Lost in the Shuffle

I've meant to mention, for some time, blogger Zman Biur's summary of a Jeff Jacoby talk delivered in Israel. Jacoby offered five reasons that the mainstream media appears hostile to that nation (and, of course, appearance is essence in news media):

• Ignorance leads to reliance on accepted storylines.
• Differences in access between Israel and its neighbors translate into an enforced gloss in Arab countries, while Israel lays bare all of the dark news on which reporters focus in any location.
• Frequent association, both personally and professionally, among journalists encourages pack behavior. Breaking from the usual narrative will require explanation to editors and perhaps over martinis after hours.
• Of course, with respect to ideology, members of the mainstream media tend to fall on the Left, from whence most anti-Israel sentiment currently derives.
• The Israeli media is like other Western media in its penchant for criticism of its own nation and sympathy with others.

In breaking down the catchall excuse of "bias" in the media, I wonder if Jacoby has uncovered underlying reasons for leftist bias more broadly. On initial glance, the points he makes certainly seem applicable to other topics than Israel, as well as to other sources than journalists.