Third-party bias

Thanks to Danielle Rindler for coverage of IU research on media bias. The oft-asked question – is the media biased toward conservatives or liberals? – is easily answered, without formal research.

“Both,” is the obvious answer.

Especially in presidential elections, mass media do the Republicans and Democrats a priceless service by limiting coverage to these two money-oriented parties. And society in general lends the same helping hand, including the smaller media outlets, which critique the strange two-party coverage of the mass media while also giving us little useful info on the “minor” presidential candidates.

Further, any Republican or Democrat who does not poll well in months leading up to the primaries can expect media exposure to fall off dramatically. This nation can no longer distinguish an election from a horse race.

In a nutshell, there is not much real journalism in U.S. election coverage, and voters accept this as reasonable. It would be a step forward to see even one Web site or small newspaper give informative and equal coverage to every candidate throughout the next national election. But of course it would make far more sense for journalism to prevail at all times throughout the media and for people in general to insist on nothing less.

If anyone believes there isn’t a media bias favoring large, well-endowed parties, please name all of the candidates who ran for president last November. None of us should fancy ourselves informed voters if we don’t even know the candidates’ names and basic positions.

Jim Shackelford
Bloomington