose to report things that favor the left, while others cover other issues that appeal to the right. I do think that there are more TV and print media reporters or commentatators who favor the left, but whether or not they have the lion's share of the market, or influence public opinion more than conservative media personalities is open to question. What I'm saying is that if you have three or four news anchors who are liberal, but amon them have fifty percent of the viewing audience, and you have one conservative anchor who gets the other fifty percent, the result is a draw (I'm making up the figures for purposes of illu... Read more

this may have been true 20 years ago, but with the advent of fox news and talk radio it is no longer the case. the media was controlled by liberals because conservatives chose to not become involved in the news business, at least not at the reporting level. this is a silly argument, the press generally tends to make trouble for whomever is in power. bill clinton got more bad press than any president in my memory, and he probably deserved about 75% of it.

Definitely! It is a liberal social club where anybody with different views need not apply.

Absolutely not: this is one of the most vile and oft-repeated lies of the right. The media is controlled neither by liberals nor by conservatives--it is driven by profit. It covers stories that get the most viewers and listeners and readers--bringing in advertising dollars. At least one media empire is controlled by the right wing (Fox) and has become a propaganda-spewing machine, bombastically cheerleading the Bush administration every moment they are not advertising the latest luxury SUV--but the others have no ideological intent, only a monetary one.

No, the media is controlled by conservatives. Fox News and its terrible news anchors are enough to prove this fact.

Tabloids are controlled by sensationalism (at least the British tabloids are, there's more concern over how to nickname Micheal Jackson and two page spread about celebrities who look like their mothers then news that has any economic or political effects on the world). Fox news is controlled by Rupert Murdoc who rules everything under his command like a iron-fisted dictator (he's just decided that his inept son would make a good choice to suceed him at Sky, nepotism anyone?). Other news stations and papers are indeed controlled by those who want to capture public interest and thus gain ratings and newspaper sales. They're not providing a public service (informing the public) they're trying to turn a profit.

C'mon. What's with conservatives crying victim all the time? You've got the Presidency, the Congress, the Senate, all the money, all the corporations. You've also got AM radio, Fox News, Scarborogh County, Cumulus Media, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post. Grow up and stop whining about the Liberal Media (TM) and how they're ruining your lives.

Hell no! The media is just a bunch of money hungry reporters gobbling up every story and portraying everything as bad. The media has no true politic side. Money and fame are all that counts to a reporter.

C-SPAN is the way to go.

Of course it is. ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, almost the whole alphabet. Except for Fox News. There is evidence of liberal bias in the news.

Sure seems that way to me.