According to the Media Research Center, 30 million Americans rely primarily on television for their news, basing their opinions about domestic and international events and newsmakers on what they see and hear in those broadcasts. Given this fact, the issue of media bias or distortion is clearly a matter of enormous importance. Nothing influences the public opinion that expresses itself at the ballot box more profoundly than do the media, particularly television news programs.

In the last three decades, conservatives have come to believe that TV news reports on the key issues of our time tend to be slanted in favor of liberal or leftist positions. As former CBS reporter turned media critic Bernard Goldberg writes, "There are lots of reasons fewer people are watching network news, and one of them, I'm more convinced than ever, is that our viewers simply don't trust us. And for good reason. The old argument that the networks and other 'media elites' have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it's hardly worth discussing anymore. No, we don't sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we're going to slant the news. We don't have to. It comes naturally to most reporters." (February 13, 1996 Wall Street Journal op-ed)

Most members of the media steadfastly deny the presence of left ideology in their profession. In the words of former CNN and CBS reporter Deborah Potter (as reported in The Boston Globe, January 17, 2002), "I have yet to see a body of evidence that suggests the reporting that gets on the air reflects any political bias." They imply that charges of media distortion are manifestations of conservative paranoia. But it is not exclusively conservatives who are concerned about changes in news covereage. In 2002, 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney said on CNN's Larry King Live: "There is just no question that I, among others, have a liberal bias. I mean, I'm consistently liberal in my opinions. And I think some of the, I think Dan [Rather] is transparently liberal. Now, he may not like to hear me say that. I always agree with him, too, but I think he should be more careful." Earlier, Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Evan Thomas stated on Inside Washington, "There is a liberal bias. It's demonstrable. You look at some statistics. About 85 percent of the reporters who cover the White House vote Democratic, they have for a long time. There is a, particularly at the networks, at the lower levels, among the editors and the so-called infrastructure, there is a liberal bias."

This section of DiscoverTheNetworks explores the issue of media bias, its pervasiveness, and its implications for the creation of public policy in a free society. The articles that follow examine topics such as how members of the media vote in political elections; what their political affiliations are as indicated by party membership; the proportions of self-identified liberals as opposed to conservatives in America's newsrooms; the attitudes of media figures on various social, political, and economic issues and how these attitudes compare to those of the American public at large; the American public's perceptions of whether the media are biased or neutral in their presentation of the news; and how journalists characterize their own, and their colleagues', political leanings.

There are also many articles presenting commentary about the prevalence, or lack thereof, of media bias. One subcategory discusses how media bias can affect homeland security in the United States. Another subcategory documents examples of media bias in the Arab and Muslim world, particularly vis a vis their depictions of Americans, Israelis, and non-Muslims generally. And the subcategory titled "Research on Media Bias" presents the results of empirical research into the topic.