In her column “Media ownership can cause biased news,” Janel Sheehan states an obvious (liberal) distaste for News Corp., and their flagship product, FOX News. Unfortunately, she fails to recognize three very basic facts:

1. News Corp. is a business. As a business, they seek to generate profits. They do this by airing programs that appeal to an audience. Their target audience is obviously the Religious Right, so it should be no surprise that the opinions and analysis expressed on FOX News should pander to that demographic. “Finance-driven media outlet?” It’s called “capitalism.”

2. Nobody forces people to watch FOX News. There are several other news channels on basic television that allow people to get their news, as well as online news sources, printed media and the radio (people still listen to that thing, right?). Those that do watch FOX News choose to do so because they likely agree with the opinions expressed on that channel. Are those opinions wrong? No. They might be dominated by ancient, dogmatic ideals, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t entitled to hold them.

3. There is inherent bias in all news reporting. For example, look no further than your own article, which slams FOX News for “garishly vulgar and blatant displays of prejudice,” but spends only a few words to flippantly entertain the idea that other news channels like CNN and NPR just might be flavored with a light liberal seasoning. By the way, those channels also have corporate sponsorship.

Here’s the bottom line, Janel: if you don’t like it, don’t watch it, but don’t expect others to universally share your opinions (see what I did there?).

Dan Gray
Senior, economics

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