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Perhaps you wonder why we're still in Iraq. Maybe you can't understand why 1 in 3 Americans still believes Saddam attacked us on 9/11. Maybe you can't understand why more people aren't outraged by the Bush Administation.

Ever searched for the so-called liberal media bias yet fail to find it?

Don't worry, you're not alone and there's a very logical explanation for it.

Media Matters - Media Matters - Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns
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• Sixty percent of the nation's daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced.
• In a given week, nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of 125 million. Conservative columnists, on the other hand, are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than 152 million.2
• The top 10 columnists as ranked by the number of papers in which they are carried include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.
  
• The top 10 columnists as ranked by the total circulation of the papers in which they are published also include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.
• In 38 states, the conservative voice is greater than the progressive voice -- in other words, conservative columns reach more readers in total than progressive columns. In only 12 states is the progressive voice greater than the conservative voice.
• In three out of the four broad regions of the country -- the West, the South, and the Midwest -- conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists. Only in the Northeast do progressives reach more readers, and only by a margin of 2 percent.
  
• In eight of the nine divisions into which the U.S. Census Bureau divides the country, conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists in any given week. Only in the Middle Atlantic division do progressive columnists reach more readers each week.

This ofcourse is just covering the print media. Conservatives and Republicans dominate talk radio. Add in the evangelical wing which also dominates talk radio and you end up with a moral minority family values conservative Republican juggernaut flooding the airwaves.

Then consider TV. What "liberal" broadcasts are there? CNN has moved to the right and while MSNBC features Keith Olbermann the majority of its news is center to right wing. We all know Fox News is a propaganda outlet for the Bush Administration.

I realize most of you know this already and that it's really no mystery why the country is in the shape its in. We live in a society where corporations dominate the media message and hold unprecedented influence over government.

It doesn't excuse the responsibility of the people; we all owe it to ourselves and our country to be well informed and make decisions based on facts not propaganda. But it certainly doesn't help that there are fewer and fewer unbiased sources of news that base their reporting on facts, not talking points.

Even the news aggregators and syndicators like the AP end up with bias and spin in their headlines. For example, it was recently widely reported by the AP that Bush would draw down troops in Iraq. The headline makes it appear that we are getting out of Iraq. But the reality is that what Bush is proposing is to *possibly maybe* remove the surge troops at the end of summer '08. That's not a troop withdrawl. That's a maintaining of the status quo.

But for whatever reason, the media outlets and syndicators choose to report that Bush is going to draw down troops. The majority of Americans don't make it past the headlines and thus another 12 months time in Iraq successfully bought by the Bush Administration. The next time you glance at headlines from syndicators like AP and Reuters pay attention to how headlines are spun in favor of the Bush Administration.

Then ask yourself, "why is that?"

What stake does a syndicator like AP have in making Bush look good?