Unsurprisingly a book published by an arm of the Rupert Murdoch media empire claims that American TV is full of left wing bias.
Unsurprising because, well it's published by the owner of Fox and because well it's obviously right. Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing but saying that this is something surely obvious to everyone.
The world of mass entertainment is and has for a long time been liberal, looking all the way back to the days of Hollywood pushing against the limits of the Hays code until broke.
Today even the 'safest' comedy mega-hits are arguably rather liberal. Until the breakdown of Charlie Sheen "Two and a Half Men" was basically the biggest sitcom on American TV and whilst no-one can accuse of it being cutting edge and it's comedy is quite safe in terms of content if you look closely it's quite the liberal.
Think about it revolves around a divorced single father, his idiot sun and (until recently) his unmarried playboy brother who barely works. At one stage his ex-wife has a same sex relationship and pretty much every episode features extra marital sex of some kind or another.
The previous comedy hit to really dominate the landscape, 'Friends' is also full of relationships and situations that would probably drive conservatives mad. But it's not just comedy, it seems true of drama too. The West Wing is of course the obvious example but also take a look at the likes of Six Feet Under, E.R., Dexter and even the likes of Law & Order.
And of course Hollywood itself is still way out there. Whilst it may produce the odd right leaning film for everyone of those there is probably at least five closer to the likes of "Bridesmaids". I can name quite a long list of films made in reaction to the conflict in Iraq and the war on terror, they may have mostly been avoided by unkeen audience at the box office but they got made and a good few are far from what you'd call Indie Dramas.
So whilst it sounds like the book has some interesting inside views I don't think it tells us anything that wasn't obvious. Ok, there is some counter examples, (many would cite 24 but even then I'm not convinced it's prevailing right wing in it's bias) but in world where Fox itself broadcasts The Simpsons, Family Guy and more I don't you can say the theory is wrong.
4 comments:
I started writing a response to this, but it got so long and involved that I posted it on my blog instead.
As a short response, though; over-representation (which I accept is true without argument) is not the same thing as bias; there's no point in discussing the inbalance between liberal and conservative TV shows without defining what either of those terms mean; and anyone looking to prove that US TV is firmly in the liberal camp needs to explain why American drama shows are so littered with people sticking guns in each others' faces.
Haven't got time to read your post until later but to start with having violence/guns does not make something automatically right wing.
Of course it doesn't, any more than having consensual sex outside of marriage makes something automatically left wing. That's the position you seemed to be taking, though.
I suppose I haven't been that clear, I guess I'm thinking more in terms of liberal rather than left-wing.
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