Media Bias Not Exclusive to Cable News Networks

In our culture, it has been taken for granted that newspapers and other forms of print media have the best interest of the public at heart, and that instead of taking advantage of the public for commercial gain, a newspaper is there to provide a sort of public good.

What must be understood is that newspapers are owned by individuals or are regulated by major corporations. While these entities may be in the business of delivering the news, they're also in the business of turning a profit. Because profits are at stake, sometimes what stories are covered and how they're covered can be impacted by the owner or regulator's political or financial interests. This forms a bias toward the news, which unfortunately the public must take the brunt of in the end.

And because the news is generated and organized by human beings, imperfections in understanding and personal conflicts and opinions can find their way into the news stories the public reads, thus spreading that bias laced within the facts contained within a story. Because the public generally doesn't understand how the newspaper industry works, some of these euphemisms and slanted views become just as much a fact as the numbers and quotes used within the story are fact because they really happened. Although the opinions and buzz words within are not fact, the damage has been done.

Media bias can come in the form of which angle a new entity decides to take on an important issue, or what topics to focus on out of a particular event. Bias is inherent in deciding "newsworthiness" because it is based upon personal beliefs and standards one has learned either on their own or has been taught from supervising journalists. In either case, the decision making process, even if based on company or journalistic standards comes from an individual or a group of individuals coming to that conclusion based on their own preferences.