The Conservative bias of media

One of the comments I often receive on my posts is that the sources I use to support my liberal point of view are liberal rags. First, I didn't realize that Redstate.com, The Heritage Foundation, and The Wall Street Journal were liberal rags. Second, I would caution against calling government information sites such as the CBO, the GAO, and the IRS unreliable sources. Finally it is dangerous to assume that simply because information comes from a liberal source that the information it contains is inaccurate. Being liberal doesn't make me a liar any more than being Muslim makes you a terrorist or being white makes you a racist.

There is nothing wrong with believing that a liberal source should be questioned but dismissing any information a liberal presents out of hand is a great way to keep yourself uninformed. This is a bit of a groupthink issue since dismissing anything you disagree with without supporting information shows the same lack of critical thinking, analyzing, and evaluating associated with groupthink. Accepting only those facts that you already agree with and only listening to those that you know share your opinions does not make you well informed.

A bigger problem here is the prejudice involved in the liberal media bias complaint. Labeling any news source that doesn't pick a side as liberal, leads to hypocrisy. An example of this is calling Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin "Gothcha Journalism" and then claiming Bill O'Reilly just asked the president the "tough questions". These are both examples of journalists asking political figures questions not proof of liberal media bias.

Another example of this are these two Fox News stories. One about James O'Keefe's video of NPR's Ron Schiller and the other about Ian Murphy's conversation with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. When talking about the conversations Fox uses the words "repeatedly tried to bait Walker into saying something inappropriate" when talking about Murphy's conversation and "engage in a wide-ranging discussion" when discussing O’Keefe’s conversation. Both Murphy and O'Keefe used underhanded methods and asked baiting questions but you wouldn't think that by reading the conservative leaning Fox News articles.

Simply finding an occasion or multiple occasions where Fox News shows their bias doesn't make them a 100% unreliable source nor does it mean that because they have a slant on their stories that the information in their stories are lies. The point being that claiming liberal media bias as proof that your opinion is right and my sources are wrong is a simpletons method that celebrates ignorance over being informed.

Is it so impossible to believe that maybe the media isn't too liberal but you are just that conservative? As a liberal there are plenty of times when NPR, CNN and the mainstream media outlets have been far too conservative for me but that doesn't mean I claim a conservative media bias and act like the Huffington Post, MSNBC, and Ezra Klein are the only sources of unbiased information.

The question that readers should be asking is fact or fiction not liberal or conservative since the former leads to progress while the later only serves to hold us back.