Is this something new or has it always been the case and I just didn’t notice? I’ve been a casual CNN observer for a few years now. I don’t read a lot of news, but generally I’ve looked to CNN mainly for what little I read since I always liked the layout of their web page. Lately, however, I’ve noticed a definite slant to the articles, especially WRT guns and gun control. But not limited to that. Have I just been missing this, or has this been going on for a while? Or, is it just my impression that it’s changed because of the strident way they have been on the gun debate, and that’s slanting my perception?
Can you point to an example of this perceived slant? I read CNN every day, am not a liberal (although I have some liberal leanings) and I have always felt CNN was pretty neutral, as opposed to say, Fox. Well, every news network is neutral compared to Fox, but you know what I mean!
I agree that CNN is the most neutral and moderate of the cable news outlets. That doesn’t mean they produce quality news, but I don’t see signs of a strong bias one way or another.
You’d need to go on their site to really dig in (sorry, I’m writing this on the go so not going to link and cut and past from articles on the site), but here are some of the articles on the home page:
If you read through the articles you get a definite bias that is slanted towards gun control and gun control issues. I’ve noticed this more and more in the past few weeks.
My guess is 5pm EST, June 1, 1980.
It was owned by Ted Turner, after all.
That’s just a snapshot in time though. They tend to follow the current trend based on polling, which can swing the other way. However, Piers Morgan is relatively new to CNN, and in this case he is taking what can be described as a left wing stance on the issue of guns. However I think in terms of all issues, they take different sides on different ones. This is very distinct from MSNBC and Fox which sit clearly on their own side of the aisle.
Obviously two of those are opinion pieces. One is reporting what the White House said about an NRA ad. One is reporting what the NRA said. One is reporting what the sheriff is saying. One is apparently reporting poll results on attitudes of Americans towards guns. Frankly, it doesn’t sound biased to me.
Really? I shudder at the though of turning this into another “gun control” thread, but flipping through those articles, they seem pretty straight up “he said - she said” type stuff. Its kind of a lazy way to write news, IMHO, but if anything, it goes out of its way to avoid accusations of bias.
Maybe you’ve shifted to the right? Claims of bias is more often than not simply someone complaining that a media outlet doesn’t share the same views as them.
CNN has been consistently pro gun control for at least 12 years. The change hasn’t been recent, but I don’t think that it has bled over into a general liberal bias. I think they’re just consistently dedicated to portraying guns in as negative a light as possible.
And since gun control is very much the issue du jour, if they’re on the gun control side, then they’ll seem liberal right now.
Now when they get back to budget stuff…my definition of a liberal network would be one whose commentators frequently suggested that we ought to put getting people back to work ahead of deficit reduction. (Which shouldn’t even be controversial, mind you, but still.)
I think there are two things working here.
The first, as folks have noted, is that CNN is, in general, pro gun control. Most of “big media” is urban, and views on guns have a pretty stark urban/rural vibe. Since gun control is a big issue right now, that bias is probably coming through.
Second, which I don’t think anybody has mentioned yet, CNN has started putting opinion pieces up as the primary story on their website with much greater frequency. I don’t know when they started doing this, but I think it’s recent. I personally hate it, since I go to news sites for news, not opinion, and I think the blurring of that line is a “bad thing”.
The first word in the titles of all their opinion pieces is “Opinion”. I don’t really see how they can be accused of blurring those pieces in with their news. Their news articles are generally straight news.
CNN is neutral insofar as their news hosts allow any guest to voice their opinion, whereas Fox news hosts tend to interrupt and shout over guests they deem to be leftist.
This comes up so often–is it possible that this well-known quote has basis in fact:
Reality has a well-know liberal bias.
Stephen Colbert
And if Stephen Colbert said it we have to take that seriously. 
As someone else mentioned, it’s just a snap shot. I’ve been seeing more and more of what to me is biased views concerning gun control lately though. I realize that gun control is a hot topic now, but I never noticed a distinct and almost systematic bias from CNN before. Oh, you’d get an occasional slanted article, but hell, it could be slanted right as well as left so it seemed pretty balanced. I’m not seeing a lot of balance here. Even supposedly pro-gun type articles have a slant that attempts to make opposition to things like the Assault Weapons Ban (sometimes they have actually used Assault RIFLE, which have been pretty much been highly regulated in the US since '84) seem either ridiculous or even nefarious. There is little attempt that I’ve seen to provide alternative view points or balanced opinion pieces from different view points (there have been a few pro-gun articles, but they have been drowned out in what seems to be an overall anti-gun or highly regulatory environment view point).
YMMV, obviously…it’s clear that most of the posters in this thread don’t see the same things I’m seeing, or feel that this shows bias. It’s all about ones political viewpoint, obviously. My dad doesn’t see the bias on Fox and watches it all the time, but it’s clear to me that it’s highly biased. Well, what I’m seeing lately on CNN shows similar (though less extreme so far) trends.
It’s possible, though my views on this stuff haven’t really substantially changed. If anything, I’d say I’ve moved more left than right overall, due mainly to my participation on this board.
Headlines in the corporate media are not written by the authors of the articles. Headlines are deliberately written to grab your attention, and to reflect the actual theme of the article. At least that’s what we were taught in J-school way back when, when credibility and integrity was part of the journalism ethos. The crap that passes for journalism these days contributes to the problem instead of merely reporting the problem.
CNN used to provide competing viewpoints, as well as real news, but that changed in the 2000s. The CNN show Crossfire was a good example of a balance that has disappeared from the networks. Programming today is largely just politics, propaganda, and agenda pushing rather than news. CNN is a part of this as much as Fox is.
Fox caters to conservatives. Fox puts up liberal articles here and there and employs a few liberal commentators as part of their “fair and balanced” thing. The liberal articles tend to push issues that have some benefit for conservatives (amnesty for illegal aliens + H1-B visas = cheap labor for big business).
CNN caters to liberals. Unlike Fox, CNN no longer bothers to pepper their “news” with opposing conservative viewpoints, unless they take things out of context from conservatives with extreme viewpoints like Pat Buchanan. CNN pushes race and women’s issues big time (there’s a WAR on WOMEN right now you know!). Throw in a lot of Lesbian Gay and Transexual issues into that mix. You’re likely to see at least one Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman article every day on CNN, a full year after it was actually news. If it’s a slow Trayvon news day, expect to see an article about something bad a white man did 100 years ago. You might also notice CNN has developed a pro-Muslim spin, much like Fox spins a pro-Christian message.
Note my focus on CNN. The reason? Well, everyone knows Fox is conservative right? People still want to argue about CNN.
I hope to see CNN come out of the closet as liberal and be proud. This might clear things up for the confused moderates out there asking questions like “Hey does CNN seem a little biased lately? What’s going on with CNN? I thought CNN was a reputable news agency.”
Here is a short summary:
Fox (conservative… no one tries to deny it)
CNN (closet liberal… caught in bed in the act many times but still denying)
MSNBC (extreme porn for extremely proud liberals)
News sources for stock brokers and people with big bank accounts (conservative)
Almost everything else (run of the mill liberal)