Media's Bias

Have things gotten worse, or do we just notice it more?

In the 1990's I created a new career doing turnarounds of companies going into bankruptcy while the media talked-up the virtues of Clinton's "perfect economy".

Now we have an economy that is so stable that even a full year of interest rate hikes by the Fed and the total destruction of an American City cannot slow it down.

Yet, we hear nothing but bad news day after day. Even their polls (which now seem to come out every day) fail to weight the responses based on political affiliation (meaning if 75% of the responders view themselves as liberal, there's no adjustment to the bias of the people answering the question).

Has the media, the people we trusted to bring us the news every day, lost its way? Or has it been this way all along and we are waking up to the reality of an American Animal Farm?

"Left wing good, right wing bad"
"Liberal good, Conservative bad"

From Investors Business Daily:


Posted 11/22/2005
Media: No matter how well the economy is doing, it seems, the media manage to find something wrong. We wonder whether this is simple economic ignorance or some other agenda playing itself out.

We've been thinking a lot about this lately as we watch jobs, incomes and the stock market keep rising, while inflation — a real fear, given recent oil price hikes — remains tame.

And yet the media can't seem to focus on all that's going right with the economy right now — which is an awful lot.

Instead, we get coverage like USA Today's front page story Tuesday: "Economy Goes Forward, But Leaves Many Behind."

Inside are a number of linked stories — "Personal Savings Rate Falls To Just 1.9%," "Wages Aren't Keeping Up," "Unemployment Lasts Longer," and three others of similar gloomy content.

Each is meant to cast as dark a cloud over the economy's current prosperity as possible.

We hate to pick on USA Today, a paper we often enjoy, but it's sadly partaking of something we've pointed out here repeatedly over the years: the media's incessant need to talk down the economy, especially during Republican presidencies.

It could be any major newspaper in America, really. They all commit the same sin. We think back to the classic of this genre: the 1992 award-winning series by Don Bartlett and James Steele: "America: What Went Wrong?" It was about the 1980s Reagan era, one of the most economically successful decades in American history.

The title says it all.

Why is it this way? The fact of the matter is, most newspapers are run by people who are liberal. They do not like Republican politicians. They do not like George W. Bush. They will not admit their bias. It's that simple.
Just two years ago, the Pew Research Center queried journalists about their political beliefs. Of those national journalists queried, 34% said they were liberal. Just 7% said they were conservative.

As for the population at large, exit polls conducted by the TV networks after last year's presidential election found 21% of those who voted said they were liberal, while 34% called themselves conservative. Some 45% said they were moderate.

The media, it seems, are out of step with their readers — at least those readers who vote, which we imagine is most of them.

Reporters often argue that, yes, they might be liberal, but they are scrupulously fair when they report.

But let's just look at the past three years, which have seen a remarkable rebound in the American economy — a rebound that has defied fears that, after the stock market's collapse in 2000, the economy would be unable to get back on track.

We've seen repeated stories — and "series," obviously intended to win big media prizes — that pooh-pooh our current prosperity.

Here's the reality. The economy is growing faster, joblessness is lower, inflation is slower now than it has been on average for the past three decades.

We hate to sound like a broken record, but GDP growth has been above 3% for the last 10 quarters in a row. Unemployment has dropped to 5% from a level above 6% a little over a year ago. Core inflation — that is, inflation measured without volatile food and energy components — is 2%. These are all significant.

Oil prices have come down from their highs. And after rising above $3 a gallon in some places, gasoline is now selling at below $2.50 a gallon — and seems headed lower.

Key stock market indexes — gauges of future economic activity — hit 4 1/2-year highs in recent days. Some 57 million families own stocks — and 30% of those families have incomes below $50,000. Millions of others own stocks indirectly in pension plans. They're all getting richer.

Fact is, most people aren't falling behind. Most people are doing better — much better. Most people have jobs and will earn more this year than last year. Most people are doing just fine, thank you.

Yes, we have a bias too. We tend to see things getting better. But then, that's only backed up by 229 years of American economic history. How about a new series: "America: What Went Right?"