Liberal media bias

Facts, figures, and a bunch of egregious examples.

Revealing facts     Incredible hypocrisy     Egregious examples     Guilty admissions

Other resources

Accuracy in Media     Center for Media and Public Affairs     CiF Watch     EthicNet     HonestReporting     I Hate The Media!     Journalism.org     Media Research Center     NewsWatch.org     Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

Revealing facts & figures

EPA funding private newspaper - September 16, 2012

"The Environmental Protection Agency has been indulging its inner propagandist by spending at least $3.5 million to float newspaper that is purportedly “reporting” on the EPA’s pet issues. Unfortunately for the readers of this newspaper, the fact that the EPA is its sugar daddy is never told the reading public. So much for an independent press!" [Original source here.]

Walter Cronkite's pretense of fairness - May 21, 2012

"...a new biography of Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley spills the beans on the godlike anchorman’s unethical practices, including blatant partisanship that would make the conservative talkers on Fox and the liberals on MSNBC blush. ...the problem here is not just that god had feet of clay after all. It’s that the truth about Cronkite throws the entire narrative of the liberal mainstream media under the bus. It wasn’t Fox that poisoned the well of journalism... Fox and other such outlets were brought into existence in an effort to balance a journalistic establishment that was already tilting heavily to the left. The real sin here is not bias or even partisanship but the pretense of fairness that Cronkite exemplified."

Warren Buffet buying 63 newspapers - May 18, 2012

"Warren Buffett made good Thursday on his promise to buy more newspapers, agreeing to buy 63 daily and weekly newspapers in the Southeast for $142 million from financially troubled Media General Inc. of Richmond, Va. And Buffett said Thursday he may buy more newspapers."

Soros buying up media outlets - December 25, 2010

"Vadum's report documents how for a long time Soros' has been buying up media properties and funding "left-leaning" websites and groups, many of which try to keep their ties hidden." [Soros ties to 30 major news organizations.]

How public is NPR's funding? - October 25, 2010

"In the end, then, local NPR affiliates derive something like 41% of their funding from taxes, either directly or indirectly."

Fox News not available to military - October 8, 2010

"For reasons not altogether clear to me, only brief snippets of Fox News Channel's broadcasts are carried on the satellite signals available on U.S. military installations here in Afghanistan. That means that if I want to watch the news over here, it has to be one of the "major network" shows carried on the American Forces Network -- or the 24/7 broadcasts of CNN International and Al-Jazeera."

Fox News most trusted - January 27, 2010

"Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday. A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network." [One year later, opposite results?]

10 years of glory for Fox News - December 31, 2009

"The 21st Century has been unkind to all the cable news networks. Except Fox, that is. The conservative news network has bucked the trend and grown a remarkable 570% in the decade." [Original article here.]

Pew Research Center survey of journalists - March 17, 2008

PAGE 19: "As was the case in 2004, majorities of the national and local journalists surveyed describe themselves as political moderates; 53% of national journalists and 58% of local journalists say they are moderates. About a third of national journalists (32%), and 23% of local journalists, describe themselves as liberals. Relatively small minorities of national and local journalists call themselves conservatives (8% national, 14% local). Internet journalists as a group tend to be more liberal than either national or local journalists. Fewer than half (46%) call themselves moderates, while 39% are self-described liberals and just 9% are conservatives. Among the population as a whole, 36% call themselves conservatives – more than triple the percentage of national and internet journalists, and more than double the percentage of local journalists."

Is newspaper coverage politically biased? - October 19, 2004

"Accusations of political bias in the media are often made by members of both political parties, yet there have been few systematic studies of such bias to date. This paper develops an econometric technique to test for political bias in news reports that controls for the underlying character of the news reported. Our results suggest that American newspapers tend to give more positive news coverage to the same economic news when Democrats are in the Presidency than for Republicans." [Link is to abstract.]

How media professionals vote - 1981

"KEY FINDINGS: 81 percent of the journalists interviewed voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election between 1964 and 1976."

Hypocrisy of the leftwing media

Fox rejects John 3:16 Super Bowl commercial - February 4, 2011

"Fox said the commercial was rejected for “advancing particular beliefs or practices.” And that, apparently, is against company policy."

