The Difference Between Partisan Media and Mainstream Media

Favoring one political party over another is as foolish as favoring the Hawkeyes over the Cyclones

During three decades running an Iowa TV newsroom, I’d say 75% or more of the complaints I received about our political coverage came from Republicans and/or conservatives.  I spent a lot of time responding to each and every one of those complaints, whether they were phone calls, emails or snail mail.  I never quite reconciled why the majority of complaints came from one side of the political spectrum.  Were we really that biased?  Are conservatives fed a steady diet of reasons why they should distrust the so-called mainstream media?  When responding to a viewer with a concern, I could occasionally persuade them that a story we had done really WAS balanced – they just didn’t hear that part.  But most of the time, we would agree to disagree and we’d go our separate ways, hopefully me having heard the concerns and the viewer having heard my explanation. 

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

I was raised in a small mom-and-pop grocery store where my family’s number one rule was “the customer is always right”, so my instinct was always to try to fix things and make the customer happy.  I soon realized that it doesn’t work that way in journalism, a business of ideas and words. I can’t make a media consumer happy by offering the journalistic equivalent of a free loaf of bread or gallon of milk.  

The complaints we received in the newsroom really increased once conservative media like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News gained prominence.  I often received angry phone calls from older men between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm on weekdays, the time when Rush played on radio in the Des Moines market.  Rush would get his listeners so riled up carping at what he called the “lamestream media” that listeners would call and give me grief just because they needed to get something off their chests.

The argument I used with those concerned about our coverage was that all of us in the newsroom came to work that day with a goal of hitting the ball down the middle of the fairway, as much as humanly possible.  Viewers and readers come to stories with their own biases and that can influence how they perceive a news story.  The other argument I used is that journalists are supposed to do tough stories on those in power. 

The real problem, as I see it, is that the rise of partisan media like Fox News and MSNBC made it easy for viewers to tar us with the same broad brush.  If those outlets are clearly biased, then local TV news and newspapers must be, too, they reasoned. 

Here’s the real difference between partisan media and the rest of us.  Before the rise of partisan media in the 1990’s, most media outlets wanted to appeal to as many consumers as possible.  Their business plan, then and now, depends on being seen as fair and unbiased.  More viewers and readers means higher rates for advertisers, and that is good for business.  Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch developed a different business model, built on a niche audience they could serve with what makes those people happy.  They will stay loyal as long as you keep them happy by giving them stories they agree with.

But that doesn’t hold true for the rest of us in traditional, mainstream media.  Our entire business is built on gathering as many eyeballs as possible.  Favoring one political party over another is as foolish as favoring the Hawkeyes over the Cyclones.  Why alienate half of your potential audience?  It’s not good for business.

In three decades of news management, I never once heard our corporate owners try to influence our political coverage to lean one way or another. Not one single time.  They would encourage us to improve our coverage, to provide more political coverage (particularly in Iowa), encourage us to put on political debates – but never to favor one candidate over another, or one party over the other.  Why?  Not only would it violate the trust we have with viewers, but it would be bad for business. 

Sure, some station owners, like Sinclair, have been accused of forcing their stations to run conservative fare, but they are the exception.

Most mainstream media outlets will do stories you occasionally disagree with, or that you think are unfair.  But over time, across many issues, and hundreds of stories, I think traditional media do a good job of “hitting the ball down the middle of the fairway.”  We have a different ethical and business model than partisan media.  And you can take that to the bank.

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists 

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Iowa and California

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Macy Spensley, The Creative Midwesterner, Davenport/Des Moines

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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