Abstract
The American news media has an obvious liberal bias. In the marketplace of ideas, conservative media is outflanked by media outlets such as ABC, NBC, and CBS. These diametrically opposed viewpoints, liberal and conservative, require that we must make a decision about what is true and not true, which media “truth” to believe, and how that choice affects something much larger, as Olasky (2013) attests, and as the Bible warns against. James (1:21, NIV) writes, “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”
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"The Ethics Issue Of Media".
Summary
We are biblically required to make the appropriate choice by listening to the “word planted in” us, and resisting the other choice that very much goes against that moral imperative, understanding that the media is not objective, rejects other voices than their own, and purposely sets out a “truth” that demands our attention daily, but which, in the final analysis, is but a subjective viewpoint based on the ability to sell advertising, and not on any mandate to inform us of the real truth, despite the economic consequences and perhaps spiritual consequences of doing so, aside from those “entire groups of people as well as particularly ideas seeking to be heard via advertising messages” being “rendered voiceless” (Christians, Fackler, Richardson, Kreshel, and Woods, 2011, p. 160). We are unwittingly caught up in a struggle of real good and real evil (Olasky, 2013), except that most people don’t see it as a struggle of good and evil. Christians, Fackler, Richardson, Kreshel, and Woods (2011, p. 161) examine ad rejection, and the dilemma that it creates. For the authors, that dilemma is probably not “viewed as such by many” (p. 161).
Summary
The American news media has an obvious liberal bias. This is attested to by many conscientious and concerned writers and authorities on news media coverage. While liberal news media outlets claim objectivity for what they are reporting, in fact the case is not so. Linda Ellerbee, in an interview with Dinesh D’Souza in 1986, and reported by Olasky (2013), wrote that “[t]here is no such thing as objectivity. Any reporter who tells you he’s objective is lying to you” (p. 24). This is borne out by Christians, Fackler, Richardson, Kreshel, and Woods (2011) when they write about certain news media outlets rejecting advertising messages, thus shutting out viewpoints that the outlet doesn’t endorse. The writer states that, “Certainly, this has economic implications for particular advertisers, making it difficult if not impossible for them to have voice in the economic marketplace… It is quite possible that through media rejection of advertising, entire groups of people as well as particular ideas seeking to be heard via advertising messages may be rendered voiceless” (p. 160).
Conclusion
What results is a choice that has to be made about whether the media is believable or not. If the media has a liberal bias, from a conservative point of view, there are very few conservative media outlets that express the truth, truth that opposes the louder voice of liberal ideas. Ecarma, writing in 2003, suggests that some liberal media outlets, specifically ABC, CBS, and NBC, often report negatively “against the American system and institutions including business and economy” (p. 93). Again, this [authors italics] “egalitarian trait of system blame” (p. 93) is another example of manipulation by the media of whatever truth there may be, and we see it every day in the form of the three networks and their news coverage, and particularly in outlets such as MSNBC.
- Christians, C. G., Fackler, M., Richardson, K. B., Kreshel, P. J., and Woods, R. H. (2011). Media ethics: Cases and moral reasoning. (9th ed.). Pearson. pp. 160-161.
- D’Souza, D. (1986). Mr. Donaldson goes to Washington. Policy Review, Summer 1986, p. 24. In Olasky, M. (2013). Prodigal press: Confronting the anti-Christian bias of the American news media. New York: P&R Press. Retrieved from http://www.worldmag.com/world/olasky/Prodigal/c4.html#3
- Ecarma, R. E. (2003). Beyond ideology: A case of egalitarian bias in the news? Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
- Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). (2011). James 1:21. Biblica, Inc.
- Olasky, M. (2013). Prodigal press: Confronting the anti-Christian bias of the American news media. New York: P&R Press. Retrieved from http://www.worldmag.com/world/olasky/Prodigal/c4.html#3
