Appearing as a guest on Thursday's CNN Tonight, liberal New York Times columnist and CNN commentator Charles Blow managed to make a case that there is a liberal bias in the dominant media even while concluding that the liberal bias claim is "kind of false" as he asserted that there is actually an "urban media bias" instead. Host Don Lemon and CNN media reporter Brian Stelter voiced agreement with Blow's assessment.
After right-leaning CNN political commentator Matt Lewis argued that some recent criticisms of the media by President Donald Trump have been "bogus," he declared his belief that there is nevertheless generally a "liberal bias" in the media. Blow then jumped in and nearly admitted there is a liberal media bias even while denying it. Blow began:
Can I also defend media in this regard? Because I often hear people talk about this idea of liberal media bias. I think that more -- it's more accurate to say that there is an urban media bias, meaning that the largest publications, largest broadcasts are all --
Stelter and Lemon could heard jumping in to voice agreement:
STELTER: Based in New York, big cities.
LEMON: Large cities, right.
BLOW: -- based -- they're based in, like, big cities. And that informs a certain kind of sensibility.
STELTER: Yes, yeah.
Blow continued:
And that is true. It attracts a certain sort of people who want to live in places like New York and D.C. and whatever. And that means that those kinds of journalists are gravitating. So I do believe that that is a real thing. But it also means that, you know, you're rubbing elbows with people that are very different than you. And so that means that you'll probably have a different sensibility about immigrants or whatever, or diversity. It means that you may have a different sensibility about how people identify on the LGBT spectrum. It also means that those people are -- have a bias towards science --
In Blow's comment about journalists having a "bias towards science," he did not acknowledge that journalists have mostly shown a liberal bias in which scientific beliefs that they agree with as they have been unsympathetic to those who assert that human embryos are alive, adult stem cells work better for research than embryonic stem cells, and a person's sex is a physical biological condition and not what is simply in one's mind.
After Lemon injected, "Right," Blow concluded that the liberal bias claim is "actually kind of false" as he ended his commentary:
- you know, because they're -- these institutions also exist in places where big colleges and a lot of intellectuals exist. And so I think this idea of, like, people just want to beat up on conservatives and favor liberals is actually kind of false. I think you have to shift that to say it is a function of where these places are.
But journalists don't have to be consciously out to get conservatives in order to slant their reports to the left. If journalists are mostly in liberal social circles in cities where people vote 70 percent or more Democratic in presidential elections, it would be likely that being immersed in such an environment would lead to limited reporting that slants left.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Thursday, July 6, CNN Tonight:
MATT LEWIS: I'm looking at it from the context of the media being under, you know, criticism right now, and a lot of it obviously I think is bogus, but I think that the reason -- part of the reason it's working is that conservatives have for decades felt like there was liberal media bias and they couldn't get a fair shake.
And I do think that there is liberal bias, and I think when we look at today's story, the criticism would be: Why aren't we talking about this great speech -- what I think is a great speech -- in Warsaw Trump delivered where it did talk about big, important things, not petty, small things -- things like defending Western civilization.
The problem is that Donald Trump invites us to talk about something else when he holds a press conference and he attacks the intelligence community and he won't be clear about whether or not Russia, you know, attempted to hack the election. So I think that there is a valid concern about selection of stories.
BRIAN STELTER: Right.
LEWIS: But Donald Trump is actually feeding it.
STELTER: And sometimes you wonder who's the real Trump. Is it teleprompter Trump delivering remarkable speech? Or is it the guy who's unscripted at this press conference?
DON LEMON: But you know which one it is.
STELTER: Well, Don, hey, you said it.
CHARLES BLOW: Can I also defend media in this regard? Because I often hear people talk about this idea of liberal media bias. I think that more -- it's more accurate to say that there is an urban media bias, meaning that the largest publications, largest broadcasts are all --
STELTER: Based in New York, big cities.
LEMON: Large cities, right.
BLOW: -- based -- they're based in, like, big cities. And that informs a certain kind of sensibility.
STELTER: Yes, yeah.
BLOW: And that is true. It attracts a certain sort of people who want to live in places like New York and D.C. and whatever. And that means that those kinds of journalists are gravitating. So I do believe that that is a real thing. But it also means that, you know, you're rubbing elbows with people that are very different than you. And so that means that you'll probably have a different sensibility about immigrants or whatever, or diversity. It means that you may have a different sensibility about how people identify on the LGBT spectrum. It also means that those people are -- have a bias towards science --
LEMON: Right.
BLOW: -- you know, because they're -- these institutions also exist in places where big colleges and a lot of intellectuals exist. And so I think this idea of, like, people just want to beat up on conservatives and favor liberals is actually kind of false. I think you have to shift that to say it is a function of where these places are.
LEMON: I agree, but listen, I do have to say because I do have to go -- I'm sorry, I hate to cut you off -- but I also have to say that people, when you're talking about story selection. It's like when you read a newspaper, not everything is devoted to the big story of the day. This is a 24-hour news organization. There are a couple of them on television. We can have a sports page, we can have an editorial page, we can have an entertainment page.
All day long, I've been listening to people say on CNN, "The President did a great job. He had a great speech." On this particular segment that I invited you on, this was to talk about what he said to the media. We have been reporting on other things all day long. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. I do not think that that is a valid criticism. I have to disagree with you. We could all do better, but I also think the President of the United States, when he is on foreign soil, should be nicer to our country and promote our country.
