Any journalist who actually ventures outside the newsroom on a regular basis and into the neighborhoods of urban America understands firsthand the combination of mistrust and resentment, fascination and fear, that many citizens feel toward the press...

I would agree, from my empirical observation in 20 years of dealing day to day with my journalistic colleagues, that a majority of reporters are probably liberal in their political orientation. I would say a majority of editors are probably much more conservative in their orientation. And most owners really don't care what political party is in power, just as long as they can influence and get the legislation they think is necessary to continue their enterprise.

The biggest problem, however, is that the American people feel there is a class divide between those who produce news and information and those who receive it, and that the class divide manifests a class bias toward most Americans, whether they are of conservative or center or liberal: if they're working class and they're poor, they're considered less important in the society. I think that's the principal bias.

Every poll that has been taken...indicates the American people do not support the current definition of free trade that both Republicans and Democrats represented by [former] President Clinton [proposed]. They saw Fast Track as another example of NAFTA. And the surprise that most people in the media had with the tremendous showing of Pat Buchanan in the 1996 Republican primaries was a manifestation to me of the fact that they were divorced from what are the problems that are really gnawing away at everyday working Americans.

Another example was the battle over health insurance. I cannot believe the level of irresponsibility of most newspapers and television reporting, attempting to explain to the American people--every one of whom was concerned about the problems of lack of health insurance. After the defeat of Clinton's health plan, which was impossible to understand and not explained very well, we ended up with what? Limitations of choice by insurance companies and HMOs -- the very thing that the President was criticized for.

Another example, [in 1998] there was a general strike on the island of Puerto Rico -- still a possession of the United States with a population greater than 25 states in the Union, the biggest source of profit for American companies overseas is the Island of Puerto Rico. There was a general strike on that island opposing the privatization of the Puerto Rico telephone company. Hundreds of thousands of people stayed away from work, gave up pay, to oppose the privatization of a telephone company, and yet there was not a single report on any major network of this event on an American territory that is so critical to the United States.

I could go on. But if we're talking about bias, there's a class, unconscious and sometimes conscious bias toward working Americans in the mass media.

Editor's Note: The content in this tool was captured by CCJ in the late 1990s, assumedly from a panel presentation by Gonzalez at conference or forum.

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