Is the Mainstream News Media Biased?

The mainstream news media do not think so, apparently. Sure they love conflict, electric personalities and human drama, the Newsweek article admits, but since they are criticized from both the left and the right, they must be doing something right. What a week logic it is to define success by who criticizes you.

While I do believe there is some truth to these arguments -- and I do not believe in media conspiracy, but I believe there is a pack mentality -- many of the claims in this piece are laughable. Worse though, it suffers from an alarmingly smugness that reeks of a privileged comfort with the status quo. Perhaps, I should not be too harsh. Maybe it is the public's fault.

The claim that foreign coverage is "plentiful" is ridiculous to anyone interested in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. Even when they cover hot areas of the world, the reportage is deeply imbued with an American (very limited) perspective: thus, the rash of women-in-hijabs-who-do-normal-things articles. In terms of quantity, does any weekly major American news magazine, for example, carry even one-tenth the foreign coverage of the Economist?

The article also failed to deal with one of the most powerful criticisms of modern journalism. Journalists have taken "balance" to mean simply presenting the views of different sides of a conflict, rather than really investigating the legitimacy of those views.

Long gone is the critical backbone that really took on power, except for minor post-"WMD-in-Iraq" flirtations as cited in the piece -- only New York Times articles, of course (um, and Newsweek?). Even worse, the article dismisses the entire notion of investigative journalism since it produces, in their words, long unreadable articles that rely more on insinuation than evidence.

This piece takes lightly the role of the 4th estate for enhancing governmental transparency. It ends by saying,

Right now, Obama and John McCain are popular with reporters. But if the usual laws of press physics apply, the media will turn on both men before Election Day. The blogs and the talk-show hosts will rant. The voters will take it all in (or not). And then make up their own minds.

In other words, it is what it is. There is no demand for improvement or even a hint of constructive criticism. The modern American media is a bloated, complacent machine that needs to held to standards.

To be fair however, just as with elected officials, the public gets the media it deserves. So long as masses of Americans wishfully divorce themselves from politics and the world around them, they will continue to be surprised by world events, along with their mediocre media system; they will continue to suffer a fall in their health from our diseased food industry, and increased debt chasing the illusions of consumerism; and, suffer a cornucopia of psychological disorders they hope to medicate away. The US media -- with its trivial (i.e. celebrity) news focuses, scandals, and cutesy human interest fluff -- has just become one more escapist medication for the public.