Abstract The myth of the liberal media in America has led to a popular public perception that journalists serve as a watchdog of the government for the people .This liberal bias has been challenged by an increasing number of scholars .The case of the mainstream news coverage of the 2007 debate over reauthorization and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reveals that journalists slant while framing the news .Over and above the basic question of whether the coverage is explicitly positive or negative,news slant is presented in three further message dimensions .They are : who the asserted beneficiaries of the policy are;what the assertion's basis of reasoning is;and how high the complexity of the argument is .According to the findings,the individualism that dominates American political culture,a relatively unsophisticated,apolitical audience that does not demand complex policy argument,the media's reliance on official sources for information,and the bias toward those officials with the most apparent power toaffect the outcome disadvantaged the proponents of SCHIP expansion from the start .The pro- Administration slant is therefore a result of the interactions of journalistic decision biases with the news management skill wielded by contending teams of media manipulators .
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