Need Some Good Sources on Media Bias

[bonemachine]

I've gotten myself into a debate with a fellow poster on another site who wants to go at it about the "liberal media".

If anyone has a little time to spare and knows anything useful about a couple points I want to make, I could use a bit of help.

First of all, I was doing some reading on the opposition, particularly the 2004 Pew report, which is the most recent study I can think of, and one I expect him to bring up. In the Weekly Standard I found this:

"Since 1962, there have been 11 surveys of the media that sought the political views of hundreds of journalists. "
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/143lkblo.asp

I'm trying to find a source or three that has numbers from those surveys, because from what I've read there and otherwise, I think that I can argue convincingly for the disenfranchisement of both sides in the numbers, and I'm sure that there's also some other good tidbits I'll see if I compare them.

I also know I've read about studies showing what think tanks are most commonly quoted or interviewed, and I recall there being some good fodder for argument there. Does anyone know any good sources discussing trends regarding who gets more airtime and such?

And of course, can you think of any other points that give good mental leverage on this issue?

The debate is here: http://forums.livingwithstyle.com/showthread.php?p=4584732#post4584732

Any help would be most welcome!

[bonemachine]

1. One more thing

Media ownership: Does anyone have a study or source showing that media ownership is being consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer (and generally conservative) hands?

[Berry Cool]

2. Try Eric Alterman's What Liberal Media? for starters.

You might add Eric Boehlert's Lapdogs, although I think that is a bit biased in terms of highlighting what it expected to find and ignoring the rest. But definitely start with What Liberal Media?

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Also recommend What Liberal Media and....

perhaps, go to mediamatters.org. I believe if you register ( it's free) there is a message board where lefty media wonks can opine and cross- fertilize.

Great topic, by the way.

[Lefty48197]

5. Dittos on the Alterman book

What liberal media?

[NYCGirl]

4. Try here. Lots of info:

http://mediamatters.org/index

[bonemachine]

10. Yeah, I know about the site

And there sure is lots of info there. More than I can digest all at once, and enough to make digging through it for the tidbits I'm trying to find a real task! There's a lot of single occurence articles there, but I'm trying to present a case that's more than circumstantial. I need pattern analysis, not isolated incidents...

[Lefty48197]

6. Here's a couple small pieces of the puzzle

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2842
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article621189.ece

What's the other website? Maybe we can join in the fun?

[bonemachine]

7. The site

The site has a not to shabby political discussion forum; the debate itself is closed to other participants, but you can read it here: http://forums.livingwithstyle.com/showthread.php?p=4584732#post4584732

[varkam]

8. Definitely read Alterman's book n/t

[bonemachine]

9. I'll have to stop at the library tomorrow

And pick up the book.

Also, I can't remember the exact quote or who said it, but a fairly famous conservative strategist once outright admitted the whole thing was just a very effective lie. Does anyone remember who that was, or the exact quote?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

11. First, I recommend David Brock's

The Republican Noise Machine. Second, for answers to your specific questions, try FAIR: http://www.fair.org/index.php

You'll probably have to hunt around to find what you want, but Brock quoted many statistics from FAIR showing how many times Heritage, American Enterprise Institute, etc were quoted versus liberal thinks tanks. He also quoted how many times conservative think tanks were actually labeled as such by reporters (rarely) verus how many times liberal think tanks were labelled liberal by reporters (often).

I wish I could give you some specifics, but I'm afraid you'll have to dig more on your own.

Good luck & be sure to report back.

[bonemachine]

12. Thanks!

I did manage to dig up the think tank answer on fair
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2534

I'm still trying to find that quote by a famous right winger admitting that the claim of liberal media bias is total propaganda.

[Pierzin]

13. Try the Nation too. they just get themselves in a lather over

media ownership. A couple of their most recent issues covered that pretty well, and they had great graphs showing who owned what. It's amazing, really, that it's reached such a point where 10 corporations control 95% of the media!

[Up2Late]

14. PR Watch is one of the best, lots of links to click...

And the on in my signature line Free Press .net
<http://www.prwatch.org/>

[niccolos_smile]

15. A study from UCLA

A Measure of Media Bias by Tim Groseclose and Jeff Milyo

http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm

EDIT: also a study from Harvard...

http://post.economics.harvard.edu/hier/2002papers/HIER1981.pdf