When most people think about “bias” in news coverage, they usually think of some kind of ideological bent, as if the Post, say, is trying to advance some kind of political agenda with its journalism. While this does apply to right-wing outlets, like the Washington Examiner, most of the rest of the press corps isn’t ideological as we would normally understand that word.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t bias, though.

The most prominent bias comes from journalists merely doing their jobs. Choices have to be made. Cover this story, not that story, for this reason, not that reason. In these choices, news outlets reveal their bias. The Times, for instance, is not center-left. It’s a publication of the very obscenely rich, that is, the American elite. When it comes to deciding “the news that’s fit to print,” the elites who work there tend to focus on other elites and what they think — to the exclusion of other points of view, because why be inclusive when you’re elite? This isn’t necessarily a bad […]