Media Bias! Who Cares?

[JohnRich 4]

In the news:

THE share of Americans who believe that news organizations are "politically biased in their reporting" increased to 60 percent in 2005 according to polls.

Many people also believe that biased reporting influences who wins or loses elections. A new study however, casts doubt on this view.

Specifically, the economists ask whether the advent of the Fox News Channel affected voter behavior. They found that Fox had no detectable effect on which party people voted for, or whether they voted at all.

Full story: New York Times

[quade 4]

Reading the article it's an interesting premise but doesn't take into consideration any long-term effects such as children being brought up in a home who's sole source of news is highly biased and therefore influencing core "values".

One need only look at a certain political organization in the late 1930's to see how "getting them young" has a profound influence.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[rushmc 23]

Quote

Reading the article it's an interesting premise but doesn't take into consideration any long-term effects such as children being brought up in a home who's sole source of news is highly biased and therefore influencing core "values".

One need only look at a certain political organization in the late 1930's to see how "getting them young" has a profound influence.

Works both ways don't you think? Or is only one way of looking at an issue rig.........ahh.....correct?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rehmwa 2]

1 - I'm surprised the number is only 60%

2 - 'Getting them young' is interesting, but I see a lot of conservative young adults from hippy parents and vice versa. I would hope that kids are smart enough to grow up and make up their own minds when they get there. In this, I think the schools will unfairly politically bias children much more than what news channel is on at home.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Mike111 0]

But isn't there a fundamental downside with that?

One could argue that , media groups in favour of BUSH allowed him to gain power, which then allowed him to start the Iraq war.

If other candidates got the media bias, they might have won and not have gone to war in Iraq?

Sounds very far fetched , but could be possible? Im not sure, what do you think?

Also, the bias can also then spill out into other bad areas where you do not want it adn then cause more problems -

e.g. This is made up and a very bad example but,

An Islamist newspaper that was biased in favour if Al Qaeda could rally up support for them and could cause problems and unrest.

I could be wrong on that though.