Comments on: Guilt by citation…

By: acline

acline — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 06:27:51 +0000

re: “In and Out” study. I already pooh-poohed that one–really bad scholarship.

re: my own bias. I already warned readers that I’m just a liberal tool and not to trust anything I write here

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 13:14:42 +0000

Jim A. Kuypers’ book and Stephen D. Cooper’s analysis linked above? The Government In & Out of the News study?

Assumption of academic bias? Nawh, just an academic’s bias

By: acline

acline — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 11:39:35 +0000

Sys- re: “But content analysis of the master narratives and negativity that are accepted wholesale by the press (if not also originated by) also demonstrate a liberal – political – bias.”

Are you claiming such a study has been done, or are you making an assumption about academic bias?

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 09:18:04 +0000

Ah, the “fairness bias”, where stenography and he said/she said allows the liberal journalist to claim balance, disassociation, innocence …

But content analysis of the master narratives and negativity that are accepted wholesale by the press (if not also originated by) also demonstrate a liberal – political – bias.

By: acline

acline — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:49:33 +0000

Sys– Yes! But you’re missing the counter-balance: Most news (more than 70 percent–I have the citation if you want it, but it’s at my office) is generated by political actors engaging the press for political and PR reasons, not the press digging up “stories.” Many of the narratives are accepted wholesale from powerful sources. Now this might give us some hard data on political bias: What percentage of master narratives originate with the press? (I mean the actual plot and characterization, not the structure–which is set.) That would be an interesting study to do. Perhaps I’ll put it line with the others I’ve got planned

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 07:58:53 +0000

re: “That many/most journalists self-identify as liberal says very little about how they behave as journalists–only how they might behave politically.”

I disagree simply because it contradicts Lakoff’s assertion that concepts are NOT literal and nonpartisan. This feeds the narrative bias, especially: “narrative bias leads many journalists to create, and then hang on to, master narratives–set story lines with set characters who act in set ways.”

By: acline

acline — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 06:30:25 +0000

Sys- You’ve been reading Rhetorica long enough that you could have written the same response, even though we have areas of disagreement

That many/most journalists self-identify as liberal says very little about how they behave as journalists–only how they might behave politically. And I’m not interested in poor predictors

I’ve never denied political bias exists. All kinds of political bias exists in the news media–intentional and unintentional and caused by everything from intrusive personal ideologies to spin-off effects of the structural biases. So liberal bias IS a data point. So is conservative bias. And centrist bias.

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:01:10 +0000

Well written, thanks! And thanks for the definition/explanation of the terms/formula.

I find it funny that this has been studied from so many directions and the defense against “liberal media” bias ranters has been to deny there’s a liberal bias.

The political preferences of journalists are studied – liberal.
The ethics/values of journalists are studied – liberal.
Content analysis – liberal.

I don’t understand why deny a liberal bias instead of agreeing and then explaining that it’s one data point among many in a complex system?

IOW, liberal bias is a poor predictor, but a predictor nonetheless.