The "left" and "right" political descriptors are often problematic in this sense, since they are relative terms. If you ask my conservative parents where CNN is, they'll describe it relative to their own placement on the spectrum. But an eye-of-the-beholder center is problematic for communication, so how should one determine the middle? A mean? Median? Something else?

But that doesn't even address a dependent problem of the quantifiablilty of a political ideology. You can't boil a belief into a number; why do we pretend that polotical ideologies fall on a soft numberline? A libertarian may "lean left" on marijuana legalization, but "lean right" on gun control.

Indeed, the left-right dichonomy's inability to house non-linear opinions or ideas leads to a lot of confusion, especially so in journalism. Where does a factual, source based news outlet lie on the spectrum?

If you're going to state that a widely accepted opinion is "factually wrong" you should probably expand your argument.

Why do you think they aren't left wing? They are certainly not pro-Trump for instance.

Supposedly Fox News has the highest viewership by a large margin, at least according to Fox and Friends last week.

It doesn’t make sense to me that the liberal outlets are “mainstream” when supposedly no one watches them, according to conservative talking heads.

What exactly makes them mainstream then? Hannity was railing on and on last week too about CNN and MSNBC losing their minds because of some Trump story and that it was fake news, but he clarified their ratings are in the can and no one watches them anyway. But then he also calls them mainstream, and you’re here just repeating what he says.

How do you have it both ways? If no one watches these other channels and Fox News has all the viewership, then isn’t Fox News the mainstream?

Edit: sitting at -5 downvotes now. Would honestly love a response.

WSJ is also less of the left-wing persuasion than most other mainstream outlets. I’m not sure if I’d call it right-wing but I think many would.

Left wing biased by US standards. By the standards of the rest of the world, most US outlets are pretty right wing, especially on foreign policy matters.

Do you have evidence that they are left wing biased or is this just your opinion presented as fact?

It could also be that "left wing" more accurately reflects reality, hence its apparent "bias" in reporting.

I totally agree. It just shows that even though Google has the potential to break up the mainstream media's near monopoly on narrative creation, they choose not to do it.

The dream of the Internet (for me and many others) was the destruction of mainstream media and the creation of platforms that gave individuals and independents a voice. That does exist and is growing in momentum but it's clear that Google is on the side of the mainstream media and their political counterparts.