If you don’t have the stomach to handle a slaughterhouse, then you might not want to read this Hot Tip because I’m about to slaughter one of the conservative movement’s most sacred cows.

I’m sure I’ll get a lot of less-than-cordial feedback, but that’s okay.  That’s what blogs are all about.  And, as a conservative, I think it’s about time for us to overcome a generally-accepted 1970’s conspiracy mindset that puts us at a disadvantage in almost every political battle we fight.

Warm up the meat grinder cause I’m about to turn a conservative sacred cow into hamburger.

Here goes nothing…

Despite all the whining and complaining you hear from conservatives across America, I don’t believe the media is biased.  That’s right.  Let me give you a second to get up off the floor.  I’ll say it again.  I do NOT believe the media is biased.

To be completely transparent, I have to tell you that I did, at one time, believe the media was biased.  But that belief was based on my political upbringing and not reality.

You see, when I was being “taught the ropes” of conservative politics I was told over and over and over again how the media was our enemy, how they hated conservatives, and how they would never give us a fair shake.  I accepted those claims at face value and dealt with the media accordingly (i.e. I avoided the media at all costs).  The more and more I heard and saw supposed examples of media bias, however, the less and less of a believer I became.

It seemed to me that most of the bad stories attributed to media bias were actually the result of other things.

I could give you a long list of examples, but I’ll limit myself to two quick ones that illustrate what I mean.

First, I had a friend who was a reporter for the supposed mother ship of media bias (shhhhh, she is a raving right-winger).  She called one day asking me to recommend people she could contact for a story on same-sex marriage.  I gave her four names.  She called back a few hours later to tell me none of them returned her phone calls.  I personally left messages asking a few of them to return her call (and let them in on the little secret about her worldview).  They never did.  As a result, she filed her story that afternoon without quotes from a conservative.

To my surprise, one of the guys I’d personally called used that story as an example of media bias during a speech he gave a few months later.  While that played well to the crowd, the reality was that a conservative would have been quoted in the story if one had called the reporter back.

Media bias?  I don’t believe it was.

Second, I once received a call from a client who was fuming because of a quote from him in a newspaper story.  Apparently, the candidate had spent 98% of the interview talking about one thing and the reporter used a quote from the other 2%.  The candidate was about to call the editor of the paper and wanted my advice on what to tell him.

My first question was, “Did you say it?”  The candidate said “yes.”  That’s all I needed to know.  Bottom line is that by saying it the candidate had opened the door for the reporter to use it.  Had the candidate not said it, the reporter couldn’t have used it – at least not as a quote.

Media bias?  Again, I don’t believe it was.

I have more than just a few stories like these that I believe illustrate the fact that “media bias” has become a convenient and widely-accepted excuse for conservatives to justify poor media relations.

Now, let me be very clear.

While I don’t think the media is biased, I do believe they are liberal – overwhelmingly liberal.  There are a number of studies to prove that. And there are, without question, a few blatantly-biased members of the media.  I don’t believe it’s fair, though, to use the actions of a few agenda-driven members of the media to label the entire media industry.

In most cases the examples of “bias” we hear so much about can be traced back to a reporter who hadn’t done his or her homework, a faulty media relations strategy, a bad interview, or some combination of those things.

It’s important to keep in mind that bad coverage and biased coverage are two different things.  Same thing for bad reporting and biased reporting.

So, why am I making this argument?  Two reasons:

First, there are way too many good conservative candidates out there who put themselves at a severe disadvantage by avoiding the media altogether based on a misguided belief that the media is biased.

Second, there are a number of easy-to-implement tips and tactics YOU can use to improve your media relations and avoid mistakes that would have been previously chalked up to media bias.

Over the next few days – perhaps longer – I’m going to provide some practical tips and tools you can use to improve your media coverage and, hopefully, change your perspective on media bias.  With that, I’ll leave you with one final thought on media bias.

If the media is so darn biased, why was Ronald Reagan so darn popular?  After all, liberals hated him.  If there was anyone in recent history they would have wanted to sabotage it would have been Ronald Reagan.  The answer?  Reagan and his media team understood the media and used that understanding to develop and implement an effective media relations strategy.

Until next time, remember, the convenient explanation usually isn’t the real explanation.