Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Liberal bias in US politic discourse refers to alleged slanting and spiking of news stories to promote a liberal agenda and thwart conservative values. The concept dates back to the November 1969, when Vice President Spiro Agnew made a landmark speech [1] denouncing media influence on politics. Particularly from the 1990s onwards, some American conservatives have increasingly voiced their perception that liberals dominate the American mass-media and correspondingly that the mass-media presents a liberal point of view. Many see this argument as "attacks" on print and television, and deny any such bias. Bernard Goldberg wrote Bias in 2001, rehashing and expanding on an op-ed piece about "liberal bias" at CBS, which was then his employer. Bob Kohn wrote Journalistic Fraud giving copious examples of what he called bias, from the pages of the New York Times Table of contents 1 Opposing views 2 See also 3 References Opposing views Critics of the concept of liberal bias argue that it is largely invention of the conservative right. They point to the control of most media outlets by wealthy individuals and institutions who are virtually all center-right in political orientation and whose interests tend to coincide closely to that of the US government. Moreover, both the print and broadcast media survive from advertising revenues, which in turn makes them beholden above all to large corporations. Critics also point to the worldwide perception that US media is more right-wing than most other democracies, and less likely to challenge an official position than most other countries' media. Certain neoconservatives, such as Irving Kristol, have said that the charge of "liberal bias" has been exaggerated for rhetorical purposes. Eric Alterman, author of What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News in one of those who argues against any significant liberal bias. Reviewer John Moe sums up Alterman's views: "The conservatives in the newspapers, television, talk radio, and the Republican party are lying about liberal bias and repeating the same lies long enough that they've taken on a patina of truth. Further, the perception of such a bias has cowed many media outlets into presenting more conservative opinions to counterbalance a bias, which does not, in fact, exist." [1] Film critic Roger Ebert vividly recounts an example of spiking in which a reporter from the Tom Brokaw news show approaches a story with preconceived ideas. See also Media bias References Agnew Exposed the Liberal Media in 1969 by the Media Research Center This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.