Media: Biased? Not as much as you'd think
This Politico piece is the best article I've seen on media bias. Bottom line: Sure, there may be ideological bias, but it doesn't drive coverage nearly as much as other biases do. (And those who most detest the media's ideological bias are the ones who have "scalding biases" of their own, so there's no pleasing them.)
Rob,
I guess the people at Politico don't read the New York Times or watch MSNBC. I confess that I don't read the Times on a consistent basis, but I am a masochist every now and then, and when I am, I do watch MSNBC. That network openly supported Barack Obama going back to the primaries. Hillary Clinton received better and more favorable coverage from Fox News than from MSNBC. Heck, when Keith Olbermann - whom, by the way, should relegate himself to being Dan Patrick's sidekick - could no longer contain himself with his left-wing rants, thereby communicating too obviously MSNBC's biases, Tom Brokaw had to step in and demand some cosmetic changes.
Sure. MSNBC has shamelessly decided to be the anti-Fox. It doesn't hide its liberal bias. CNN by contrast endeavors to be mainly "opinion-suppressive" in its coverage, while Fox or MSNBC or The Nation or the National Review seek to be "opinion-expressive."
Me, I'll always want to hear from people who make a good-faith effort to talk honestly about the issues without the exaggerated spin of the partisan/activist media.