Media Bias: The More, the Better

David Boaz makes an excellent point about media coverage of President Obama’s health care proposal:

The media tendency to refer to the defeat of a big-government scheme as “failure” reflects a possibly unconscious bias toward government action.

Well put. Why not make it conscious, then? Call it truth in advertising.

An objective media would be nice. But we are unlikely to ever see such a thing. Even the very best reporters are human. And humans are biased. Different people are biased in different ways, of course. But objectivity is still a fiction. Being open about this ugly truth could do much to reduce public confusion.

If readers have a clearer idea of what exactly they’re reading, they can run the articles through their liberal and conservative B.S. filters as needed, and more easily get to the heart of the matter.

Few readers seem to bother so long as the liberal Washington Post and conservative Washington Times continue with their objectivity charades. Bias can be harmful and misleading, true. But denying it only avoids the problem. Let’s tackle it instead.