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Given that most media outlets are owned by for-profit corporations and are funded by corporate advertising, it is not surprising that they seldom provide a full range of debate. The right edge of discussion is usually represented by a committed supporter of right-wing causes, someone who calls for significantly changing the status quo in a conservative direction. The left edge, by contrast, is often represented by an establishment-oriented centrist who supports maintaining the status quo; very rarely is a critic of corporate power who identifies with progressive causes and movements with the same passion as their conservative counterparts allowed to take part in mass media debates.

Next: Censorship

Extra! articles:

• I'm Not a Leftist, But I Play One on TV: Progressives excluded as right battles center, by Steve Rendall & Anne Kosseff (9-10/04)

• Not Even the New Republic, by Anne Kosseff & Steve Rendall (9-10/04)

• Power Sources: On party, gender, race and class, TV news looks to the most powerful groups, by Ina Howard (5-6/02)

• Doublethink on the Editorial Page, by Janine Jackson (7-8/98)
• Bias Short on Substance: Former CBS reporter claims TV has "leftward" slant, by Steve Rendall and Peter Hart (3-4/02)

• Solid Ratings Don’t Protect Progressive Radio Voices: Are "controversial" and "mean-spirited" code words for "left"? (7-8/00)

• Booknotes' Slanted Shelf, by John F. Cowan (7-8/00)
• Think Tanks Y2K: Progressive groups gain, but right still cited twice as often, by Michael Dolny (7-8/01)

• Think Tank Monitor: The Rich Get Richer, by Michael Dolny (5-6/00)
• Think Tank Spectrum, by Michael Dolny (5-6/96)
• The Pundit Spectrum: How Many Women, by Laura Flanders (11-12/95)
• Philadelphia Inquirer's New Spectrum (11-12/95)
• Military-Editorial Complex (10/95)
• Television's Political Spectrum
• Crossfire: Still Missing a Space on the Left (4/96)
• Brookings: Stand-In for the Left
• Too Many Conservative Columnists, Says Conservative

• David Broder and the Limits of Mainstream Liberalism, by Edward S. Herman (11-12/94)
• Public TV Tilts Toward Conservatives

• "The Loudest Silence Ever Heard": Black Conservatives in the Media, by Lionel McPherson

• Coddling the Conservatives

• "Move to the Right": Pundits Tried-and-Failed Advice (1-2/95)
• Propaganda From the Middle of the Road, by Jeff Cohen (10-11/89)

• ABC Muddles the Social Security Debate: Not "everyone agrees" with distorted claims (1/14/05)

• MSNBC's Rightward Slant on Debate Coverage (10/12/04)

• NPR's One-Sided "Liberal Media" Debate (3/25/02)

• George Farah on open debates (7/23/04)

• Sheldon Rampton on Banana Republicans (5/28/04)

• Jeff Pearlstein on Stephanie Salter (9/20/02)

• Ann Coulter on "Slander" (8/9/02)

• Maybe the Public-- Not the Press-- Has a Leftist Bias (7/5/98)

• From the Left: A Deafening Silence (3/30/97)

• The Case of the 9-11 Photo (5/16/02)

• "The Liberal Media" -- A Poltergeist That Will Not Die, 3/21/02

• American Journalists Have No Reason to Be Smug, 4/7/99
• Only Some Commentators Are Ready for Prime Time, 1/21/99

• FAIR Column: Goldberg's 'Bias' isn't supported - because it's not true (Arizona Republic, 1/20/02)

• FAIR Study: The Cost of Survival: Political Discourse and the "New PBS" (6/99)

• Examining the "Liberal Media" Claim: Journalists' Views on Politics, Economic Policy and Media Coverage (press release, 6/98)
• Are You on the Nightline Guest List? (press release, 2/6/89)
• All the Usual Suspects: MacNeil/Lehrer and Nightline (press release, 5/21/90)
• Study Finds National Public Radio Fails To Reflect Public (press release, 3/29/93)

• Slanted Sources in NewsHour and Nightline Kosovo Coverage (5/5/99).

• Institute for Public Accuracy