NPR: liberal bias or just realistic, thorough and informed

[mantis]

What makes you say that NPR is very liberal?  I'm not necessarily disagreeing... I suspect I'm far too attached to NPR and my own political views to be objective about it.  But I'd be curious as to your reasoning.

[n/a]

The only stations that I have noticed that are close to center or slightly right are:

Obviously Fox News
MSNBC
CNBC

The rest I see as pretty clearly slanted left... its all in perspective though.

[Freak]

While I think it is true that a lot of people who work at NPR are pretty liberal, I also think they are pretty balanced in terms of content. They give liberals a hard time just as much as conservatives in interviews, and they do make a real effort to get both sides of the story. Also if the hosts/interviewers have a bias they usually will say so and have a bit of a sense of humor about it.

I love NPR.

That says it all. If a liberal enjoys a program, it's centeralist in their opinion, and conservatives are the same. If one actually admits a show is slightly supportive of their position, it is substantially slanted.

Everybody wants to call their news source balanced and they equate that with truthful and fair.

That said, I'm conservative and I agree that NPR has much broader reporting than most sources, albeit with a liberal slant. Everybody filters what they learn through their beliefs, as most reporters vote democratic, they clearly filter from that prescription. I, of course, do the same. Further, I've known nobody able to be very objective and I've held 20 positions, since age 11, several in the service industry with exposed me to a broad range of perspectives. Perhaps I just can't objectively judge people.   

[Miss P]

The only stations that I have noticed that are close to center or slightly right are:

Obviously Fox News
MSNBC
CNBC

The rest I see as pretty clearly slanted left... its all in perspective though.

Are you nuts?  CNN's got Glenn Beck and that crazy female dog Nancy Grace.  The only left leaning person on any major news network is Keith Olbermann.

Not to mention Lou Dobbs, Wolf Blitzer. 

I don't think NPR has a particularly liberal bias; it depends on what shows you listen to (and if you are getting your news from "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," I'm sorry).  But Cokie Roberts and Juan Williams, for instance, are no liberals, and they have senior positions (analyist and correspondent) in the NPR newsroom.  I would be interested to learn what kinds of liberal bias people think they hear. 

[Julie Fern]

conservatives expect all journalists to cheer for administration.

[tkd720man]

Not to mention Lou Dobbs, Wolf Blitzer. 

Wolf Blitzer is a raving neoconservative, and it shows through every day. But Lou Dobbs is a fairly moderate guy on everything except immigration. He's got a serious anti-corporate-control strain that, if you listen to him get interviewed outside of his show on CNN, he is eager to press.

  I would be interested to learn what kinds of liberal bias people think they hear. 

liberal bias = anytime the media doesn't blindly promote right-wing propaganda.

I wish it were more subtle, but conservatives have made such a mockery of the idea that they just can't be taken seriously when they claim it's happening.

They have used accusations of "liberal bias" for years in order to divert attention away from the substance of news which is unflattering to themselves or their ideas. At one time it may have been a serious concern, and it may occassionaly occur now - but actual instances of liberal bias are lost in a sea of false accusation which are only made to score political points with the knuckle-draggers who think there's a conspiracy between the NYTimes and Al Qaeda.

What's worse is that even though networks like CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and others have literally bent over backwards to hire conservative pundits (CNN now hosts vastly more conservative pundits than liberal, if they even have any left - and Faux News has NO liberal pundits) and as a result have actually shifted their coverage to the right. Still, however, the right-wingers are unsatisfied. And they won't be satisfied until every vestige of liberal opinion-making has vanished from the newsroom.

In my opinion, this is the main reason why conservatives can't be taken seriously when they claim "liberal bias." They don't give a damn about seeing unbiased reporting - they just want to purge the country of liberal opinions and make sure every network is stroking their worldview the way Faux News does. Quite simply: it's not about eliminating bias, it's about eliminating liberals.

[Freak]

 

Come now, how many of the DC media corps voted for Bush? Not a perfect gauge, but it gives the general idea.

[Freak]

If we set Fox as the benchmark for Fair and Balanced news, NPR is off the charts.

Neither are and that's my point.

[Miss P]

Come now, how many of the DC media corps voted for Bush? Not a perfect gauge, but it gives the general idea.

Until you show me how this is reflected in NPR's (or any other media outlet's) coverage, I don't find this particularly persuasive.  tkd720man is right: NPR bends over backwards to appease the conservatives who accuse it of bias (particularly the right wingers currently heading the CPB), and it interviews more conservative politicians than liberals, more Republicans than Democrats, more experts from right-leaning think tanks than from left-leaning ones. 

I know a bunch of people who work at the Wall Street Journal, and they are all Democrats or further left; no one is accusing the Journal of liberal bias (or are you?).  Perhaps the real issue is that most people who are engaged deeply with current events are critical of this administration, our intervention in Iraq, etc.  Well, you can't have it all.  You guys get to run things, and the spoils of that victory will endure for much longer than the minor pleasure that comes from knowing one was right all along.

[Freak]

Come now, how many of the DC media corps voted for Bush? Not a perfect gauge, but it gives the general idea.

Until you show me how this is reflected in NPR's (or any other media outlet's) coverage, I don't find this particularly persuasive.  tkd720man is right: NPR bends over backwards to appease the conservatives who accuse it of bias (particularly the right wingers currently heading the CPB), and it interviews more conservative politicians than liberals, more Republicans than Democrats, more experts from right-leaning think tanks than from left-leaning ones.  

I know a bunch of people who work at the Wall Street Journal, and they are all Democrats or further left; no one is accusing the Journal of liberal bias (or are you?).  Perhaps the real issue is that most people who are engaged deeply with current events are critical of this administration, our intervention in Iraq, etc.  Well, you can't have it all.  You guys get to run things, and the spoils of that victory will endure for much longer than the minor pleasure that comes from knowing one was right all along.

It'd only be fair for you to prove this as well....hint, hint...