The tendency to see bias in the news -- now the raison d'etre of much of the blogosphere -- is such a reliable indicator of partisan thinking that researchers coined a term, "hostile media effect," to describe the sincere belief among partisans that news reports are painting them in the worst possible light. [...] The best-informed partisans were the most likely to see bias against their side.
This is a huge thing to contemplate... it implies that most of what we think we know is only opinion, a projection of our personal beliefs and conditions upon "reality". It is very good that such information is coming into the public dialogue. A mature culture might well be based on the arbitrariness of all views, rather than on absolutisms of any kind. And I hope to find a story on that possibility someday; personally, it boggles my personal mind!
"If I think the world is black, and you think the world is white, and someone comes along and says it is gray, we will both think that person is biased," Ross said.
Sure. OR it could be that the world really is round, and those who say it's a deformed oblong are simply abdicating their responsibility to present grounded analysis. In other words, suggesting that it's gray may in fact be a biased, pandering, or simply incorrect.
Why, in my bias against what's become of the mainstream news media, does it not surprise me that they'd have an interested in promoting the idea that it's the readers of the news who have the "problem", and not the producers.
Hmm. Funny that.