Conservative bias is the mirror image of liberal bias, a belief that the media is biased in favor of conservative views. Rarely spoken of directly, liberals tend to reference conservative bias by speaking sarcastically about "the Liberal Media", or "the evil Liberal Media". On many liberal blogs, this arises in the acronym "SCLM", for "So-called liberal media". This is typically characterized by the belief that the politics of the owners of the news media, rather than the politics of the reporters, is the primary source for bias. For example, many supporters of the belief in conservative bias will claim that president Bill Clinton was given harsh treatment by the media compared to president George W. Bush. Naturally, believers in liberal bias express the belief that Clinton was treated better by the media than Bush is.

History

Allegations

Eric Alterman, author of What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News is 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]

Opposing views

Notes

See Also

• FOX News
• Rush Limbaugh
• Bill O'Reilly (commentator)
• Rupert Murdoch
• Richard Mellon Scaife
• Conrad Black
• Media bias
• Matt Drudge
• Hostile media effect

External links

• Media Matters (liberal site claiming to correct conservative misinformation)
• Media Research Center (conservative site claiming to expose liberal bias)
• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (liberal site claiming to expose conservative bias)
• Fairpress.org - Citizens Coalition for Responsible Media (conservative site claiming to expose liberal bias)
• Pew Research Center For the People and the Press (non-partisan organization studying attitudes towards the press)