Media Bias in Europe: Worse than the U.S.?

American conservatives can get to exercised about liberal media bias in the U.S. that we sometimes forget that it’s even worse elsewhere.

Like Europe, for example.

Via NewsBusters, an example from the war in Afghanistan.

Reporter Michael Fumento, embedded with U.S. forces in that war, describes two Associated Press reporters from Spain.

One of the AP reporters says he believes 9/11 was a Bush administration conspiracy hung on al Qaeda. . . . I don’t hear the other reporter sound out on the subject, but he never takes off his Che Guevara T-shirt. Maybe these two will provide unbiased footage and commentary notwithstanding their personal views--maybe not.

When liberals here in the U.S. proudly proclaim that President Bush is vastly unpopular in Europe, and therefore is a bad person and a bad president, they are ignoring that Europeans are judging him based on what they see in their media.

Biased media produces biased opinions. This can be counterbalanced by a diversity of media sources. But when it’s not what the people believe -- especially on matters far from their personal experiences -- will simply reflect what the media tell them.

Indeed, negative opinions of Bush around the world are the result of a (literally) unholy alliance. Secular leftists who dominate the media in Europe dislike him because he’s a conservative, but also (probably to a greater degree) because he’s a Christian and a Texan.

In the Muslim world, they hate him because he is allied with Israel.

But neither the secular Europeans nor the anti-Israel Muslims have any particular moral authority.