We have each heard the refrain for years: The mainstream media has a liberal bias. Conservatives of all stripes repeat this informed opinion ad nauseam. They have repeated so much that most people take it now as self-evident truth.
In an excellent commentary on the death of the Federal Communication Commission's Fairness Doctrine, Anne Landman points out,
The truth of the matter is that, while liberals may have dominated major media in the 19th and early 20th centuries, this hasn't been the case for the last several decades. As mainstream media empires have grown, they have become concentrated in the hands of a shrinking number of behemoth corporations and corporations, by their very nature, are more conservative than they are liberal.
We now live in a world dominated by conservative viewpoints on the airwaves. Working hand-in-hand with government, the media moguls now hand-select what tidbits of information they wish to impart to the viewing public. While they are more than willing to parade every tawdry detail of lascivious scandals like that of Rep. Anthony Weiner, they are far more circumspect when it comes to Wall Street's looting of the public treasury or the inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
In an excellent commentary on the death of the Federal Communication Commission's Fairness Doctrine, Anne Landman points out,
If big media corporations really had a liberal bias as some politicians argue, then big media companies would have pushed to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, since it would have given them a greater voice. Instead, their actions have been the opposite: big media corporations have fought all attempts to bring back the Fairness Doctrine in any form...Why would a supposedly liberal enterprise oppose the notion of allowing viewers to hear a multiplicity of perspectives on important issues of the day? Aren't liberals the ones who support a "big tent" mentality? Aren't liberals the ones who support a broad-based educational system?
The truth of the matter is that, while liberals may have dominated major media in the 19th and early 20th centuries, this hasn't been the case for the last several decades. As mainstream media empires have grown, they have become concentrated in the hands of a shrinking number of behemoth corporations and corporations, by their very nature, are more conservative than they are liberal.
We now live in a world dominated by conservative viewpoints on the airwaves. Working hand-in-hand with government, the media moguls now hand-select what tidbits of information they wish to impart to the viewing public. While they are more than willing to parade every tawdry detail of lascivious scandals like that of Rep. Anthony Weiner, they are far more circumspect when it comes to Wall Street's looting of the public treasury or the inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
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