A short news item at the American Family Association’s conservative One News Now website really got me thinking this morning. The piece quotes the cultural affairs director of a conservative law firm who asserts that social views on controversial topics like gay marriage are being manipulated and engineered by the mainstream media.

I won’t deny that the media has power, and there’s no doubt that our views are in part shaped by the books we read and the people we listen to. But let’s get rid of the notion that the mainstream media is some monolithic force that’s hell-bent on destroying Christianity and family values. With thousands of news sources available, and the most popular cable news channel arguably owing its success to being anti-”mainstream media”, the us-versus-them, liberal-versus-conservative, Christian-versus-secular allegations of organized media bias are becoming harder to swallow. (How popular does a news channel have to get before it’s considered mainstream anyway?)

I don’t doubt that most reporters from the major news outlets lean left. Big deal. No one should buy into what they see, read or hear from any news outlet without first asking questions and checking other sources. I actually enjoy reading both the Washington Post and the Washington Times. And I’m one of the few people in America who will admit that he learns something from watching both Bill O’Reilly and Rachel Maddow. (I don’t care for Keith Olbermann, but that’s more because of his snarkiness than his political views.)

If parents provide their children with a strong scriptural foundation at an early age and instill in them a passion for learning about current events, then it doesn’t really matter how “biased” the media gets. It’s a lot like food and nutrition. The answer to the obesity epidemic isn’t banning junk food, it’s educating people about how to eat and then trusting them to make the right choices. If there’s a media bias one way or the other, it’s because we allow it to remain that way. Unlike politics, we don’t have to wait until an election to have an impact on the media. We cast a ballot every time we turn on a radio or TV, open a web browser or pick up a newspaper. That’s what’s great about living in a free society. We have lots of choices.

The truth is, we can’t blame the news media for any of the problems in our culture. The power it has is no greater than the power we give it. The news is a product and we are the consumers– the media gives us what we’ll consume, so that puts most of the responsibility on us.

View Shane Raynor's Profile      Subscribe via RSS