The right wing has, over the past few decades, made a strategic decision to claim that the media has a “liberal” bent so that they could shift the news further to the right. Turning on television or radio would clue anyone into the obvious fact that this myth simply isn’t true and hasn’t been for a long time. Here are some facts:

• According to figures published in the Washington Post, of the top 45 rated talk radio shows, there are 310 hours a day of conservative talk shows, versus just 5 hours of liberal talk shows! The prominent “conservative” radio hosts are not just conservative – they are, for the most part, right wing extremists with views well outside of the mainstream on many issues.
• In a 1999 Editor & Publisher’s survey, of the top 14 syndicated columnists in newspapers nationwide, nine were conservative (including the top four), two were centrist and three were liberal.
• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting recently found that in 2002, of think tank sources cited in the news, 47% were from conservative think tanks, 41% were centrists, and 12% were liberal.

Furthermore, the fact that nearly every major news institution in this country is owned by a large corporation indicates that liberal media simply does not exist anymore. Large corporations are more likely to be conservative because, first of all, they get benefits from the tax-cutting, deregulating Republican agenda, and second of all, they have an inherent predisposition towards conservative viewpoints that will not alienate sponsors or political support.