Is MSNBC biased to the left?

Watch one of the pundit/opinion shows on MSNBC (cable channel 50), either Countdown with Keith Olbermann (nightly at 8:00 and 10:00) or The Rachel Maddow Show (nightly at 9:00 and repeated again later).  Find evidence of a "liberal" slant to the show, not only in what the host and guests say, but who the guests are, the use of graphics to persuade the viewer, the regular segmants (like the "Worst Person in the World" segment on Countdoown), the kinds of questions asked, the presence or absence of opposing views, etc.  Are any of the FOX News strategies employed?

Comments

[Dion Beary]

Over Spring Break, I found myself watching quite a bit of news media (most enjoyable was watching Jon Stewart pull a David Frost in his interview with Jim Cramer from CNBC's "Mad Money") and at times, I found myself flipping back and forth between FoxNews and MSNBC, noticing obvious bias both have. However, even though MSNBC does have a fairly obvious liberal bias, it's important to note that FoxNews' bias seems almost hateful and misleading at times. For instance, on Hannity's America the other night, Hannity reported that Obama's approval ratings are "tumbling" and cited the fact that the new President's approval ratings are lower right now than they were in February of 2001 for Geroge Bush. Why he would choose to cite one of Bush's highest years as far as approval ratings go is purposely misleading to the viewer. Sure, MSNBC has a Democratic bias but, to me at least, it seems as they do it by just omitting certain opinions, rather than adding almost malicious ones.