John Stossel's problem

I'm reading John Stossel's book Give Me A Break, and so far I have only one major issue with it. Stossel presents investigative reports on 20/20 and writes pieces for Reason magazine (to which I happily subscribe) that generally decry excessive government regulation. He went from his early days as a strong consumer advocate to a absolute free-marketer. That's fine, I'm one too, though not as extreme as he is.

My issue is how he refers to any media outlets that don't present his viewpoint as "the liberal media". There have been plenty of studies that thoroughly debunk the notion that our media is generally liberal. The only people who genuinely think the facts make a case for media being liberal are the far-right conservatives out there. If anything, most media outlets go out of their way to let the right make it's case - most radio and TV commentary is hard-line conservative, as are most newspaper editorial boards.

Had Stossel referred to them as the "mainstream media", his points would have held up much better. Because mainstream media outlets are not as inherently skeptical of government as he is (and Reason as well). All it would have taken is that one change to make his case much more credible. HIs book may sell better in the conservative book clubs by virtue of the word "liberal", but reasonably intelligent, FOX News-hating people like me will take him with a grain of salt that otherwise might not have been the case.

Which is a shame, because he does make some interesting points so far.