Stop the Presses: A Major Newspaper Admits Its Bias

We both joke about and lament the bias in the traditional mainstream press. Left-wing bias in the media is at least as old as the old “muckraker” days when crusading journalists sought to expose the problems in our nation. Those writers almost always approached society’s ills from a socialist worldview.

A few years ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an ad campaign highlighting how “balanced” the paper was. It wasn’t. Ever since the two papers merged into one hyphenate news outlet, the left-wing voices won out. A television news station here in Atlanta used the slogan “holding the powerful accountable” a couple of years ago. They didn’t hold people like Fani Willis or Keisha Lance-Bottoms accountable; no, these reporters aimed their cameras at the more conservative leaders in the metro area.

When a media outlet recognizes its leftward bias, it’s shocking, but it can be refreshing, especially if it prompts change. A recent op-ed in the Dallas Morning News is encouraging and should give us some hope. Public editor Stephen Buckley bravely admitted that his newspaper isn’t living up to its promise of fair coverage.

“Here is my take: Having read The News cover-to-cover every day for the past few months, I know that our reporters do get all sides of the story,” Buckley writes. “They just don’t do it consistently, which isn’t good enough.” Dang.

Buckley admits that the paper’s political coverage is where the lack of balance shows up the most. He writes that he doesn’t think the reporters are doing this on purpose, but he acknowledges that seeking sources is where reporters’ biases often show up the most.

Buckley elaborates:

In particular, conservative voices are frequently missing. No doubt conservatives — including some politicians and activists — are at times to blame, as they don’t want to be quoted in The News. They see cooperation with us as a stain on their street cred.
Conservatives who don’t want to talk to us often turn to social media and right-leaning media personalities and outlets instead. They don’t ignore only our journalists; they ignore all mainstream reporters.
They may not need us, but we need them. Maybe that’s why, in conversations over the past couple of weeks, I sensed a sobriety about this issue on the part of reporters and editors. They know this is not our sources’ problem. It is ours.

Buckley sees the cycle that the suspicions of bias leading to conservatives’ reluctance to speak to the press perpetuates.

“When conservative readers don’t see their points of view in our pages, their mistrust of The News deepens, and they are even more reluctant to talk when our reporters call,” he writes. “So then their perspective goes missing again, and the bitter cycle of mistrust whirls on. You get the picture.”

Buckley tells the stories of staff members. One editor admits that her reporters aren’t as honest about their efforts to try to talk to conservatives. She seems to think that the solution is to tell people that they tried to reach out to conservatives who wouldn’t respond.

A political reporter who says he tries “to write the truth” lets the cat out of the bag when he confesses that “We have to make a better effort to get out there and talk to conservatives and people who lean right.” The ongoing refrain is that they try to get conservative perspectives on stories, but conservatives won’t talk to the press because they see the bias at play.

“In today’s culture of mistrust, we cannot afford to just say, ‘We tried,’” Buckley concludes. “Our readers are smart and thoughtful, and wherever they are on the political spectrum, they deserve a journalism that’s sophisticated and fair-minded. That is the challenge. And the promise.”

Will the Dallas Morning News succeed in meeting that challenge and keeping that promise? I hope so, but these staffers are going to have to get past whining that conservatives won’t talk to them and earn conservatives’ trust.

What matters in any reporting and opinion writing is the truth. Are we biased here at PJ Media? You dang well better believe it. But we won’t show our biases at the expense of the truth. That’s why we appreciate the support of our readers and fans.

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