Poll: 70 percent of Americans believe news media is intentionally biased

I stand with the 70%

MSNBC is 100% biased, as is Fox News. They are both blatantly biased, but it is there in the Network news and USA McPaper too.

One question I have, where was the survey, which states it represents all Americans done?

This “factoid” in particular:

35 percent say the government “should be allowed to deny issuing license plates to a group who intends to display a Confederate flag on the plates,” while 56 percent oppose the idea.

Somehow, I don’t see much support at all for the Confederate flag anywhere except in ex-confederate states.

So, it appears the article itself is biased…

Excerpts from here:

http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/

About a quarter of all whites (24%) consider themselves Southerners; 75% do not.

Nearly half of self-described Southern whites (49%) see states’ rights as the war’s main cause; among whites who do not consider themselves Southerners, a comparable percentage (48%) also says states’ rights was the war’s main cause. However, self-described Southern whites are more likely than other whites to view praise by politicians for Confederate leaders as appropriate and to have a positive reaction to displays of the Confederate flag.

Hard to imagine an unbiased poll of “all Americans” would find 56% in favor of allowing the starts and bars on plates when only 25% of all white males consider themselves Southerners.

I agree the media has their own agenda, but EVERYTHING you read ANYWHERE needs to be taken with a very large grain of salt…

I here the family stirring, I have to think about more interesting issues, like “What’s for breakfast”?

Poll: 70 percent of Americans believe news media is intentionally biased

I am one of those who considers that way of approaching the issue to be misleading. (I often disagree not with conclusions but with premises.)

To me it has nothing to do with “bias” as a deliberate policy (though some like Fox are without question like that).

To me it;s more that the view history and what counts as news through an ideological lense. Not “ideology” in the everyday meaning of that word, where it’s equivalent to bias actually, but “ideology” in the deeper, more theoretically informed sense to mean a pre-conditioning perspective that colors all vision in advance.

So as I often say, the problem is not that the american news lies, per se (though it can do that). The problems is that it thinks it’s telling the truth.

And you, bnw, give us not facts—as I have stressed—but basically, instead, what amounts to your own ideological perspective. The “facts” are not even really the issue. You think a certain way, and cheerlead for that.

Which is fine. To a greater or lesser degree, so does everyone (including the news).

But…on this board, anyway, you will find yourself debating people who will frequently see the issues as not involving “facts” (or their distortions) but as actually involving ideological premises. Like, people are like this not that, being american is this not that, democracy is this not that, society is based on this not that foundation, and so on.

Which is ALSO fine. So, represent, my friend. But at the end of the day, IMO, debates like this are about premises not evidence.

bnw wrote:

I present in a manner no different than others. I post what I find interesting and that which might stimulate conversation. The facts I post are verifiable whereas the acceptance of the facts is a choice. I am well aware here my ideological premise can be a distinct minority.

Well, my first question would be “which media are we talking about?” The big
mega mainstream corporate-capitalist media like Fox, MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, NPR ? That media?

My second question would be “who OWNS the media that you are talking about? I would
think that finding out who actually OWNS those media-corporations would have
some relevance to the question about “what kinds of biases are reflected in the media?”

PS — I respect the fact that you have represented the ‘right’ on this board, in a civil manner
bnw. I dont think its a secret that most of us old timey regulars that migrated to this board
are lefties. But you have managed to have your say without being all nasty about it — and that
aint easy when discussing politix/religion/culture. I have seen many-a-board blow up over political
differences. So far we have all done a good job of listening, sharing and not killing one another 🙂

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• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by wv.

bnw wrote:

Yes I would say it is the mega mainstream media shilling for profit and manufacturing public opinion. And thanks for the PS from way over here.

Were you involved in any of the great Political Board Disasters or meltdowns
of the past bnw ? Some of the old-time-regulars on this board
have seen some Uuuugly stuff. Lots of good stuff too. Mixed bag, over the years.

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bnw wrote:

I present in a manner no different than others. I post what I find interesting and that which might stimulate conversation. The facts I post are verifiable whereas the acceptance of the facts is a choice. I am well aware here my ideological premise can be a distinct minority.

Facts are often irrelevant to real discussion. And often not valid since we don’t research them ourselves. After all, at the end of the day, most people on boards like this are posting articles by others. They pre-select their sources. They have a way of seeing the world they want to have backed-up. They’re not really looking at all viewpoints and using commander spock style cold logic to sift through them. They’re cheerleading, to a greater or lesser extent.

Not that lying or being uninformed makes for good debate.

But, for example, what are the “facts” regarding american mass media discussions of something like the invasion of iraq?

On the original version of this board, before the war, we presented all kinds of evidence that there absolutely were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and any claim there were was spurious, as was any claim that even if they DID have them those weapons would pose a direct threat to the USA.

And…there are people who STILL believe those WMD existed. The desire to believe overwhelmed any contrary evidence.

Poll: Half of Republicans still believe WMDs found in Iraq

By Kendall Breitman

1/7/15

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/poll-republicans-wmds-iraq-114016.html#ixzz3fAtFcNVB

In a Public Mind poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University released Wednesday, more than half of Republicans — 51 percent — and half of those who watch Fox News — 52 percent — say that they believe it to be “definitely true” or “probably true” that American forces found an active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq.

Personally I think people are more cynical about everything. Now why that is might be an interesting discussion. My view is that people are far more unhappy these days than ever before for whatever reason and unhappiness breads cynicism.

Hey, WV, you leave my NPR alone!

Corporate media doesn’t give out totebags or whisper the news!

BIAS MUST BE SHOUTED AND THEN FOLLOWED BY COMMERCIALS WITH CHALUPAS OR TRUCKS OR SALES ENDING SUNDAY!!!

wv wrote:

But as soon as NPR “news” comes on, i turn it off. Makes me ill
faster than Fox News. I’m serious

How come?

I mean I sort of know, but, I look forward to what you say about it.