Howard Zinn lied about being Communist - July 31, 2010

"Although Zinn denied being a member of the CPUSA, the FBI file discloses that several reliable informants in the party identified Zinn as a member who attended party meetings as many as five times a week. What’s more, one of the files reveals that a reliable informant provided a photograph of Zinn teaching a class on “Basic Marxism” at party headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, in 1951."

NYTimes blogger has problem he accuses FOX of - July 29, 2010

"This of course, played into the "Fox is racist" meme, and, not surprisingly, Stelter's words were retweeted many times (and also inspired several media blogs to further discuss Fox News' lack of diversity). Interestingly, though, the media site where Stelter primarily blogs (New York Times' Media Decoder) suffers from the lowest percentage of African-American readers..."

Dan Rather says Obama couldn't sell watermelons - March 8, 2010

"Listen he's a nice person, he's very articulate... but he couldn't sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic."

Navy commander files lawsuit against journalist - July 24, 2009

"US Navy Commander Jeffrey D. Gordon has filed a sexual harassment complaint against the Miami Herald's Carol Rosenberg. FishbowlDC obtained a copy of the July 22, 2009 letter addressed to Miami Herald Senior VP and Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal. In the complaint, Gordon calls for a "thorough investigation" to put an end to Rosenberg's "appalling behavior" that includes comments about the Commander's sexual orientation."

GE stifling media coverage - June 5, 2009

""People need to know that GE is using its media arm to stifle coverage about its company, and this is coming from Immelt and Zucker," a Nielsen Business Media insider said."

Egregious examples

Trayvon Martin & George Zimmerman - March 29, 2012

"The gray hoodie became the symbol of this affair because of a widely circulated photograph of Trayvon wearing a hooded gray sweatshirt. That photograph also became a symbol of something else: the mainstream media’s cynical effort to lie about, invent, and hype a racial angle to this news story." [NBC maliciously edited audio of Zimmerman 911 call.] [ABC covered Zimmerman's head wound with video graphic.]

History Channel kills Kennedy mini-series - April 10, 2011

"Unceremoniously cancelled earlier this year by The History Channel as not a good “fit” for “the History brand,” the project was controversial almost from its inception. This had to do completely with the hypersensitivity of a vast array of myth-guardians who stand perpetual watch over the Kennedy family, as well as the career and legacy of America’s 35th President."

Analysis of NYTimes defamation of Scalia - February 14, 2011

"The Times's description of the event is artfully constructed to be literally truthful while conveying a false and damaging impression. Facts are omitted that demonstrate beyond any doubt the propriety of Scalia's conduct... The Times did not lie outright; rather, its deception consists in the omission of some pertinent facts and the misleading presentation of others. And the Times did not defame Justice Scalia, which would require it to make false statements of fact about him; it merely participated in an effort to do so."

NYTimes twists gun control statistics - January 24, 2011

"Gullible New York Times readers are likely to be bamboozled by such deceptive statistical games, but Blow's propaganda cannot withstand serious scrutiny."

NPR reporter apologizes for Christmas party - December 20, 2010

"And I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this (their budgets)."

CBS reporters caught red-handed - November 1, 2010

"In a shocking voicemail accidentally left on the cell phone of Alaska GOP senatorial candidate Joe Miller's spokesman, Randy DeSoto, journalists can be heard scheming to manufacture stories for the purposes of undermining the Republican's campaign."

Editors yank "Where's Muhammad?" cartoon - October 11, 2010

"The cartoon, which was originally submitted in August and had been scheduled to appear in newspapers nationwide on Oct. 3, depicts a lively, seek-and-find-esque park scene complete with a giraffe, a skateboarder, a cyclist, frolicking children and a large hippopotamus. An accompanying caption reads: "Picture Book Title Voted Least Likely to Ever Find a Publisher … Where's Muhammad?""

NYTimes' Paul Krugman is a liar - August 23, 2010

"Paul Krugman's New York Times column for August 23 on extending the Bush tax cuts is not merely misleading; it is an outright and deliberate fabrication."

"Journolist" scandal - July 23, 2010

"A young blogger, Ezra Klein, formerly of the avowedly left-wing American Prospect and now with the avowedly mainstream Washington Post, founded the e-mail listserv "Journolist" for like-minded liberals to hash out and develop ideas. Some 400 people joined the by-invitation-only group. Most, it seems, were in the media, but many hailed from academia, think tanks and the world of forthright liberal activism generally. They spoke freely about their political and personal biases, including their hatred of Fox and Rush Limbaugh, and their utter loyalty to the progressive cause and Democratic success." [Klein steps over the line again.]

