'Liberal' Media Image Persists
Public cynicism about press values and performance runs deeper than perceived inaccuracies. Most Americans (53%) believe that news organizations are politically biased, while just 29% say they are careful to remove bias from their reports. When it comes to describing the press, twice as many say news organizations are "liberal" (51%) than "conservative" (26%) while 14% say neither phrase applies. This was also the case in surveys conducted in the mid- to- late 1980s and, not surprisingly, there is a significant partisan cast to these perceptions.
Republicans see the press as more liberal than conservative by nearly three-to-one (65%- 22%). Among independents, the margin is two-to-one (50%-25%). And while a third of Democrats say there is a conservative tilt to the American press, a slight plurality (41%) says the press is more liberal than anything else.
But an ideological slant is not the only form of bias the public perceives. Two-thirds say news organizations pay too much attention to bad news ­ just a quarter say the press reports the kind of stories they should be covering. Just 2% say too much attention is given to good news.
Over the past two decades, public concern about press bias has been gradually increasing. Today, two-thirds (66%) say the press tends to favor one side when presenting the news, and seven-in-ten say news outlets are often influenced by powerful people and organizations. In 1985, barely half (53% each) expressed such negative opinions about media independence.
Fox News Viewers Stand Out
While the general public is divided over whether criticism of the military weakens the nation's defenses, Fox News viewers believe this is the case by nearly two-to-one (60% to 33%). Fox News viewers are also far more likely to say that the press is too critical of the Bush administration (38% vs. 25% general public). On both of these issues, people who get most of their news from the networks or CNN hold views roughly comparable to the nation as a whole.
The perception of media bias is much stronger among the Fox News audience than other television audiences. Fully 76% of Fox News viewers say the press tends to favor one side in covering social and political issues, compared with 67% of CNN viewers and 60% of network news viewers. The difference becomes even more stark in evaluations of the media's ideological bias. Fully two-thirds (66%) of Fox News viewers say the press is liberal, compared with 54% of the network news audience and just 47% of CNN viewers. The CNN audience is more than twice as likely to see a conservative bias in the media (33%) than is the Fox audience (14%).
My thoughts:
It is under the opinion of most media has a liberal bias. People that watch fox news may be more inclined to believe that but as a whole the majority do. If you can't recognize fox news as a legit news source, I assume because it is considered conservative, then you are probably far more extreme than you know. Also, if the majority around you also say the #1 cable news channel is not legit then your sources that you get your news or opinion from are very biased.
I watch Fox news and from a poll I read some time ago (which I cannot locate anymore) it was one of the most trusted news sources. Next time instead of attacking the messenger do some research on it first rather than spew out propaganda.
NOTE: The post is not to anybody in particular besides the person trying to claim fox news is not a legit news source (the threads etc.. throw me off on who I am replying to)
