The conventional wisdom in progressive circles is that there is a mainstream media that is relatively bad at doing it's job, and leans right in many ways, and then there is a right-wing media apparatus led by Fox News which spreads conservative propaganda to the masses. But this analysis is forgetting the news that is closest to home, literally.
Local news is terrible. It is sensationalist, unsophisticated, and frequently downright sloppy. Yet, a lot of people watch it, and rely on it. According to a Pew survey, 74% of adults use local news broadcast as their main source for local news. Even though the news on these broadcasts is ostensibly local, it has the ability to affect people's perception on national issues.
I don't really watch local news, but my wife does, so sometimes it's on in our apartment when I wake up. Sometimes it comes on after a football game and I can't find the remote and I'm too lazy to turn the TV off. From the little local news that I do watch, I can see how it contributes greatly to the conservative psyche. Here are some of the problems:
1. Anecdotes. Local news loves anecdotes. They're out to "find the story" and not to present information in its full context. I remember after the ACA Supreme Court decision, my local Fox station went around and interviewed "small business owners" who all said that their businesses would have to shut down because of Obamacare. There was no real fact-checking of these claims, and more importantly, no discussion of the positive aspects of the ACA. If this was broadcast in the national media, at least a group like Media Matters would call them out. But I don't think Media Matters has the resources to comb through every local news broadcast.
This love for anecdotes has been especially prevalent in the last month during the rollout of the ACA. I've seen story after story on local news about person A losing their health insurance, but absolutely no stories about the millions of uninsured people who finally have access to care.
2. Context-free "Investigations." The "best" part of local news are the investigations from the "Investigation team" or some pithy name like that. In Baltimore, the local NBC station runs a series on "Wasting your tax dollars!" This makes for good TV, because usually the story they are telling is pretty outrageous. Government worker has 3 government cars! Of course, the broadcasts never give any context as to how little money is lost due to dime store corruption in the context of a larger state budget. And it gives the unchallenged perspective that the government really just sits around and flushes your money down the toilet.
3. Crime coverage. Remember in Bowling for Columbine, when Michael Moore gave us that montage of local news broadcasts describing every suspect as a "young black man." He was right on. You rarely see a local news broadcast without some reference to a black criminal. It perpetuates racial stereotypes in a subtle way that seeps into people's sub-conscience.
To an extent, all of these are problems with the national media too. But at least on national issues, there is a place to find an alternate perspective, and there are enough Media Matters-types who will call out the news media for shoddy coverage. Local news largely gets by unscathed. There's really no rebuttal to the way the stations present local issues, especially in localities that are too small to have their own alternative news sources.
The worst part is that local news anchors become local celebrities and celebrated personalities, meaning people listen to them. Progressives have a responsibility to call out terrible local news coverage and not let this slop define public opinion.