Liberal Bias Yes and No

, Don Irvine, Leave a comment

A former NBC News executive admitted that liberal bias on the part of the media exists and that the lack of positive news from Iraq is due to dangerous conditions.


Joe Angotti, a former NBC News senior vice president and executive producer of the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw told an audience in Monmouth, IL that “Yes, there is a liberal bias on the part of some reporters on news networks. But, television news is not as biased as people who watch television news,” he stated “All of you bring your own biased views to the television set every night, and if you don’t hear what you believe to be true, then you blame the messenger,” according to a report from the Daily Review Atlas.


Angotti who currently teaching Math Media in Society at Monmouth College then addressed the coverage of the Iraq War by telling the audience that included a reporter from the Review Atlas that “Getting out to do good stories in Iraq is not easy,” he explained. “Fourteen journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began…It is not a liberal bias that is keeping journalists from telling the other side of the story. It’s the danger that exists in what has become a lawless society where people are now killing each other because of religious differences.”


The paper also reported that Angotti commented that while the Fox News Channel doesn’t practice “good journalism” it does serve as an alternative for those that believe that other sources are liberally biased. He also admitted that he watches Fox because he hears stories there that he won’t hear on other networks.


Angotti is partially correct. There is a liberal media bias but we don’t blame the messenger if we don’t hear what we believe is true, we blame the media when we don’t hear what we know for a fact isn’t true.


As for his comments on Iraq being too dangerous to cover the good stories and that it has nothing to do with a liberal media bias, then why does the media report any stories at all? Are the unfavorable stories located only in safer areas?


While his reasoning seems flawed to me, I will give him credit for being honest. After all how many liberals would admit to watching Fox News because it provides him with stories the networks won’t cover? I guess that has nothing to do with a liberal bias.

Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media, AIA’s parent organization.