[ExI] "Atlas Shrugged" film review

[F. C. Moulton]

Before we go round and round on this issue of identifying media as
liberal or whatever can I suggest we slow down and recognize a few things:

1.  The meaning of terms like liberal and conservative vary by time and
place.   Personally I find these terms usually useless in political
discourse and more often than not a hindrance to communication and
understanding.  Similarly with the terms "left" and "right".

2. Political positions tend not to fit well on a line.  A two
dimensional chart is arguably better however it is still woefully
inadequate.

3.  Does this mean that discussion of media and political positions
comes to a halt?  No.  What is required is to look at a media
organization and determine the political positions it takes on a wide
variety of issues and attempt to understand what reasons are behind the
positions.  The positions might be the result of long deliberation or it
might be the result of the latest opinion poll for boosting circulation
and it is quite possible that persons outside the media outlet will not
be able to tell the difference.

4.  Having a familiarity with a variety of sources is helpful in
understanding different perspectives.  For example consider magazines; I
find it helpful to subscribe to The Economist, Reason and Mother Jones. 

5.  As far as I can tell every media outlet has a bias; sometimes
conscious, sometimes not; sometimes explicit, sometimes not.  The point
is try to determine the bias and then view the contents of that media
outlet with the bias in mind. 

6. Do not forget to be self-referential; we all need to examine our own
individual biases.

Fred