CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, June 8, 2020

Biased media: Pickled in place?

"Central View" subscribers sometimes ask, "Why is my neighbor’s world-view so different from mine?" Answer: Because the left-leaning news sources outnumber the right-leaning news sources. The left-leaning broadcast news networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have a combined prime-time viewership of 29.4 million viewers. The most-watched prime-time, cable news program on Fox News has only 3.68 million viewers. That’s a difference of 25.6 million prime-time viewers.

Recently, two of America’s media icons opined that the U.S. news media have moved so far to the political Left that they cannot return toward the political Center: "News outlets that claim to be neutral have long been creeping leftward, and their dislike of President Trump has accelerated the pace," says Van Gordon Sauter, the former president of CBS News.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal on May 31, 2020, Sauter said, "The highly influential daily newspapers in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and Boston are now decidedly liberal. On the home screen, the three broadcast network divisions [ABC, CBS, and NBC] still have their liberal tilt. Two of the three leading cable news sources are unrelentingly liberal in their fear and loathing of President Trump."

Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, says Wikipedia has lost its objectivity. Sanger cites a number of articles on such subjects as: abortion, religion, and drug use in which Wikipedia tries to lead the reader to liberal positions favored by Wikipedia’s editors. On May 23, 2020, Sanger wrote, "It is time for Wikipedia to come clean and admit that it has abandoned neutrality as a policy. At the very least they should admit that that they have redefined the term in a way that makes it utterly incompatible with its original notion of neutrality..."

But it is not only ABC, CBS, NBC, and Wikipedia that have gone politically Left. Major social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have shown so much liberal bias and even censorship of conservative opinion that Congress is drafting legislation to make sure non-violent expressions of opinion are not censored.

Left-leaning search engines such as Google consistently stack search results so the left-favoring stories appear first. Right-favoring stories appear last or not at all.

And so, these questions arise: How will the MSM behave during a second Trump Administration? Alternatively, whenever President Trump is out of office, will the MSM be able to recover its lost credibility?

An example used by alcohol-abuse counselors offers a clue: Place a cucumber in a solution of vinegar, water, and salt for a week to three weeks. At some point, the cucumber will become a pickle. Even if the pickle wanted to change back to being a cucumber, it cannot.

But why would today’s MSM want to move back toward the political Center? CNN and MSNBC have a niche audience of President Trump-haters that is just enough to keep them in business. They have no incentive to change. Thus, CNN and MSNBC may be forever pickled.

There’s nothing wrong with non-violent political bias expressed openly and forthrightly. But pretending to be politically neutral while twisting the facts or making up fake news, promoting violence, and doctoring photos to achieve a political goal dishonors Journalism and is a national disgrace.

2020. William Hamilton.

William Hamilton is a laureate of the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. Dr. Hamilton’s latest book: Formula for Failure in Vietnam: The Folly of Limited Warfare can be ordered toll free at: (800) 253-2187 Or, go to Amazon.com.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com