How do you know the media are biased?

In addition to a number of major media surveys, The American Society of Newspaper Editors published a 1999 study that showed 78% of Americans said there is a news bias in the media.
(?Editors group releases preliminary journalism credibility study,? https://www.asne.org/kiosk/news/98jcp.htm)

Furthermore, not only do the overwhelming majority of citizens believe there is a bias, but they say that bias is overwhelmingly liberal. This, according to a 2003 poll conducted by the Princeton Review Research Associates for PEW Research Center for The People & The Press, shows a 2 to 1 margin of respondents believe their media coverage is slanted to the left.

The Left and Right will fight forever regarding bias in anything, media reporting included. Here's a University of Michigan studysite that shows how to recognize bias in the news. https://www.umich.edu/~newsbias/index.html

On September 21, 2010, the The American Muslim Organization (TAM) issued a petition signed by many prominent American and Canadian Muslims. It was entitled A Defense of Free Speech by American and Canadian Muslims. https://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/a_defense_of_free_speech_by_american_and_canadian_muslims/0018241 In it they condemn radical Islamists for acts of violence directed against Muslims and non-Muslims alike for speaking out against terrorism and intolerance by Islamists.

Now you would think this is a newsworthy item and event and could be a step toward a cooperative effort between Muslims and others to seek peace, cooperation and coexistence. Nope, try and find this document anywhere in mainstream media or internet news groups. Wasn't worth the effort to them. Violence and discord is what sells news, I guess.

Isn't there a catchphrase for that even? "If it bleeds, it leads."

Yep. I've heard "When blood flows, money flows", too.

Most newspapers are biased, probably because it means they can make more money by slanting the news in a different way- all papers would be the same otherwise. Us, the consumers, know this, so we tend to buy the paper that gives us the news how we'd like to see it.

It's sad, but the primary purpose of a newspaper is more to entertain or shock than inform, or at least it seems like it some of the time.

Still I'm not complaining, the variety of papers out there mean a lot of journalism opportunities.

If they haven't got an angle then they haven't got anything,they would end up in circles of contradictions.

I totally agree with you on this Jim! I would LOVE to hear about this on the news, but alas, if they did, they would put it there for a 10 second piece, or make it sound like something it wasn't.

And there is bias both way, more so to the left than right. Left has CNN, and MSNBC and even many of the local channels tend to go left, and the right has FakeNews, erm I mean FoxNews. (I really don't like those guys, not that I like CNN or MSNBC either just harder to write a whitty rhetoric in a few words with them)

I think that writer Bernie Goldberg is good about highlighting bias in news in his books and on his blog. When in college I was lucky to have an English teacher my Freshman year that stressed critical thinking when it came reading news articles. Bias was something us students were to look for. It was eye opening at the time. After reading Bernie's writes about his inside view of how the news is made, I've come to learn that bias is worse than my old college English teacher taught.

https://www.bernardgoldberg.com/

Couldn't be more biased than Brian Williams on NBC. I can't stand that ------

Of course it's all biased, lol. People only ever want to read or watch stuff that agrees with their own prejudice. Except when you read stuff by biologists for the comedy.