Is the media biased?  Has media bias always been a problem in the United States, or is it a more recent development?  Does the mainstream media have a Leftwing bias?  Does bias exist on the Right?  Saving Elephant’s host Josh Lewis welcomes Peter Pischke to the show to discuss all things media bias.

 

Peter Pischke is an aspiring journalist and host of The Happy Warrior podcast, a journalistic and intellectual Conservatarian commentary on the news of the day from a more positive perspective.

 

Peter earned his Master’s in journalism from South Dakota State University, but a chronic illness known as Chronic Pancreatitis causing intractable pain and disability has made it challenging for him to fully pursue his passion in journalism.  He attributes his interest in journalism, politics, and news-making to his chronic condition.  When he became sick in 2007 there weren’t any streaming media services to keep him occupies.  Instead, he discovered Glenn Beck while educating himself on the topic of global warming, and turned to talk radio as a way to pass the time.  This inspired him to research the topic more closely and voraciously consume books about media bias and journalism by John Stossel, Bernard Goldberg, Jonah Goldberg, and others.

 

Peter has run for school board twice (and lost), got a South Dakota representative re-elected, and worked on a successful mayoral campaign.  My second run for school board is what got him into podcasting.  The rancor he experienced from his fellow citizens was so very bad that it made him want to create something to share news and help bridge the gap between the political tribes.

 

In addition to podcasting, journalism, and politics, Peter’s passions include patient advocacy for those suffering from chronic conditions, particularly chronic pain.  He’s recently begun doing charitable patient advocacy with chronic pain patients (primarily with social media).  This year, due to struggling with untreated intractable pain and an article he wrote on the topic for The Federalist, he decided to get involved with providing comfort and advice to chronic pain patients.  He believes this is a population under enormous stress and health problems, but society has ignored their suffering almost completely, and the despondency is so very bad.  Specifically, Peter has become very passionate and vocal about the chronic pain aspect of the opioid crisis.

 

The following stats and links were referenced in the show:

 

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/25/media-bubble-real-journalism-jobs-east-coast-215048

 

https://www.cjr.org/innovations/measure-media-bias-partisan.php

 

https://www.journalism.org/2019/06/05/many-americans-say-made-up-news-is-a-critical-problem-that-needs-to-be-fixed/

 

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/media-bias-left-study/

 

https://datausa.io/profile/soc/news-analysts-reporters-correspondents

 

https://www.adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html