EPTDoes this affect the outcome of election?
Does a slanted media have negative effects on a democracy?
Does a slanted media have negative effects on a democracy?
I think doing a study on press bias at the height of a presidential campaign is silly. Most of the reporting is about campaign strategy, polling and political gaffes, all things that are actually reported with minimal bias. It is a fact that Obama ran a good campaign, that is not a political issue, and it is a fact that McCain's campaign was sketchy. If the press reported anything but that, I would call it bias. The problem with the media is not just who happens to be getting the most sentimental coverage of the day, but how they do, or do not in most cases, hold people and the government accountable.
Case in point, I came across one of the most mind boggling articles I have read in years the other day. This information should be on every front page newspaper, website, and on prime time everyday, but it's not. Here is the first paragraph of the article:
"The Bush administration approved the use of "waterboarding" on Al Qaeda detainees after receiving reports from government psychologists that it was "100 percent effective" in breaking the will of U.S. military personnel subjected to the technique during training, according to documents released today by a Senate Committee"
That is an absolute bombshell and the Bush administration is not being completely pounded for it. To me that shows complete complacency and lack of competence in the media to extents far more relevant than some random news reporter throwing a halo over Obama. To watch the media allow the Bush administration to get away with this (let alone watch the media allow Bush to lie to us about WMD) and then think for a moment there is liberal bias is just silly. As to your first question I think the answer is yes, but not in the way your are expecting.