The NYTimes and the Ukrainian famine - July 11, 2010

"Nearly eighty years later, the New York Times has still refused to apologize to the Ukrainian people for its complicity in the murder of ten million people. They still hang Walter Duranty's Pulitzer Prize in their building."

Chris Matthews wants nationalized oil industry - May 19, 2010

"“Why doesn’t the President go in there, nationalize an industry and get the job done for the people?” the MSNBC host ranted. But that wasn’t enough. He also wants to follow China’s example and execute the people responsible for the oil spill. “They execute people for this. Major industrial leaders that commit crimes like this.”"

Day 14 and counting - December 4, 2009

"For the fourteenth straight day, the three broadcast networks have failed to report on the great and growing ClimateGate scandal on their weekday morning or evening news programs. How to explain this?"

MSM gets ridiculous trying to avoid Climategate - November 27, 2009

"The chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, has issued a major response to the Climategate scandal... This is big news, is it not? Does this not sound like a huge news story? Well, guess how many MSM reporters have covered this story? The answer as of this moment is one. ONE!"

All the news that's fit to bury - November 22, 2009

"...there seems to be more than a few connections between the recent ACORN stings by Giles, O’Keefe and Breitbart, and the recent hacking of the emails of the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit... Not the least is that they each sent the legacy media into full gatekeeper mode, hoping to prevent exciting, important news of current events from ever reaching their readers."

AP devoting 11 reporters to fact check Palin - November 18, 2009

"Reviewing books and holding public figures accountable is at the core of good journalism, but the Associated Press' treatment of Palin's book seems an unprecedented move at the wire service."

Newsweek has worse photo inside the magazine - November 17, 2009

"Everyone has commented on the cover photo of Sarah Palin that Newsweek editors used... The truly tasteless photo of Palin that no one is talking about is inside the magazine on p. 33, illustrating Christopher Hitchens’s broadside against Palin populism:"

Palin angered by sexist Newsweek cover - November 17, 2009

"For the second time since Sarah Palin stepped into the national political spotlight, a photo of the former Republican vice-presidential candidate featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine is sparking controversy. Palin herself blasted the "out-of-context" cover as "sexist" on her Facebook page."

Chris Matthews fantasizes killing Rush Limbaugh - October 13, 2009

"Somebody's going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he's going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come. Not yet. But we'll be there to watch."

MSM refuses to cover ACORN story - September 14, 2009

"This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. It is a network news director’s dream. Imagine the ratings! Only almost no one is covering it."

MSM refuses to cover Van Jones controversy - September 4, 2009

"From a Nexis search a few moments ago: Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0. Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0. Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0. Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0. Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0." NYTimes finally covers story on September 6.

Montel says Republican should kill herself - September 3, 2009

YouTube audio of Montel Williams saying Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann should slit her own throat.

NYTimes puts American lives at risk, again - August 21, 2009

"What possible value does this information have to readers of the New York Times that would justify the increased risk to the military personnel and contractors that man that base?"

Media lying about abortion coverage in Obamacare - August 7, 2009

"On Sunday, in an alleged "Fact Check" piece on ObamaCare, the Associated Press tried to pretend abortion coverage isn't in there. Two days later, prodded by Steven Ertelt at LifeNews.com and others in the pro-life community, the wire service specifically backtracked and admitted that yes, it's in there..."

Journalist identifies murder suspect as "Christian" - July 24, 2009

"Two couples fatally shot more than 30 years apart while camping in different countries may have been victims of the same man: a drifter who authorities say was part of a Christian commune and disapproved of relationships between unmarried couples."

30 arrested, media identifies the one Republican - July 23, 2009

Analysis of NJ.com news report about corruption arrests, in which one lone Republican was arrested... that's the one party affiliation that was mentioned, of course.

Bill O'Reilly dissection of Newsweek hit piece on Palin - July 18, 2009

"So Newsweek hired a far-left loon to do a hit piece on Palin, conservatives and Fox News, and did not inform its readers of his dedicated point of view. Newsweek editor Jon Meacham basically tried to disguise an ideological attack as news coverage."

Newsweek claims Obama more Catholic than the Pope - July 9, 2009

"When Obama meets the pope tomorrow, they'll politely disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality, but Catholics back home won't care, because they know Obama's on their side. In fact, Obama's agenda is closer to their views than even the pope's."

