I've always believed that the media is inherently liberal...AFTER they are done chasing dollars.
You can attack any individual commentator however you wish, becuase they span the spectrum, but from an 'in toto' overall news reporting content measure - my guess is liberal every time...becuase thats where the people and the money are in reporting.
my reasoning ?
1) UCLA study -
Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist / UCLA Newsroom
Its not tough to find fault with this study, but thats the most comprehensive I've seen so far (and they document their methodology...)
2) Personally - when in college, everyone I knew that was in journalism, expressed many (not all) typically left-wing views. And IMHO college students tend to be more liberal than the overall population (commonunal living quarters, less financial disparity (ie- all students at OU had the same access to the new gym/workout center/sports/climbing wall), liberal professors leading them (how many prof's were successful business leaders, military NCOs, rednecks or other 'typical' right wing positions ? some of them yes, but most ?)
at OU and UC - the engineers and some buisness majors expressed right-wing views, but the engineers largely kept to themselves...(they were too busy studying?)
Ohio Univerisity - 16k students in SE Ohio, rural area/college town.
Univ. of Cincinnati - 25k students, Urban campus, lotsa commuters
3) The buisness of most media outlets is making money- especially once you get above a certain size. This makes me belive that 'big media' is not politically motivated, but more money motiveated. So who makes news ? Engineers or movie stars ? what are the political leanings of each ?
There might be one station with more conservative commentators, or one editor that deletes all items questioning AGW, but when mostly liberal people go into media - its gonna be a liberal institution...AFTER they are done chasing the money...becuase both liberals and conservatives are greedy
generalizations ? Midwest US experience only ? yes, yes they are, if you wish to counter- cite your points and counter the arguement, not the poster- I'd like to hear where your experience differs.
-John