Does mass media reflect a liberal or conservative bias?

I like the paper's easy to read conversational tone and over the top sensationalist head lines when compared to the overtly dry Times and Guardian, I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure.

I'm appalled by The Daily Mail and everything it's stands for, but I still get kick out of reading it.

Well, what they say is obviously true. You can't deny it.

@Joey: S'ok. I occasionally poke through the Daily Fail and Fox's website when I'm bored. Some of the flavor pieces are hilarious, but I'd never consider getting actual news from either.

The (Australian) ABC is state-owned and funded, though its budget is pretty abysmal for the coverage it gives. It's probably the best news source in Australia, despite accusations of left and right wing bias.

@vanthebaron: Actually, that's not quite right. First off, the left-right political spectrum's not quite so simple. But assuming it is, the US is probably around center left. Maybe farther left. Your viewpoint's a little Eurocentric, isn't it? Democracies or not, countries in South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East all count the same as Western European countries. And a lot of them tend to be a lot farther right than the States. Just saying.

I'm not so sure about that, actually. Mostly because I think the left-right spectrum isn't universal and a thing of the European World (the "Western" World) anyway, so I don't think it's really applicable to most of Asia and Africa. I mean, how would you qualify the Congress Party in India? Right-wing? Left-wing? Who knows!?

I think you can apply left-right to South America with some degree of accuracy. Maybe not most of Asia, though. Not too sure either way about the rest of the world.

Right I wanted to add that but then it felt too tacked on: You can apply it to Latin America, but I think most of Latin America is actually quite left-wing...

Well take a look at Venezuela.

All the channels there except Tele Sur are quite right wing. Some of them actually ran propaganda against the government during the Coup against Chavez, and the brother of the owner of one of the opposition newspapers was named dictator later by the military personal that overthrew the legitimate president of said nation.

Chavez later (like 3 years later) refuse to renew the license of one of said channel. The international response was... not kind...

edited 16th Mar '12 9:16:33 PM by Baff

Well, yeah, I wanted to add "is quite left wing when they're not run by a junta", but I didn't want to stereotype Latin America. Still, while such a formulation would be unkind, it's of course true that while the population may be quite left-wing the elites in control are mostly... not.

As is often the case.

I'd say the media in the US is generally pro-Establishment. It slants but generally only within the parameters established by the mainstream political parties, and tends to leave unexamined the areas where politicians tend to agree.

I do agree with the "media as pro-establishment" argument. The major cable news sources America has today are corporate-owned, so hell yes there is bias irregardless of the political spectrum. And yes, the same corporations that wholeheartedly supported bills like SOPA and ACTA.

edited 17th Mar '12 12:31:59 AM by EarlOfSandvich