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Can the Media Be So Liberal? The Economics of Media Bias
By Daniel Sutter
Introduction
Many conservatives charge that the national news media exhibit a liberal bias, despite surface appearances of impartiality. Charges of a liberal bias essentially require the existence of a news cartel. Is the structure of the news industry capable of sustaining a cartel? A liberal news cartel requires collusion among news organizations and constraint of maverick outlets. Cartels are always vulnerable to defection. Indeed, many critics who accuse the media of a liberal bias are likely skeptical of the ability of businesses to maintain stable cartels without government assistance. Competition usually forces firms to cater to their customer's preferences. Yet critics allege that all major national news organizations present the same biased coverage, which is more liberal than the median voter. A liberal media represents a failure in the news market.
The documentation of media bias has become something of a cottage industry since Edith Efron's (1971) pioneering study. Critics accusing the media of either a liberal or conservative bias make use of surveys of working journalists, content analysis of stories covered, and anecdotes about stories killed or not pursued to make their case. But a conclusive measure of political bias in the news has been elusive.
That the Media Research Center and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting respectively point to the same news as demonstrating liberal and conservative biases indicates that we lack such a measure. Unfortunately, we cannot simply "test" the news and determine once and for all if a liberal bias exists. I adopt a different approach here. I do not attempt to document the existence of news bias. Rather, I ask what might generate and sustain a liberal news media. If we cannot measure bias directly, we should consider the conditions for its survival and whether the news industry meets these conditions. The parallel is the economist's approach to market power. Monopoly power can be difficult to measure directly. A firm with market power must face little current or potential competition. A successful cartel requires entry barriers and a mechanism to prevent defection by member firms. Economists will likely reject charges of monopoly power in a contestable market, one with small sunk costs. Scholars attempting to document liberal bias have not asked questions of this type.
Specifically I consider three questions concerning the liberal media charge. First, is the source of bias on the demand (news consumer) or supply side of the news market? Two potential supply-side sources can be distinguished, owners and journalists. Although owners have used their news organizations to further their favored political causes, corporate ownership of the media makes this less likely. Proponents of the liberal bias charge place great weight on the numerous surveys concerning journalists' personal political views and voting patterns, which suggests employees as the likely source of bias.
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