Conservatives often blame the media for having a liberal slant in covering news stories; both liberals and
Conservative can
agree on that. However Eric Alterman’s article Myth of the Liberal Media shows how representation in the media is fair towards both parties. Alterman also suggests that if there is a slant in the media it is most likely in favor of the
conservatives.
Alterman first tells why conservatives might choose to complain of the liberal media. He suggests that it is a good way to get
conservative ideas across as well as prevent liberals from getting fair hearing time for their agendas. The author quotes some conservative authorities on the matter including influential neoconservative publicist, William Kristol, who stated “The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures” (Alterman).
Alterman then discusses successful conservative media outlets including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal editorial pages, The Washington Times, the New York Post, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, The New York Sun, National Review, Commentary, Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge. Additionally, the author mentions that some media that is known as liberal shows the right-wing side as well. “New York magazine, in the heart of liberal country, choose right-wing talk-show host Tucker Carlson as its sole national correspondent” (Alterman).
>The author shows the results of a 1999 research study that “discovered a fourfold increase over the past dozen years in the number of Americans telling pollsters that they discerned a liberal bias in their news” (Alterman). This means that more conservatives are claiming a liberal media bias, suggesting that conservatives are continuing to covering up their on failures.
The author then shows how conservatives can and do take advantage of several areas of the media including “the Sunday talk shows, the cable chat fest, the op-ed pages and opinion magazines, and the radio talk shows.” (Alterman). Alterman says how liberals who use these media forums aren’t as partisan as conservatives in these media such as George Will, Robert Novak, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, William F. Buckly, Sean Hannity and William Kristol. This suggests that conservatives have even more of a pull in the media.