I think this is an important meta-question worthy of its own thread, as it's more evergreen than much of the political discussion, when tends to be dominated by recent developments.
It does not seem plausible that the main problem with the American press is that they go too easy on Republicans. This is a comment mainly from people who want the media to reflect their own views, which tend to be left-wing. The cliche they may use is that reality has a left-wing bias, but they'll make all sorts of selective arguments. For example, they'll suggest that aspects of a massive piece of legislation are popular without polling the entirety of it. Benefits poll well. Spending does not.
There was a recent study (mentioned in Tendrin's twitter link) that suggested the media was harsher on Biden. But a lot of it was bullshit.
Nate Silver noted that they viewed analysis of bad poll numbers as being biased against Biden. The algorithm also coded certain words as positive or negative, when the story was more nuanced or in some cases didn't match the coding. For example, the word "high" is considered favorable, even in the context of "high taxes."
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/st...56792390668292
There are of course unpopular things Democrats do and fight for. Their preferences on immigration or
late-term abortion do not poll well. There are also all sorts of media stories defending unpopular left-wing arguments (riots are fine, defund the police, etc.) or critical of mainstream positions.
It is a fair point that there are non-partisan biases. For example, a study of middle eastern coverage showed that there was a bias of favorable coverage towards whichever side advocated for peace at a given point, but that tends to be based on military strength and temporary advantage rather than human rights or which side is the aggressor.
A major factor is going to be that the American media is largely staffed by people who are left of center, and live in liberal enclaves like coastal cities, regularly hanging out with people who have similar backgrounds. So they're more likely to be left-wing. That said, actual journalists will need to talk to Republicans on occasion, and will get an understanding of their position, which will confuse people from the same circles who follow the media but don't need to interact with Republicans. This may be why some of the most embarrassing left-wing media pieces come from people who aren't standard journalists, but are ostensibly writing about something else.
This is true. Lies should be exposed. Voters should be given the information necessary to make up their own minds.
However, this can get difficult. Voters don't like being told that things they like don't work, so there are financial incentives against this. And there are all sorts of grey areas where you can understand how reasonable people may disagree, or even be unable to understand how someone else can believe something.