Me-di-a: 

–noun

1. a pl. of medium. 

2. (usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely: “The media are covering the speech tonight.“

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/media

“America today is a confused society, caught up in a terror war, a culture war, and a media war, where honesty and professional standards have vanished.” —Bill O’Reilly, Fox news commentator.

“The most dangerous thing about TV is its equalizing factor, its lowest common denominator factor. And that’s what I fight against all the time.” —Keith Olbermann, MSNBC commentator.

Is there a more ubiquitous enemy of all people than “the media”? It is denounced by many people for many reasons. It is anti-Republican and anti-Democrat, anti-Business and beholden to business. It is anti-religious, it is too religious. It is anti-Western, and it is too centered on the West.  It focuses only on lurid scandals, and it doesn’t investigate them thoroughly enough.

And no one will ever admit that “the media” is biased in their favor. A Republican might admit that talk radio and Fox News are in his favor, but “the media” is undoubtedly against him. A Democrat might concede MSNBC, and basically all comedies, but “the media” is still run by corporations, and they are most definitely against the Democrats.

And I’ve never heard anyone, in discussing any issue, say “I’m just glad the media is on my side.” Inevitably, there are conspiracies by the “media” against everyone’s beliefs.

So, what I wanted to know is: What is “the media”? Go back to that definition of media at the top. It neglects to mention the internet,  but it is accurate when it defines media as “the means of communication”. 

Woe to him against whom the very means of communication are biased.

The fact is most people aren’t thinking quite this broadly when they say “the media”. They mean the Press–journalists. Sometimes artists are included as well. But if the means of communication were biased against anything, it would be, well, Newspeak. 

I think the internet has basically killed any institutionalized bias in the media. MSNBC and Fox news still exist, but they are not the only source of information for anyone willing to use the internet.  

To be continued…