Media bias mostly takes the form of omission. Reporters, editors and writers, however “straight” or “objective” they’re being, make editorial decisions on what to include and what not to include. Here, subconscious or intentional bias easily creeps in.
In the 2014 election we’ve seen on display the standard liberal media bias,* mostly by omission. In many of these cases, it’s blatant, and it often looks like it could help the Democrats.
Consider the near blackout by the Charlotte Observer of the story of Kay Hagan’s husband getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in stimulus money, using the money to hire a business he owns, with some of that money funneling directly to his son and son-in-law. The state government is recommending an investigation into this.
When North Carolinians more curious than the Observer looked into the case, a USDA official nominated by Hagan redacted the documents. The Carolina Journal covered all this, while the Charlotte Observer before Monday had a total of four stories that mentioned “Chip Hagan” and “stimulus.” Two of them were brief blog items citing the original Politico piece on it. One ran under the deliciously he-said-she-said headline of “Conflict-of-interest charges fly in North Carolina Senate contest,” the next one was exculpatory “NC DENR: Nothing improper with way Chip Hagan’s stimulus grant was handled.” That’s already an amazing way to handle a clear case of cronyism: basically ignore it until you can report an exculpatory headline.
But then the Observer put up a story headlined “State officials say a stimulus grant given to a company run by Kay Hagan’s husband needs ‘further legal review'” — and almost immediately pulled it down!
But across the country, the biggest omission of all might be the way in which the liberal media is pretending this election doesn’t exist. Newsbusters did a little study. They found this:
But lack of reporting on the midterms has probably had a downward effect on turnout. Republicans historically do better when turnout is low. So media silence on a bad election for the media could make the election worse for the media!
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* I am aware that some people exist who deny the existence of an overarching liberal bias in the media. I don’t really know how to argue with these people, any more than I could argue with someone who argues that green does not exist.
