I'm sick to death of rampant bias in the media.
Actually, no I'm not. People naturally have political opinions. Their political opinions naturally will bias their coverage of an event. You can no more remove bias from reporting than you can remove flour from a baked cake. I have no problem with that.
What I'm really sick of is reporters *pretending* they're not biased. They offer stories and opinions they claim are "non-partisan" and "factual" when they are anything but. How could they be? It's bullsh*t of the highest order.
Two of my married (to each other) friends live in Washington, DC. The wife is a reporter and liberal Democrat, the husband a business guy and fiscally conservative Republican. They're a real odd couple, but it works. We all like to talk politics.
Last time I was there the husband complained that his wife's employer, a national media outlet, forbid employees and spouses from displaying political signs or bumper stickers. "Employees are to be non-partisan," she explained.
"But that doesn't change the fact that you *are* partisan," I said. "Maybe the real reason is that media companies don't want everyone to know that their employees and reporters are 90% Democrat."
She didn't like that at all.
But hey, wouldn't knowing a reporter's political affiliation help you to measure the content of their article better? It's plain fiction to claim that someone who is rabidly liberal or conservative can keep their beliefs from slanting their reporting (or debate-moderating, *heh*). It's only human, and totally natural.
Everyone gives Fox News a hard time. But hey, they don't try to hide that they're conservative. So what? I agree that their "fair and balanced" motto is baloney and that they should drop it. Similarly, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post should admit that they are composed of overwhelmingly liberal people. So what?
But they won't do it. Because doing so would deny their claims that their opinions are "factual" and not biased by their own beliefs.