The media used to be biased, presenting news that favored the political proclivities of those doing the reporting. However, it has moved far beyond that into advocacy and sometimes outright deception. My personal experience with the media is a window into that change and into the current attacks on conservatives. As I began my career as a documentary filmmaker in the late '70s and '80s, already the conservative complaints of bias were loud and also justified. Bias was easy to spot. Reporters covered stories and were sympathetic to one point of view, call it the "pro" side. So, the story would lead with the "pro" side and end with the "pro" side, sandwiching the "anti" side into the middle and giving it much less coverage. All the good quotes would come from the "pro" advocates, while the "anti" advocates were reduced to defending themselves or offering simple denials. Reporters for all three major TV networks and for all the prominent newspapers, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, used these same techniques. As a simple illustration, they would characteristically refer to the "conservative Heritage Foundation" while labeling the Brookings Institution as a "Washington think tank."
As a documentarian with right-of-center sympathies, I knew I could not look to the networks for work, given their bias. Instead, I turned to PBS, which was legally obligated to be objective and balanced. PBS was open ........................
