MSNBC (political bias sells)

It's interesting to watch the rapid growth of the MSNBC channel which has positioned itself as the "anti-fox News" and is proudly guilty of having the "liberal bias" Fox News is always accusing the rest of the media of having. MSNBC doesn't have the ratings of Fox yet, but it's growing rapidly, and its most blatantly biased programming (i.e. "Countdown with Keith Olberman")seems to get the highest ratings. I don't think this means the US is becoming any more liberal, however. I suspect most of MSNBC viewership is actually coming at the expense of CNN and the traditional networks. American viewers seem to like bias in their news a lot more than honest attempts at objectivity--and it's ratings and sales, above all else, that is the name of the game. This is rather a disturbing trend. Perhaps, someday the right-wing will come to believe the earth is flat, and the left-wing will come to believe that the sun revolves around the earth, and no one will be able to dissuade either of them of this because they refuse to listen to anybody they don't already agree with (obviously, I'm exaggerating a litlle, but it's a genuine problem).

I watch CNN, the BBC, and regularly read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. CNN, the BBC, and The New York Times do trend somewhat to the left, while The Wall Street Journal and The Economist trend somewhat to the right. But if you look at the hard news stories of any of these, you'd be hard pressed to figure which story came from which because they ALL make an honest attempt to be objective and report both sides of the issue. It's unfair that right-wing politicians like John McCain accuse The New York Times of being "biased" every time they print an unflattering news story about him. If you actually READ the New York Times, they have also printed plenty of unflattering stories about his Democratic opponents as well.

If you really can't tell the difference between The New York Times and "Countdown with Keith Olberman" (or between The Economist and the most blatantly biased programming on Fox News), I think it's YOU that has a dangerously skewed view of reality.