# PBS, politics, current events ... potential for bias? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 7, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166 "2012-05-07T14:30:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/21 "2012-05-08T13:49:33Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > As that study points out, it was done in the middle of the R primary. What show **controlled by Ds** wouldn’t want to ask the rightest of the right lots of pointed questions? I should hope **any** news show on any network but Fox News would want to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/22 "2012-05-08T13:52:20Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > ThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo > > Regards, > Shodan Your hand must be tired after all that. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/23 "2012-05-08T14:05:14Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > ThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo Ten million children can be afraid of the boogyman-that doesn’t make it real. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/24 "2012-05-08T14:11:28Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Ten million children can be afraid of the boogyman-that doesn’t make it real. And denial wouldn’t make him go away if he was real. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/25 "2012-05-08T14:26:28Z")
Just saying the words doesn’t make it so…even if you say it three times in a darkened room in front of a mirror. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/26 "2012-05-08T14:38:21Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > Your hand must be tired after all that. Nah, he just pressed some hotkey macros with his face. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/27 "2012-05-08T14:41:00Z")
At one time the media/intellectual types who host the news would probably be Republicans, but if you have a brain cell left in your head you aren’t going to want to be associated with survivalists, religious fanatics, creationists, supply-siders, and bigots. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/28 "2012-05-08T14:57:54Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > As that study points out, it was done in the middle of the R primary. What show controlled by Ds wouldn’t want to ask the rightest of the right lots of pointed questions? > > Who hosts those shows these days? I don’t watch them much anymore but the last I remember Amanpour, Gregory, Sheiffer, Stephanopolis and Blitzer come to mind in addition to the R on Fox. Of course I can’t prove anything. I’m sorry. Which of these corporate owned networks are “controlled by D’s”? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/29 "2012-05-08T14:59:01Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > I’m sorry. Which of these corporate owned networks are “controlled by D’s”? Well, PBS, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/30 "2012-05-08T15:00:14Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > I wondered whether any of them regularly pull the R lever rather than the D. I don’t think so. > > Am I missing any shows or people that might suggest that PBS really does provide “strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature” as it was designed to do? Ahhhh, yes, the Republican method. Rather than evaluating an item (such as a TV show, or proposed law) on it’s merits, you evaluate it based on whether the people behind it vote R or D. It makes the world quite simple, doesn’t it? You hardly have to do any difficult things, like listening or reading, you only need to look for one handy letter to tell you what to think. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/31 "2012-05-08T15:05:13Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Tell me honestly that if someone else had started this you would have moved it. Meaningless question. Anyone “else” who started it would most likely be an altsock of yours. If not, he would be one of our RW Usual Suspects like **Shodan.** ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/32 "2012-05-08T16:32:54Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Ahhhh, yes, the Republican method. Rather than evaluating an item (such as a TV show, or proposed law) on it’s merits, you evaluate it based on whether the people behind it vote R or D. \*\* R GUD D BAD\*\* inked on one’s palm makes a suitable “cheat sheet” for getting through life, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/33 "2012-05-08T16:37:19Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > \*\* > R GUD > D BAD\*\* > > inked on one’s palm makes a suitable “cheat sheet” for getting through life, I suppose. Isn’t that what Sarah Palin had written on her hand during that debate that time? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/34 "2012-05-08T17:05:48Z")
> [@Airbeck](#): > > Isn’t that what Sarah Palin had written on her hand during that debate that time? Yeh, but it didn’t help; she forgot which hand. ---
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/35 "2012-05-08T17:06:43Z")
Probably because she wrote it on her left hand, which automatically meant it was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/36 "2012-05-08T18:28:50Z")
