When the Rather affair broke, I suggested in “From Biased to Partisan” that the controlling business dynamic of the media would make network news more liberal, not less. Media bias has become self-reinforcing. As the public turns to alternative and more conservative outlets, the mainstream media’s audience grows more liberal. That puts on pressure for more bias, not less. Now Peggy Noonan has also predicted more, and more open, media bias, not less. Meanwhile, Jack Shafer at Slate proves the point, by admitting the media’s liberal bias–and bragging that it’s a good thing. I think the Business Week cover story on The New York Times points in the same direction. The Times has gained readers by expanding its audience to include the national liberal elite. But as Business Week reports, the Times has also lost a tremendous number of readers in New York City–many of them, I believe, to more conservative local papers. That means the readership of the Times is now much more liberal than it used to be. That puts even more pressure on NYT to keep its news coverage tilting left. In time, the paper may even proudly tout its liberal slant. The more fully media bias is exposed, the more readers desert MSM, and the more liberal the remaining MSM audience becomes. This is why CBS has not done more to admit its political leanings, or to show regret for its treatment of the bloggers. Those kind of admissions would imply a determination to change. But CBS doesn’t want to change–and can’t change–if it’s going to hold on to its own increasingly liberal audience.