MEDIA BIAS DEBATE: Does the Mainstream Media Give a Fair Representation of the News?

MEDIA BIAS DEBATE: Does the Mainstream Media Give a Fair Representation of the News? - Wolfman Productions

...or are there ulterior motives at work? Are networks like Fox News merely mouthpieces for the Republican Establishment? Are newspapers like the New York Times guilty of having an inherent leftwing agenda? Media bias is an issue that is being examined more now than ever before. The proliferation of news sources, many owned by major conglomerates, has left many Americans wondering if the news is serving the public good, or merely serving the bottom line. In this debate, noted media critics Steve Rendall or Peter Hart and Cliff Kincaid discuss the important issue of bias in mainstream media, as well as the rise of blogs and other alternatives to traditional news sources.

Steve Rendall is FAIR's (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) senior analyst. He is co-host of CounterSpin, FAIR's national radio show. His work has received awards from Project Censored, and has won the praise of noted journalists including Les Payne, Molly Ivins and Garry Wills.

He is co-author of The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error.

Rendall has appeared on dozens of national television and radio shows, including appearances on NBC Nightly News, CNN, C-SPAN, CNBC, Fox News, MTV and more. He was the subject of a New York Times profile (5/19/96), and has been quoted on issues of media and politics in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and New York Times.

Rendall contributed stories to the International Herald Tribune from France, Spain and North Africa; worked as a freelance writer in San Francisco; and worked as an archivist collecting historical material on the Spanish Civil War and the volunteers who fought in it.

Rendall studied philosophy and chemistry at San Francisco State University, the College of Notre Dame and UC Berkeley.

Peter Hart is the activism director at FAIR. He writes for FAIR's magazine Extra, and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR's syndicated radio show CounterSpin.

He is the author of The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly.

Hart has been interviewed by a number of media outlets, including NBC Nightly News, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Associated Press. He has also appeared on Showtime and in the movie Outfoxed.

Cliff Kincaid is the director of the Accuracy in Media Center for Investigative Journalism, sponsored by the conservative media watchdog organization, AIM, the oldest media watchdog organization in the U.S. AIM almost single-handedly blocked Al-Jazeera English, the voice of al-Qaeda, from gaining a foothold in the U.S. As a result, Politico has called Kincaid “one of Al Jazeera’s most vocal critics.” It also credited him for filing a complaint that forced an American program host for Russia Today television off the air. But Kincaid also made headlines by criticizing Glenn Beck for stealing research from other conservatives and using it on the air.

Kincaid co-hosted CNN's Crossfire and worked for Oliver North. He appears frequently on national TV, with recent appearances on PBS, CNN and Fox News. One of his books, The Death of Talk Radio?, looks at the possible return of the Fairness Doctrine under a Democratic president.

His books include:
• Profiles of Deception (with Reed Irvine) 1990.
• The News Manipulators (with Reed Irvine and Joseph C. Goulden) 1993.
• The Hijacking of American Foreign Policy (2003).
• Why You Can't Trust the News (with Reed Irvine and Notra Trulock) 2003.

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