Just what is bias in the news?

At the Brookings Institute forum on news trends, panelists were asked about the implications of broadcast ownership consolidation on news content. Specifically, were the political agendas of ownership taking over for the editorial judgment of journalists?

Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism got some laughs when he summed it up in one word: "The political ideology of most of these companies is profit."

Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institute agreed that it is difficult, for the most part, to spot an overt political agenda, or more particularly in the case of a multi-interest conglomerate, cleaning up the news to avoid negative press on a sister division. He said Brookings has been watching for just this thing for years, and if it's going on in any organized way it's being done remarkably subtly, because it is very difficult to detect it.

Hess offered that one of the problems with getting involved in corporate content laundering is the hailstorm of negative press one gets if caught. It's better to hire and maintain a high-quality journalism department, then leave them to do their job.

USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page did admit to bias, however. Things like conflict over resolution (we suspect this is another way of saying "if it bleeds it leads"). Black and white over gray. Short and sweet over comprehensive.

Andrew Kohut of the Press Research Center for People and the Press said that in a survey, very few reporters ever had a story idea torpedoed because it might not be favorable to the parent corporation. However, it does happen if a story idea is thought to lack commercial appeal, regardless of its intrinsic worth as a news item.

Page agreed that often publishers balk at investing precious resources in a project that holds out little promise for sponsorship or for piquing newsstand interest. In other words, the news bias which should be of most concern is not political, it is the bias that a story's ability to pay its own way often trumps its pure newsworthiness.

More from the Brookings session to come.