Tag: American Media

The dangerous myth about the so-called ‘liberal’ media is still going strong

AlterNet logo

It is an enduring belief that the vast majority of U.S. media are “liberal” or “leftist.” This is a powerful myth, used by the political right to convince citizens that a secular, urban elite pushes a leftist agenda on the nation via television, newspapers and Internet. This notion wasn’t invented by Trump. But Trump has, more than any other president, leveraged that pre-existing distrust and taken it to new depths. As we watch Trump openly fight democracy post-election, it is worth considering how this myth is perpetuated, even internationally.

As an American and an academic who studies the media, I have, of course, followed Swedish media coverage of the U.S. elections. And, as someone invited to comment on those elections in Swedish media, I was even part of that coverage. During my consumption and participation, it struck me that it was often taken as a fact by Swedish journalists that a large part of the U.S. media landscape is dominated by what is defined as a “liberal/left” media, and that a large portion of “mainstream media” in the U.S. were partisan in their opposition to Trump.

This is a misleading, decontextualized position. Continue reading.

Here’s the truth about the media’s so-called ‘liberal bias’

AlterNet logoDuring a recent trip to the Lincoln Memorial, President Donald Trump claimed that the media has treated him worse than any previous president.

Such claims are not new or limited to Trump. Political elites across the spectrum constantly complain about what the media covers and how they cover it. The public shares that distrust. Less than half of Americans say they can identify a source that they believe reports the news objectively, despite strong journalism norms aimed at minimizing bias.

But are voters and politicians right? Is the media really biased? Continue reading.

Trump thinks he can use the pandemic to win again. And the media is proving him right

AlterNet logoPresident Trump’s Oval Office speech last week was a massive dud and the stock market took a huge dive last Thursday. So Trump decided to take the bull by the horns and held a press conference in the Rose Garden with a group of CEOs just before closing time the next day. The market made a sharp upward turn as he spoke and the president was extremely pleased with himself. Numerous reports about the deliberations within the dysfunctional White House over the past week, however, have made it clear that was the only thing that pleased him.

According to the New York Times, it’s been an extremely chaotic time with infighting among the various task force members, Jared Kushner stepping all over everyone’s toes and incompetent leadership from the top. In other words, it’s been business as usual in the Trump administration. Unfortunately, this time this bumbling White House is confronting its first real crisis and one of the most serious global challenges in decades.

On Sunday, Trump appeared in the White House briefing room to announce that the Federal Reserve had cut interest rates virtually to zero, but on Monday the market dropped precipitously again. Although Trump obviously thought that he could turn it around with another end-of-day press conference, it didn’t work. The market closed down nearly 3,000 points, and every bit of news about the coronavirus was so bad that even Trump dialed down his bragging a notch and avoided the incessant happy talk that had pervaded all his other appearances. Continue reading.

Major study finds no ‘liberal bias’ in media If anything, journalists have become too cautious

AlterNet logoThese are tough times for independent journalism. If you value Salon’s original reporting and commentary, we urge you to support it — by supporting our writers directly. Right here, right now, you can make a financial contribution to help make Paul Rosenberg’s work possible. All donations go directly to writers.

Complaints about press bias are as old as the press itself, but in recent decades, conservatives have pushed one complaint above all other: The media is biased against them because it is overwhelmingly staffed by liberal journalists. A new study, forthcoming in Science Advances, provides the strongest evidence ever that they’re half-right — but only the least important half: Yes, reporters overall are significantly more liberal than the general population. In fact, almost one in six are more liberal than Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, based on who they follow on Twitter. But no, that doesn’t matter — even for the most liberal cohort of them. The title of the study says it all: “There is No Liberal Media Bias in the News Political Journalists Choose to Cover.”

Even though “journalists are dominantly liberal and often fall far to the left of Americans,” the paper itself was emphatically clear in its conclusion: Continue reading.

The National Enquirer’s tactics have been revealed. But they’re not new.

The sordid and complex story of Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos’s run-in with the National Enquirer is unusual in its details, but striking in one respect: It is yet another instance in which the Enquirer has been accused of unsavory tactics in pursuit of stories a number of times in recent years.

The Enquirer and other publications owned by its parent company, American Media LLC, have faced allegations of unethical and abusive behavior from actor Terry Crews, associates of former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) and for its involvement in a scheme to protect the film producer Harvey Weinstein from accusations of sexual assault.

Although the tabloid’s revelation of Edwards’s affair with a campaign staffer in 2007 is often lauded as its finest feat of reporting, American Media’s tactics allegedly had a darker underside.

View the complete February 8 article by Paul Farhi, Sarah Ellison and Emily Yahr on the Washington Post website here.

The company that owns your local news might also influence federal politics

On Dec. 3, it was announced that Tribune Media would be acquired by Nexstar Media Group for over $4 billion. The resulting company will own over 200 television stations, giving it incredible access to American homes across the country through their local news programming.

Although less overtly political than their cousins on cable, local news stations have come under increased scrutiny after the viral controversy aroused in early 2018 by a “must-run” segment on stations owned by Sinclair Media. In the segment, news anchors read from a script decrying “biased and false news” on social media and other news outlets. The script was passed down from Sinclair’s corporate office in Maryland.

“Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think’” said the script. “This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.”

View the complete December 12 article by Will Lennon on the Open Secrets website here.

Tabloid Publisher’s Deal in Hush-Money Inquiry Adds to Trump’s Danger

Donald Trump, Jr., Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, David Pecker and Eric Trump. Credit: Twitter

With the revelation by prosecutors on Wednesday that a tabloid publisher admitted to paying off a Playboy model, key participants in two hush-money schemes say the transactions were intended to protect Donald J. Trump’s campaign for president.

That leaves Mr. Trump in an increasingly isolated and legally precarious position, according to election law experts. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments made in 2016 to keep two women silent about alleged affairs are now firmly framed as illegal campaign contributions.

The news about the publisher, the parent company of The National Enquirer, came on the same day that Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael D. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in part for his involvement in the payments. “I blame myself for the conduct which has brought me here today,” Mr. Cohen said, “and it was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man” — a reference to Mr. Trump — “that led me to choose a path of darkness over light.”

View the complete December 12 article by Mike McIntire, Charlie Savage and Jim Rutenberg on The New York Times website here.