Overview - Neoconservative Media

It is worth noting that this study addresses the political ideas and values of the questioned journalists and media representatives (what most conservative critics claim is the source of the alleged bias) and demonstrates not only that this bias does not exist, but that it is irrelevant to questions of biased content. It is interesting how many people today uncritically identify "bias" with a difference in opinions or values. Actually, bias is any non-random conflation of, or partiality with, retrieved data, and may happen for any of a number of reasons—only one of which (and not necessarily even the most important one) is opinion. In fact, a proper study of bias in media reporting would examine the range of sources used by media outlets, not values or opinions (as was done in the study of Fox News' commentary programming, linked elsewhere on this page, for instance). The study discusses this fact also. The full questionnaire used and the data reductions are presented in appendices.