Media Bias - Know How to Spot It

As I have mentioned before, part of the reason we don't understand the First Amendment as well as we should is related to bias and inaccuracies in the media. But with a little practice it is not hard to spot certain types of bias.

Common tactics are to carefully choose which of many truths you reveal in a story, or to choose where to run certain stories (on the front page or on page 18). For example, consider some recent coverage of politicians' woes.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is from Wyoming, and the University of Wyoming is preparing to name a building after him. However, not everyone is happy about that. A petition was circulated and has gather over 150 signatures in a year - out of 13,000 students. Despite that meager turnout, it warranted a pretty good headline from the Associated Press: Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.

On another front, those who are opposed to the House Bill 1300 on health care have circulated a petition against the bill. That petition has 1.3 million signatures and was delivered to Congress today (I'm writing this on Sept. 9, 2009). Yet so far AP has not picked up this story as I scan their headlines, despite the fact that this is the largest such petition ever. I saw coverage on CNN about it this afternoon, but no mention was made of the number of signers. Don't you think that is an important fact? Normally a record-breaking event is noticed.

The Drudge Report is run by a conservative, but largely it just lists headlines from stories on current events. However, Matt Drudge can choose which headlines to run, or can even word the "teaser" himself. The following four lines were at the top of the site today:

• Obama scare: 'more will die' if we do nothing on health...
• 'Deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses will close'...
• System 'at breaking point'...
• 'Time for games has passed'...
• 'We have seen scare tactics'...

They are all from President Obama's speech on health care. Notice how well the first four go against the last one? Get his point?

So keep your eyes open. Look for the details, look for the balance, and don't depend on just one source! It's not even a little hard to find both conservative and liberal sources on the Internet!