Obama and networks: a symbiotic relationship - July 5, 2009

"There's no denying that broadcast networks and the president have occasionally worked for their mutual benefit: Obama gets public platforms for his ideas and the networks get programming that delivers strong ratings at a time when that's hard to come by."

After Obama infomercial, ABC cancels Stossel on health care - July 1, 2009

"JOHN Stossel is telling his own network "Give me a break!" after it pulled his health-case insurance segment off the air to give more time to the death of Michael Jackson."

Duke official accused of raping adopted son - June 26, 2009

ABC posts a 2-page story without bothering to mention that the accused is gay, or that the children were adopted by a gay couple.

ABC health care special turns into Obama filibuster - June 25, 2009

"Out of the 75 minutes the network dedicated over the two programs (commercials excluded), the president managed to take 60 percent of that time: 45 minutes to give 19 vague responses – not exactly the “dialogue” advertised by ABC..."

NYTimes poll skewed to support Obamacare - June 24, 2009

"...critics including pollster Kellyanne Conway say the results are inaccurate because they are heavily skewed toward those who voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential election."

Congressional Media Fariness Caucus letter to ABC - June 23, 2009

"The decision by ABC News officials to devote an entire day, June 24, to the "President's health care agenda" culminating with a primetime healthcare "townhall" gives the American people a slanted view of an important subject."

Newsweek editor compares Obama to God - June 5, 2009

"I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God."

NBC's Brian Williams says goodbye to Obama - June 3, 2009

Watch the pathetic so-called journalist BOW to the president in this YouTube video.

Chris Matthews gets "thrill up his leg" from Obama - February 13, 2008

"It's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often."

NBC military analyst resigns citing left-wing bias - February 15, 2007

"NBC military analyst Ken Allard, a former army colonel, has resigned from the network, citing a general drift to the left at MSM outlet..."

600 jounalists for Obama, 200 for Romney - February 13, 2007

"Ask most political analysts and they’ll tell you that at this point, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Michigan –- oops, sorry, Massachusetts –- both have about an equal chance to win their party’s nomination and become president. But that might be tough to tell by looking at the press contingent that showed up at each announcement."

Decades of cheers for Castro from U.S. media - February 7, 2007

"Yet liberals in the U.S. media — who have rightly condemned such abuses when perpetrated by dictators such as Chile’s Augusto Pinochet — inexplicably remain enchanted with Castro and his socialist revolution. For more than half a century, positive profiles of Castro have appeared in U.S. papers."

Ann Coulter column about coverage of Libby trial - February 7, 2007

"MSNBC's "reportage" consists of endless repetition of arbitrary assertions, half-truths and thoroughly debunked canards. No one else cares about the trial — except presumably Scooter Libby — so the passionate left is allowed to invent a liberal fable without correction."

Michelle Malkin column about abortion lies in NYTimes - January 3, 2007

"It's official: The editors of The New York Times have no shame. Don't take my word for it. Listen to the Times' own ombudsman..."

Muslim anti-Semitism downplayed in shooting incident - August 6, 2006

"Two incidents occurred on July 28. Both took place on the West Coast; both involved an American venting his hostility to Jews. But only one of them became, in the days that followed, the big national story about anti-Semitism. The other was treated as a serious but local matter, and drew only modest coverage around the country."

Media denies relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda - June 30, 2005

"...such analyses ignore statements like this one from Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission. "There was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." Hard to believe reporters just missed it--he made the comments at the press conference held to release the commission's final report."

Dan Rather's forged Bush memos - September 8, 2004

"The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as Memogate, Rathergate or Rathergate) involved six documents critical of President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard in 1972–73. Four of these documents were presented as authentic in a 60 Minutes Wednesday broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 Presidential Election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate the documents. Subsequently, several typewriter and typography experts concluded the documents are blatant forgeries, as have most media sources."

Admissions of guilt

CNBC/HuffPost columns written by Russian gov't - November 16, 2012

"Several opinion columns praising Russia and published in the last two years on CNBC’s web site and the Huffington Post were written by seemingly independent professionals but were placed on behalf of the Russian government by its public-relations firm, Ketchum."

