by Chris Queen, PJ Media:
We both joke about and lament the bias in the traditional mainstream press. Left-wing bias in the media is at least as old as the old “muckraker” days when crusading journalists sought to expose the problems in our nation. Those writers almost always approached society’s ills from a socialist worldview.
A few years ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an ad campaign highlighting how “balanced” the paper was. It wasn’t. Ever since the two papers merged into one hyphenate news outlet, the left-wing voices won out. A television news station here in Atlanta used the slogan “holding the powerful accountable” a couple of years ago. They didn’t hold people like Fani Willis or Keisha Lance-Bottoms accountable; no, these reporters aimed their cameras at the more conservative leaders in the metro area.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
When a media outlet recognizes its leftward bias, it’s shocking, but it can be refreshing, especially if it prompts change. A recent op-ed in the Dallas Morning News is encouraging and should give us some hope. Public editor Stephen Buckley bravely admitted that his newspaper isn’t living up to its promise of fair coverage.
“Here is my take: Having read The News cover-to-cover every day for the past few months, I know that our reporters do get all sides of the story,” Buckley writes. “They just don’t do it consistently, which isn’t good enough.” Dang.
Buckley admits that the paper’s political coverage is where the lack of balance shows up the most. He writes that he doesn’t think the reporters are doing this on purpose, but he acknowledges that seeking sources is where reporters’ biases often show up the most.
Buckley elaborates:
In particular, conservative voices are frequently missing. No doubt conservatives — including some politicians and activists — are at times to blame, as they don’t want to be quoted in The News. They see cooperation with us as a stain on their street cred.
Conservatives who don’t want to talk to us often turn to social media and right-leaning media personalities and outlets instead. They don’t ignore only our journalists; they ignore all mainstream reporters.
They may not need us, but we need them. Maybe that’s why, in conversations over the past couple of weeks, I sensed a sobriety about this issue on the part of reporters and editors. They know this is not our sources’ problem. It is ours.
Buckley sees the cycle that the suspicions of bias leading to conservatives’ reluctance to speak to the press perpetuates.
“When conservative readers don’t see their points of view in our pages, their mistrust of The News deepens, and they are even more reluctant to talk when our reporters call,” he writes. “So then their perspective goes missing again, and the bitter cycle of mistrust whirls on. You get the picture.”
