Originally Posted by Quentin

For most viewers/readers I think their perspective on coverage by news organizations breaks down like this:

* If the source they are reading/watching offers information that more or less fits their general political worldview, then it is "objective" and "valid."

* If the source they are reading/watching offers information that does NOT fit their political general worldview, then it is "biased" and "bogus."

The "Truth," such as it is, given our limited ability to perceive and discern it, is very inconvenient for knee-jerk followers, be they left or right wing. Truth has tendency to manifest in ways that are hard to accept for people who tend to view the world through a largely political lens.

Here's a fascinating little social experiment to try out on your most committed liberal and conservative friends: ask them for the names of three mainstream media figures (commentators, news anchors, "experts" and other talking heads) that are on the other end of the political spectrum from themselves, but that they believe to be intellectually honest, and reliable sources of factual information -- not of opinion, just simple, factual information.

In my experience, most really committed followers on the right and left have a very difficult time coming up with those names, or even ONE such name. I personally believe that's because "bias" is a two-way street; an objective listener probably finds it in fewer places than a committed democrat/republican, liberal/conservative listener does, because such listerners respond in a reflexive, negative fashion to information and/or opinion that doesn't "feel right" to them, in terms of their political perspective.

As for whether or not Fox is a "news organization," I'd say it is. All news organizations have their biases, and their agendas; Fox's bias just seems more obvious and glaring because there are so many other sources out there with the opposite bias/agenda, and Fox arguably does an even worse job of giving opposing viewpoints a fair shake than does CNN, CBS, ABC, etc.