Mark Halperin acknowledges liberal media bias

[DVaut1]

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DVaut, I agree with a lot of what you said, but the problem is that the media markets itself as unbiased. Fox claims to be "fair and balanced", not a conservative news network. I'm not going to argue for or against bias in the media, but what you said can't work unless each network markets itself accordingly.

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Why does how the media markets itself matter? Assume Fox tries to make a conscious effort to capture the market share of conservatives alienated by other outlets. These consumers like to hear how fair and balanced their media source of choice is. These consumers also feel other media sources aren't "fair and balanced". Again, I'm missing why the Fox News tagline is relevant.

And I fail to understand what "the media markets itself as unbiased" means. WTF is "the media"? Is the media some monothilic entity? Rush Limbaugh is part of the media. Does he market himself as an unbiased source of information? What about The Weekly Standard? What of Lou Dobbs on CNN? What about This Week host and former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos?

I wouldn't bother answering these questions. I think you missed the point.

My point, in sum:

News media isn't some special kind of product that magically violates logic, ignores profit motive, and spits in the face of the audience it caters to. The news media market isn't a command economy where the product supply is controlled by ideological overlords; as evidenced by the commentary of ABC News Chief Mark Halperin, when a media outlet like ABC loses market share to Fox, it doesn't blindly ignore this information and head back to the Liberal Ministry of Information for new strategies on how better propogate The Message in the face of the Fox insurrection -- no, what seems to have happened, according to Halperin, is that (oh my god whoda thunk it) ABC takes this information and attempts to better appeal to conservatives it seemingly alienated and who now consume the product of a competitor. It's a revolutionary business strategy so shrewd and diabolical that at least a few people with high school diplomas must have been in the room when it was concocted.

So, I ask: why should we care about bias? It's merely a reflection of what the market wants.