The recent news stories you've cited would make interesting subjects for an objective evaluation of any biases in media coverage, but your opinion - or mine - would not constitute the kind of hard data needed to reach a conclusion about this question.

I don't know too much about Fox News because I seldom tune to it, but I gather you are claiming that Fox stands out because it is conservative - the exception - while other news channels are so liberal - the rule. Whether or not your casual evaluation of Fox News amounts to unbiased empirical data is questionable to me, but see below.

We now come to the one bit of hard data you presented. I will concede your point that only 10% of media workers are conservative, and I'm glad you brought it up, for herein resides the central core of the Liberal Media Myth.

The core of the conservative “liberal media” case is that surveys have shown that a majority of journalists vote Democratic in presidential elections. Therefore, conservatives argue that a pro-Democratic bias permeates the American news media. Conservatives then bolster this claim of liberal bias with anecdotes, such as the alleged inflections of Dan Rather’s voice on the CBS Evening News or the supposed overuse of the word “ultra-conservative” in news columns.

But other surveys on the views of individual journalists suggest a more complicated picture. Journalists generally regard themselves as centrists with more liberal views on social issues and more conservative ones on economic issues, when compared with the broader American public. For example, journalists might be more likely to favor abortion rights, while less likely to worry about cuts in Social Security and Medicare than other Americans. [See "The Myth of the Liberal Media," Extra!, July/August 1998.]

But the larger fallacy of the “liberal media” argument is the idea that reporters and mid-level editors set the editorial agenda at their news organizations. In reality, most journalists have about as much say over what is presented by newspapers and TV news programs as factory workers and foremen have over what a factory manufactures.

...

The Republican and conservative bent of senior media management also is not limited to a few “name” publishers and executives. A survey conducted before Election 2000 by the industry magazine, Editor & Publisher, found a strong bias in favor of George W. Bush among top editorial decision-makers nationwide.

Newspaper editors and publishers favored Bush by a 2-to-1 margin, according to the survey of nearly 200 editors and publishers. Publishers, who are at the pinnacle of power within news organizations, were even more pro-Bush, favoring the then-Texas governor by a 3-to-1 margin, E&P reported. Gazing through the rose colors of their pro-Bush glasses, the news executives incorrectly predicted a Bush electoral landslide in November 2000. [See E&P, Nov. 2, 2000]

Price of the 'Liberal Media' Myth by Robert Parry.

In his article, Parry has several comments about Fox that you may find interesting, but I'm not holding my breath that this article will change your opinions or perceptions about media biases.

It is my fervent hope, however, that liberals, moderates, and progressives here will read this article in its entirety, follow all the included links, and bookmark it for future reference when confronted with the inevitable, the ubiquitous, the relentless Liberal Media Myth.

S