OF COURSE The Liberal Media isn't biased

[TheWalrus]

I'll stand by my thought that most all of the city newspapers in this country are, at the very least, left of center if not fully left leaning.

Stand by it if you wish, but it's without corroborating evidence. As I said, newspapers operate by the principle of supply and demand. If you could prove that newspapers were generally liberal -- which I don't think you can -- that would only be saying that more liberals read newspapers.

So the newspaper (LA Times) in the biggest city in the most liberal state is conservative?

That was it's reputation for many years, yes. Why is that so hard to believe? The Wall Street Journal -- not the New York Times -- is the biggest newspaper in New York, and it's famously conservative. The biggest paper in Chicago -- the Tribune -- is conservative and has a bigger circulation than it's chief competitor, the liberal Sun-Times.

Forgive me for saying so but you seem to have bought a bill of goods without really thinking or researching the matter through.

[LouPhinFan]

That was it's reputation for many years, yes. Why is that so hard to believe? The Wall Street Journal -- not the New York Times -- is the biggest newspaper in New York, and it's famously conservative. The biggest paper in Chicago -- the Tribune -- is conservative and has a bigger circulation than it's chief competitor, the liberal Sun-Times.

Forgive me for saying so but you seem to have bought a bill of goods without really thinking or researching the matter through.

Why is it so hard to believe? How in the world is it still in publication if it has been conservative? I mean it's LA for pete's sake. I know that the Wall Street Journal is conservative. Anything with "Wall Street" in the name almost has to be, LOL.

You're right, I really haven't researched it because, to be honest, I don't really care. I get the Sunday edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal (liberal leaning) mainly for the Features, Sports Section, and Sunday ads. The rest of it ends up in my garbage can. I get most of my news from various websites, local news cast, and ABC Nightly News.

I probably shouldn't have even posted in this thread. I don't really care enough about it but I was bored. I've been posting in the PoFo a lot less as of late. Most of the threads in here are on subjects I either haven't thought enough about to offer an opinion, simply don't care enough to post about, or by the time I get to the thread there's already 4 pages of partisan blather that loses my interest after page 2.

[TheWalrus]

Most local papers like yours get the majority of the national news from a service like AP or Reuters, both of which are notoriously "objective" (so far as that word goes, which in my opinion isn't far). If you're detecting a bunch of liberal bias from those sources that probably says more about you than those stories, to be honest.

This incredulity you're having with the LA times is strange to me. You accept the Wall Street Journal is conservative and the biggest paper in liberal New York but that doesn't seem to count for some reason. Does the fact that the Chicago Tribune is conservative and the biggest paper in Chicago also not count? Or do you not believe it's conservative? Their 2007 "statement of principles" makes it pretty clear:

"The Tribune believes in the traditional principles of limited government; maximum individual responsibility; and minimum restriction of personal liberty, opportunity and enterprise. It believes in free markets, free will and freedom of expression.

These principles, while traditionally conservative, are guidelines and not reflexive dogmas. The facts and nuances of each issue, and not a forged set of ideological templates, dictate where the newspaper will stand. The Tribune is not blindly or uncritically partisan. No political party should take its support for granted."


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There's another aspect to this I think is important to point out. Just because a newspaper's editorial page is conservative or liberal does not mean it's straight reporting is conservative or liberal. The editorial page is wholly separate from the operations of the News Desk, and one does not influence the other. That's why I don't think it's strange you see these newspapers with conservative editorial boards dominating circulation in big cities.

If you ripped out the editorial page of the Chicago Tribune and the liberal Chicago Sun-Times you probably wouldn't be able to tell me which one was conservative and which one was liberal. What you would be able to tell me is that one was well written, well laid out and more professional (Chicago Tribune) and one wasn't those things and trafficked in gossipy scandal besides (Sun-Times).

Like I said, the newspaper business is like any other business, it operates by supply and demand. You still haven't answered how that principle doesn't paint a definitive picture of the (un)reality of media bias.