The most biased news network may not be who you think it is. Given Fox News’ various snarky comments during the recent Presidential election many viewers may believe its well-known conservative slant has made it the most biased network on television. However, when it comes to slanting the news Fox is not the network that truly delivers only what its viewers want to hear. According to a study conducted by the non-partisan Pew Research Centers Project for Excellence in Journalism , MSNBC (now NBCNews ) receives that dubious distinction.
The Pew study analyzed stories surrounding President Obama and Mitt Romney and found that 71% of MSNBC’s stories showed a negative bias towards Romney, while only 46% of Fox’s stories about Obama had a negative bias. Journalism.org backs up the numbers and further adds that in overall coverage the media delivered Obama a biased edge over Romney.
In an effort to help viewers become more engaged and determine the truth for themselves Fair.org had a few suggestions. Their first suggestion is to consider the news’ sources. For instance, during the election the numbers show that MSNBC would now have made a good source for partisan news gathering because of too much of the sources reporters quoted were bias. For example interviewing a Democratic council member would be biased if a Republican council member was not interviewed for the same piece of reporting.
Fair.org suggests asking the following questions about your news network of choice: Does the company lack diversity? Do the on-air reporters reflect the fact that Americans are more than one color? Are any of the producers gay or lesbian? Are any of the writers Christian, Buddist or Jewish?
Experts note that the ultimate goal for a news network should be to share the views of different people. It is also suggested that viewers let news organizations know whenever they have a problem with the networks work.
Liberals will likely claim Fox News is the most biased news network while conservatives will typically point towards MSNBC, CNN and others. While MSNBC wins this distinction a recent study found that people who watch Fox News know less about actual news events then people who don’t watch the news at all . Ultimately determining the validity of a news stations content becomes the responsibility of the viewer.