Biased News
Even at the best of times, the media is never really unbiased on political topics. As Tim Harford wrote back in 2010 , about the British election: “It was a typical election for the newspapers, each one setting out its political stall in its own style… But why do newspapers take strong political positions?... The obvious explanation is that proprietors use papers as political tools… An alternative view is that readers do not want a determinedly unbiased reporting of dry facts, but wish to be entertained and to have our biases confirmed.” Could it be otherwise, wonders Harford: “In a world full of left- and right-leaning customers, perhaps impartiality is a luxury a commercial newspaper can ill-afford.” But outside of election time, the media did try to strike some sort of balance (How far they succeeded is another question). As Barrack Obama joked during one of his comedy routines at the White House: “I admire [CNN's] commitment to covering all sides of a story...just ...