Carolina Bias
According to North Carolina State University communications professor Robert Entman there has been a reduced presence of a Democratic voice in the media and therefore the public will become less interested in issues that concern the Democrats. Professor Entman who was addressing a College Democrats forum on the media and is writing a book on media bias also said “The Democrats need to take up issues and make them into a big deal in order to make them news.” What exactly has the professor been reading or watching lately? Surely not the one sided coverage of the war, hurricanes or the confirmation hearings of John Roberts to the Supreme Court.
Over the last few years conservatives have tended to dominate the radio talk show airwaves and thanks to Fox News Channel have appeared more often on television. That doesn’t mean that the media is any less concerned with liberal issues. It just means that the playing field is leveling out. The professor should find that to be a positive since the public is now exposed to a wider range of opinions, but like most liberals this development only exposes the weakness of their arguments.
Entman was speaking to his type of crowd shedding any pretense of being an unbiased observer. As one student put it “The main reason we had Dr. Entman come to speak was to put a liberal opinion out there that is not being represented, that doesn’t really have an outlet.” He doesn’t have an outlet? Does he have a computer?
The best quote in my opinion came from Jessie Mendez the club president who said “We had this forum because Democrats have long been stereotyped as dominating the media with their liberal bias. This is obviously not true.” I guess Jessie has missed all those polls and studies that show a majority of the public believe the media is too liberal.
North Carolina may be a red state, but the major colleges and universities are still Carolina blue.