Media Bias

In Skypeland one can hear a range of opinions that might not be so common in normal conversations, or in the regular media. In the United States, there is a widespread perception that the mainstream media are biased to the left, or present a liberal bias. However, I have talked to many people in Skypeland from Europe and the Middle East and other places (including a few in the US) who tell me at great length that all the media in the United States have a right wing bias. To hear them tell it, all the media in the United States have an identical bias, and they only present right wing propaganda. They say that Fox News is identical to CNN which is the same as the news in the New York Times and Washington Post and on CBS, NBC and ABC. When I mention CSPAN, NPR, PBS or Air America, often these people tell me that these news outlets are identical to Fox News. What about John Stewart? Most young people get a good fraction of their news from nonstandard outlets like John Stewart's Daily Show. What about Keith Olbermann on MSNBC? Air America is the same as Rush Limbaugh? Bill O'Reilly? These are astounding claims, frankly.

Also, it is interesting to me how many people in the UK or Saudi Arabia that claim they know US media intimately and understand it in detail, but upon investigation, turn out to know almost nothing. I have had people from the UK tell me that they do not know what NPR or PBS or CSPAN are, but still tell me that they know all the media in the US and watch it or listen to it with regularity and know everything that all Americans think. I would never make such a claim for the UK; I know there are several different BBC channels but I do not know the differences between them and I know there is something called Sky News and I know the London Times, but I know very little more and I do not know the details.

Although the new technologies like Skype are breaking down these barriers between peoples and lands, there is still a long way to go. We are at the very early stages here...