NPR: Liberal Bias?

[AltF4]

I happen to be very sensitive to how I consume information, especially important things like the news. So naturally, I care a lot about the nature of political bias when I'm getting information. I've watched and listened to many different news sources, and never much liked them except NPR. I find it objective, intelligent, in-depth, and relevant.

Full disclosure is that while I actively try to disassociate with traditional political labels, I'm fairly left-leaning. Virtually every social issue on the standard high school litmus test will put me on the left side. There are a great many other issues that I disagree with, but it wouldn't be unfair to call me a leftist.

I'm well aware of the fact that it's a standard human tendency for people to not recognize bias when they're hearing things they agree with. Which is why this subject is interesting to me. I'm more than able to recognize that Fox News is a heavily right-leaning organization. I'm also quite able to recognize that MSNBC or The Daily Show / Colbert Report are left leaning. (CNN is a glorified tabloid, but the BBC and Al Jazeera can each be good at times)

But I just can't see it in NPR, despite its reputation as a supposed leftist organization. I listen to NPR very regularly, and have been really searching for a reason to agree with the reputation but I just can't. In every case, they remain objective and informative. I never even hear on opinion to agree with.


Is there anyone that disagrees? Am I blinded to something obvious?

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

National Politburo Radio, leftist? Nah, never...

Jokes aside... I never saw it. I mean, when I listened to clips from it on WERU, I could hear the bias, but then again, WERU also ran the Hightower Low-Down, which is just a few tics right of Michael Moore... Shows like Democracy Now have always been very neutral and balanced, IMO.

 

[blazedaces]

I'm mostly with you on this one Alt. I've heard the statement that npr is biased on television before, so I tried looking it up. Unfortunately I can never find good sources explaining anything. I really tried searching high and low for clear examples of bias, and I just couldn't find more than a few questionable stories.

That being said, this is also relevant to the topic: NPR terminates contract with juan williams. Is npr clearly biased because they fired an employee on what many would call misquoting him on a fox news show... or is this topic blown way out of proportion?

To get back to the topic, I too constantly doubt my sources. I try very hard to question any source and take great measures whenever I hear something questionable to look it up again later. I too worry that what I'm hearing could be biased. I have yet to ever find a clear example of npr being biased. Could it be that I'm biased in the same way and can't hear it? It's... possible, but the longer I look up almost everything I hear and the more I check and re-check every news story again and again, I'm finding that idea just lacking in substance.

-blazed

 

[Sucumbio]

Personally I'm interested in knowing how much they've changed since Rachael Maddow left. Though she'd sooner identify herself as a "Progressive" rather than anything else, her being there certainly made it... hers. She's just got that kind of personality.

As for vetting my sources, I trust MSNBC to be accurate about the news, but it's obvious when they're dissing the "red" agenda, and for that I just laugh to myself and move on. Mainly because the republican/tea-party agenda is for the most part laughable, and folks like Chris Matthews et al do a great job demonstrating this.

 

[Battlecow]

Yeah, I can always hear the bias when they're discussing political stuff.

 

[blazedaces]

Yeah, I can always hear the bias when they're discussing political stuff.

Care to elaborate? At least provide an example please...

-blazed

 

[Aesir]

NPR often reports real news, which has become a tenet of liberalism now a days.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

NPR often reports real news, which has become a tenet of liberalism now a days.

This.

Look, I hate to generalize, but the honest truth is that a vast number of conservatives consider anything that is to the left of Fox news to have a real "liberal bias", regardless of how BS this is. To coin the famous phrase by Colbert, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias". Report about how tax cuts for the rich have completely failed to stimulate our economy and you're a socialist. Report about how it is logically hypocritical to demand smaller government and then demand that the government butt into the lives, bedrooms, and wombs of homosexuals and pregnant women, and you're a liberal anarchofascist. Claim, in agreement with history, that the country was not founded on christian principles, and you're an atheist ******* with a liberal anti-christ agenda.

NPR is about as biased as the BBC. I'd take Comedy Central and MSNBC as sources of real left-wing bias, but NPR? Some evidence please. Like, if you wanted to show it for MSNBC, you point to people like Maddow and TYT. For Fox, you point to, well, anything they do. They've won more awards for blatant lies and misinformation that any other networks combined. Including somehow paint the picture that everyone else is biased to the left. Well, maybe they respect Conservapedia.

 

[rvkevin]

For Fox, you point to, well, anything they do. They've won more awards for blatant lies and misinformation that any other networks combined.

Like being awarded the network with the most misinformed viewers?. When your viewers are more misinformed than if they didn't listen to your network, I think you lose the right to call yourself a news network.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

Oh look, NPR had about 73%. ^_^

 

[Aesir]

imo not saying government funded news is good either, as we can see in many communist countries it's a very bad idea. However corporate run news tends to have a very strong bias. Even the most liberal news stations tend fold under the pressure as we saw with MSNBC and their lack of coverage of the GE tax story.

 

[Amide]

Eh, I wouldn't call Stewart or Colbert's shows biased. Sure they're both liberal, but they're fair and aren't supposed to be impartial news people. I think they assume the viewers know that too, and Colbert is particularly satirical in his approach to his material.

MSNBC is obviously liberally biased, but I think you guys shouldn't target Maddow. She's one of the less pathetic ones there. I like her.

I agree with this thread's general consensus that NPR isn't biased, but I'm curious about your interpretations of the NYT. I do think it seems pretty accepting of gay marriage, and its editorials are generally liberal, but I tend to think it's one of the better sources out there. Thoughts?

 

[Battlecow]

To coin the famous phrase by Colbert

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Carry on.

 

[Dre89]

I don't know anything about these news stations, but wouldn't the deomgraphic of its viewers tell you if it's biased or not? If the majority are liberal, it's probably biased that way.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

I don't know anything about these news stations, but wouldn't the deomgraphic of its viewers tell you if it's biased or not? If the majority are liberal, it's probably biased that way.

Unless one of the two political parties deals more with facts and reality than the other. For example, imagine Party A basically lies its *** off, offers unbalanced and false propaganda ("Party B's candidate is a pedophile"), and generally ignores reality for what they want reality to be, or at least want their constituents to believe reality to be. Party B, on the other hand, offers the facts, even when the facts are not in their favor. Supporters of Party B would be far more willing to watch an unbiased news station, whereas supporters of Party A watch Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.

I'm not implying that democrats are automatically fair and unbalanced, but I am saying that it's far more likely for them to take an unbiased source like the BBC as valid than the republicans (I have often heard the sentiment that even channels like the BBC and PBS, both incredibly balanced and evenhanded, are "biased towards the libruls").

 

[AltF4]

Bias isn't an inherently bad thing. That just means that the source has a stance on the issue, and wants to further it. I mean, all my writings on technology and law are "biased". It only becomes an issue when you don't take it in moderation.

I will watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report, they're funny and often very on-point. And I know where they're coming from. I'll get information from places like BoingBoing, Slashdot, TorrentFreak. Some more specialized news from places like Groklaw, EFF, and Crytogram.

But when I want to get some just plain facts and information from a trustworthy source that isn't trying to push an agenda, I go to NPR. So if that isn't the case, then I care about it.

Lately they've been covering the Republican primary race heavily, and without judgement. I think it would be hard to glean bias in there.