As a faithful and loyal member of the Democratic rank-and-file, I can say this in all sincerity. On any given day, any given group of Democrats will have a difficult time getting it together enough to order lunch, let alone control the media. I hate to bring an actual study into what is otherwise a lovely discussion sparked by an incisive and thought-provoking OP by our resident JAQ-off, but a Gallup poll taken last year showed that 75% of people who identify as conservative believe that the media has a liberal bias, with liberals and moderates showing significantly smaller numbers for “too conservative” and “just right”. Basically, what the study found was that perceptions of bias tend to rest on party and ideological identification. [Here’s a link to the study so you can look for yourself.](http://www.gallup.com/poll/149624/Majority-Continue-Distrust-Media-Perceive-Bias.aspx) Based on the numbers and trends in the poll, my analysis is that this is more reflective of the worldview of conservative Republicans than it is of actual media practices. ISTM that anything that doesn’t match their idea of ideological purity is branded “librul” and “biased” purely as a knee-jerk reaction, and any member of the press who dares challenge their current darling or their current set of assumptions and beliefs is automatically assumed to be doing a hatchet job. Democrats, on the other hand, don’t have the same sense of ideological purity for the simple reason that the party is much more inclusive and has a much wider range on the spectrum. Based on a discussion that took place between me and some of my more partisan liberal Democrat friends, the perception (at least among my little group of maybe 10) is that the media turned chickenshit after September 11 and began kowtowing to the Bush administration for fear of looking un-American. “Chickenshit” really isn’t an ideological position as such, but the perception is that the media went easier on Bush than it should have. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/37 "2012-05-08T18:29:58Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > ThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo > > Regards, > Shodan I’d ask if you were having a seizure, but that’s actually MORE coherent than most of the shit you post. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/38 "2012-05-08T18:51:29Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > ThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasThereisnosuchthingasliberalmediabiasDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealDoesn’thappenIsn’trealNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo > > Regards, > Shodan TL;DR ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/39 "2012-05-08T20:00:46Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > As a faithful and loyal member of the Democratic rank-and-file, I can say this in all sincerity. On any given day, any given group of Democrats will have a difficult time getting it together enough to order lunch, let alone control the media. > > I hate to bring an actual study into what is otherwise a lovely discussion sparked by an incisive and thought-provoking OP by our resident JAQ-off, but a Gallup poll taken last year showed that 75% of people who identify as conservative believe that the media has a liberal bias, with liberals and moderates showing significantly smaller numbers for “too conservative” and “just right”. Basically, what the study found was that perceptions of bias tend to rest on party and ideological identification. [Here’s a link to the study so you can look for yourself.](http://www.gallup.com/poll/149624/Majority-Continue-Distrust-Media-Perceive-Bias.aspx) > > Based on the numbers and trends in the poll, my analysis is that this is more reflective of the worldview of conservative Republicans than it is of actual media practices. ISTM that anything that doesn’t match their idea of ideological purity is branded “librul” and “biased” purely as a knee-jerk reaction, and any member of the press who dares challenge their current darling or their current set of assumptions and beliefs is automatically assumed to be doing a hatchet job. > > Democrats, on the other hand, don’t have the same sense of ideological purity for the simple reason that the party is much more inclusive and has a much wider range on the spectrum. Based on a discussion that took place between me and some of my more partisan liberal Democrat friends, the perception (at least among my little group of maybe 10) is that the media turned chickenshit after September 11 and began kowtowing to the Bush administration for fear of looking un-American. “Chickenshit” really isn’t an ideological position as such, but the perception is that the media went easier on Bush than it should have. May I ask a dumb question? (Why yes. I think I will.) If there was bias in the viewer, and they felt that the media in general (or a network in particular) was not biased enough, is that really proof that that media is not biased at all? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166/40 "2012-05-08T20:04:03Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > May I ask a dumb question? (Why yes. I think I will.) > > If there was bias in the viewer, and they felt that the media in general (or a network in particular) was not biased enough, is that really proof that that media is not biased at all? 🙂 No, but it puts the burden of proof on those who say it is. Which is, of course, where the burden of proof belongs in the first place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-politics-current-events-potential-for-bias/621166.md?page=3)