Finally, if people only or predominatly get their news only from sources that lean solidly one way or another, what use is it to say that there's an overall 'bias' one way or the other? From the individual's perspective there isn't one.
Last year the ex-chief executive officer of the ANZ Bank Mike Smith was asked by the Board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC - Australia's taxpayer funded public broadcaster), to conduct an investigation into perceived left wing bias in content and programming. His part of the review was about the ABC's portrayal of business, companies, the economy and stakeholder groups such as unions.
He freely admitted beforehand that he
thought the ABC was full of left wing bias, was anti-business and championed progressive causes too much.
After conducting the review, he explicitly stated that he felt the coverage was rigorous and balanced*, and on the whole portrayed business in a positive light.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/abc-cleared-of-antibusiness-bias-in-independent-review-20160722-gqbp68.htmlIt's quite amazing how perceptions can be changed if you take the time to engage with content. The broader point is I'd like to make is that how can you claim an organisation is biased if you never consume it's content?
If you do consume enough content from a MSM source and still claim bias, why do you (generally, not specifically directed at any one poster) bother reading it?
It's something that I notice/observe a lot on various internet forums...
Progressives will not consume content from what they perceive to be right wing news sources (such as Fox), and therefore won't really be in a position to argue against it, or will stay silent (because they "know" it's rubbish anyway), and engaging in a debate won't change anything.
Conservatives seem to watch every minute and read every story published on what they perceive to be left-wing media, and will jump on any indication, no matter how small, of left-wing bias. They will also outright ignore any story published by "left-wing" media that supports a conservative point of view.
I honestly don't know how some of them have so much time to spend consuming media that they hate so much.
* The review also found that the ABC is biased in favour of covering big business, and doesn't give enough coverage to small business. The ABC acknowledged this by saying it does not have the resources to cover individual small businesses easily in a mass media format (TV/Radio), and that it is comparatively simpler to cover big business stories and link them to events such as stock-market movements.