Ed Schultz admits using fake callers - March 11, 2011

"While falsely accusing Limbaugh and Hannity of using... fake calls, Schultz confessed that he has used fake callers and said the fakes were actually Democratic Party staffers calling in from their congressional offices."

NPR executive taped soliciting terrorist money - March 11, 2011

"When a man posing as Ibrahim Kasaam asked, “It sounded like you were saying NPR would be able to shield us from a government audit, is that correct?” NPR’s senior director of institutional giving, Betsy Liley, responded, “I think that is the case, especially if you are anonymous.""

NPR executives taped dissing Tea Party - March 8, 2011

"Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement. “The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamental Christian – I wouldn’t even call it Christian. It’s this weird evangelical kind of move,” declared Schiller, the head of NPR’s nonprofit foundation, who last week announced his departure for the Aspen Institute."

Olbermann suspended for Dem contributions - November 5, 2010

"Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's primetime firebrand host, has been suspended indefinitely for violating the ethics policies of his employer earlier this year when he donated to three Democrats seeking federal office..."

Halloween horrors invented by media - October 29, 2010

"In their 1985 research, Best and Horiuchi found that not a single story of Halloween sadism was true. No child in America had ever found a razor blade in his apple. There were no random poisonings, and there was no increase in assaults, abductions, tortures, kidnappings, or anything else. The tales were all hoaxes."

ABC News sends instigator to mosque protest - August 25, 2010

"But there was cameraman was standing nearby, watching the scene play out. When I asked, he said he worked for ABC News. I then asked if the man in the black shirt was with him. The ABC cameraman said, “yes.”"

GE chairman ordered NBC to go easy on Obama - August 12, 2010

"Now Charles Gasparino tells Bill O’Reilly that he has confirmation from people who attended the dinner that it not only took place, but that the “go easy on Obama” order was actually issued."

Documents show media plotting - July 20, 2010

"According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage."

Reuters admits cropping photos - June 8, 2010

"The British-based Reuters news agency has been stung for the second time by charges that it edited politically sensitive photos in a way that casts Israel in a bad light... The news agency reacted to questions raised by an American blogger who showed that Reuters' photo service edited out knives and blood traces from pictures taken aboard the activist ship Mavi Marmara during a clash with Israeli commandos last week."

Cronkite collaborated with protestors - May 14, 2010

"Legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite allegedly collaborated with anti-Vietnam War activists in the 1960s, going so far as to offer advice on how to raise the public profile of protests and even pledging CBS News resources to help pull off events, according to FBI documents..."

MSNBC takes on-air direction from WH - December 21, 2009

"During his syndicated radio show Friday, libtalker and MSNBC host Ed Schultz relayed to listeners how he observed 'Morning Joe' Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski take feedback directly from the White House during their program last week."

Climate change global propaganda project - December 6, 2009

"Hence today's Guardian-led initiative in which 56 major newspapers in 45 countries speak with a single voice (albeit in 20 different languages) through a shared editorial."

New York Times admits publishing doctored photos - July 10, 2009

"The New York Times inadvertently published digitally manipulated photographs in the latest issue of its Sunday magazine, the newspaper said Thursday."

NYTimes admits it spiked Obama/ACORN story - May 18, 2009

"Acknowledging what the blogosphere has known for weeks, the New York Times finally went on record to admit that just before last Election Day it killed a politically sensitive news story involving corruption allegations that might have made the Obama campaign look bad."

Sulzberger questioned about spiked Obama-ACORN story - May 6, 2009

"New York Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger was asked about the March 30 The Bulletin report that his paper intentionally did not use information that might be deleterious to the Obama campaign. Julian Gammon, a minority shareholder, asked the question during the annual shareholders meeting in The New York Times offices on April 23."

AP makes correction four months too late - March 1, 2007

"In commenting on the Senate Ethics Committee letter and the incorrect negative ad that contributed to Allen's defeat, a Richmond Times Dispatch editorial asked a question familiar to many public figures who have been unfairly slimed, "So where does George Allen go to get his reputation back, never mind his job in the Senate?""

Reuters admits altering Beirut photo - August 6, 2006

"A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage."

The story of Dan Rather's forged memos - September 13, 2004

"Alert bloggers who knew the difference between the product of old typewriters and new word processors immediately suspected a hoax: the "documents" presented by CBS News suggesting preferential treatment in Lt. George W. Bush's National Guard service have all the earmarks of forgeries."