Reality has a liberal bias

A friend shared this graphic that appears to have over 2 million views online. That’s encouraging considering all that we are learning of the fake news industry and international propaganda efforts through fake news. I do not know the original source.

I commented that conservatives would likely say that those mainstream sources listed as “great sources to get news” all need to be moved to the left in the chart. Certainly I recall specific cases and stories within the past month where conservatives blasted reporters at Fox, WSJ, NPR, BBC, ABC, CNN, The Hill. Washington Post, and The Guardian for their inherent left wing liberal bias. Oh the flip side, it seems fairly rare for liberals to blast this media group for its conservative bias. Liberals are more likely to attack the truth of the underlying bit of information.

This leads me to the conclusion that the very nature of attempting to collect and report on information is in opposition to a conservative agenda that prefers to find support in belief and not information. To be successful in moving its agenda, a conservative government must suppress, belittle or bypass the free press. Stephen Colbert said “reality has a well-known liberal bias” and comedian Rob Corddry said “The facts have a well-known liberal bias”.

The issue came into focus recently when a conservative colleague criticized my small year end donation to wikipedia. The ensuing conversation made me realize how some conservatives are so invested in the concept that information is not a good thing; something that I had always presumed to be a shared value for all of us. Later the same week, I was criticized for a short article for accountants that said personal opinions are not valuable when a legal citation is needed. Again, I was surprised to learn that some think of personal opinion as more valuable than a factual legal reference. These experiences helped me realize that I must do what I can as an individual to help draw the distinction between fact and opinion.