POLARIZING POLITICS. Is Fox the cause of polarization? Interesting discussion led by Bill Maher. Fox definitely plays a part in the polarization of American politics, but why is it so popular and MSNBC or the Huffington Post are not so popular on the other extreme? Because liberal Americans dont feel the need for more liberal media when most news media are already liberal. While comparing Fox to the John Birch Society, in essence Maher is saying, If the conservatives would just shut up and leave the media in the control of liberals, we would not have polarization! Thats certainly a great way to achieve all the truth, all perspectives and full pluralism! (speaking sarcastically) Thats not too different than what conservative citizens in Kazakhstan might say about the independent (more liberal) press in this country, which is why there are so many restrictions on the independent press here. In the USA, Gallup found that 40% of the people identify themselves as conservatives and only 20% as liberals (40% as moderates), but a survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors found that 61% of journalists identified themselves as Democrat/liberal and only 15% as Republican/conservative. Pew found that 34% of journalists self-identified as liberal and only 7% as conservative (54% moderate). And from my experience as a newspaper journalist in America, many of the moderates simply dont want to admit their true leanings. In content analysis of news coverage during presidential campaigns, Democratic candidates for decades have received about twice as many favorable stories and half as many negative stories as Republicans. Its amazing under those conditions that the Republican candidates have won about half of those elections. A UCLA professor and a University of Missouri professor (Groseclose and Milyo) used teams of research assistants evenly split between those voting Democrat and Republican in the previous election to do a content analysis of 20,000 stories from the top 20 U.S. news media. The primary job of the teams of research assistants was to classify and count how many liberal sources and how many conservative sources were used in those news stories. Obviously one way to bias a news story is to use more sources from one side of the political spectrum than the other. In scoring just how conservative or liberal the media are, they used an analytical tool developed by a liberal think tank to grade members of Congress. What they found was that 18 of the top 20 news media consistently use more liberal news sources than conservative sources. Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal, which maintains a fairly conservative editorial position, was most biased in selecting liberal news sources, In fact so liberal that they measured further to the left than the average Democratic Congressman in selecting sources for their political speeches. The New York Times, CBS Evening News, L.A. Times and Washington Post were not far behind. With a bias in the 55-65 range were CBS Early Show, NPR Morning Edition, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Time Magazine, NBCs Today Show and USA Today. Still left of center but closer to an even selection of sources were ABCs World News Tonight, NBCs Nightly News, ABCs Good Morning America, CNNs NewsNight, and PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. In the selection of news sources only (not counting commentaries, talk shows or other ways to bias news), the closest to 50:50 selection of sources were Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume and the Washington Times, which Maher would equate with the John Birch Society. My point is that in a society where liberals have controlled the major media for decades and with similar numbers control universities and Hollywood, conservative Americans including conservative moderates feel a greater need to hear what Fox is reporting and talking about to gain the other perspective. And thats why Fox is so popular and MSNBC and Huffington are not. If the news media were truly more moderate and more fair and balanced in their news coverage, Fox probably wouldnt even exist. In the polarizing of America, however, I think the bigger problem is how politicians are using the media to their personal benefit. The conservatives are demonizing the liberals, and the liberals are demonizing the conservatives. This is creating a level of hate and distrust between Americans that has never existed since perhaps the Civil War. And why do politicians do this? Because it earns them more donations and more support from the special-interest groups at their respective extremes. The solution is not silencing Fox. The solution, I think, is to silence career, self-serving politicians through term limits and other such devices. So-called public service has become self-service. Behind the scenes, many of the liberal and conservative politicians are friends. But when they get in front of a camera, they become bitter enemies. And thats what the public sees. However, over the past two decades, I would say the politicians themselves have also become more politically extreme as the true believers have gained the support of the special-interest groups at both ends of the spectrum.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:09:55 +0000
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