Right-wing media commentators piss and moan about the ‘left’ or ‘liberal’ dominated press. Conversely the left piss and moan about the right-wing nature of the media.

Clearly I’m slightly left leaning. Because of this my ‘shit-sniffer’ goes off every time I read some right-wing crap and I immediately pull the argument apart in my head. So to me the media seems to have a right-wing bias.

But I think what is important here is to look at the way in which these conclusions are met. I think that with regards to ‘commentators’ – the sorts that have regular opinion pieces in the major papers they are probably reasonably balanced, the difference is that (in Melbourne) the Herald-Sun has a right-wing lean amongst its commentators and that paper has a much wider readership. The popularity of the paper is not a comment on the commentators, just on the more tabloid nature of the paper.

Amongst those in the media that I know, I’d say there is generally a centre-left sort of bias. Perhaps a Labor-party-leaning bias. Certainly there have been a few surveys of late in Australia and the US that have backed this claim up. Incidentally I’d argue that those who are identifying as left-wing are probably more centre-right which is an indication of how right-wing the western world has become but again, that’s another post.

However, this is a myopic analysis in many senses (and not surprisingly the one used by the right). At the end of the day Industry and the Transnational Capitalist Class own the media. They clearly have an agenda which is made very clear to the upper echelons of the media outlets. So editors edit and the overall feel of the outlet becomes a right-wing one. This may be reflected in individual stories, the stories selected for publication or the particular angle that is taken.

Similarly the move to more ‘entertainment’ news is a shift to the right in many senses because it is often both an advertisement for the capitol interests of the owners of the media outlet and it stops people form thinking – a favourite tactic of the right (and left in more totalitarian regimes but let’s not concern ourselves with that at this juncture).

So the media is right-wing in my more ‘systemic’ analysis and this is a very insidious thing.