It's an unknown percentage of their fans who may or may not have any reasoning or evidence to back up their viewpoints which is why it's so frustrating their opinions are constantly used against opinions of posters in here trying to provide reasons and evidence.
The ‘evidence’ provided in here is not in any way robust enough to be a conversation stopper.
They are also using the word bias but, at a stretch, discussing conscious bias but more likely outright impartiality. They think referees are literally walking onto the pitch trying to make bad calls about them. That is not what some of us are trying to reasonably put forward on here. Conscious and unconscious bias are things you know or believe in the back of your mind. Salah being a diver would be one "truth" created by the media, Klopp using bullshit reasons for things is another I've shown Talk sport trying to create.
I think you are vastly overreaching by suggesting the media are unconsciously or consciously trying to create negative stories or narratives about LFC, because of prejudice. Maybe a little, but not to the extent suggested here. There are obviously some journalists who don’t like the club, and some that do. But on the whole the media is led by the reaction of its audience.
Why are the media spending their time between games wringing whatever stories they can out of incidents in games and what Klopp says in his press conferences?
It’s because there is a constant demand for content and copy, conversation and controversy in order to fuel 24/7 rolling coverage. There was a time when people got by happily reading a short match report in the paper, and that was it between games. There is not that much football to fuel the need for constant news. So no wonder the media spin this stuff out.
We’re not the only club to have players labelled divers, and Klopp isn’t the only boss to have reams of copy spun out of an innocuous comment in a press conference. Why do we seem to get it more than others? Well, have you seen us? If I see another transparent click bait article rage shared by a Liverpool fan I’ll scream. It’s like when Katie Hopkins was employed by the Mail - the only people interested in her opinions were progressives and liberals outraged by her latest homophobic/racist diatribes.
There is also the fact that we are a draw at the minute. We’re top of the league. We’ve a huge fan base. Football365 have a mediawatch column which is always an entertaining read, and one of the their running things is SEO optimisation. Get ‘Liverpool’ ‘ManUtd’ ‘transfer’ in a url and you can watch the ad revenue roll in.
If we’re think that Liverpool get negative press, then we need to be aware how much of that negative press we drive by reading, sharing or reacting to it.
Besides, read most other top six fans, and Liverpool are ‘media darlings’. Now I think that’s clearly bullshit, but it’s interesting that perception exists. We all go into blinkered mode when our own team is discussed. We think everyone is against us, and focus on the negative to confirm our suspicions and ignore anything positive.
With the Salah diving thing Liverpool fans looked at the coverage on match of the day, saw Danny Murphy argue it was a dive, Martin Keown argue it wasn’t, and concluded from that the BBC has an agenda against Liverpool, to which I can only say,
what the fuck? It’s an absolute classic example of people applying their own bias to these situations.
I had a look at F365 and thought it would be interested to look at their top twenty stories for evidence of this anti LFC bias.
1. Mailbox. Largely negative towards Utd following CL game
2. Article praising Moussa Sissoko
3. Bald player eleven
4. Opinion piece on Barca v Utd (scathing towards Utd)
5. Gossip column (Liverpool linked to Brandt)
6. Article on Neville criticising Pogba
7. Article on Rolandinho tipping Spurs for CL
8. Article remembering the Le Saux/Batty fight
9. Article on Neville saying LFC will be a sterner year for Barca than Utd.
10. Klopp and Milner presser report (focussing on are LFC the best team in the world comments from Porto boss)
11. 20 frozen out players (Randall, Woodburn and Oxlade-Chamberlain discussed)
12. Solskjaer making Barca CL favourites
13. Mailbox praising Liverpool, contrast to Utd being without a strategy.
14. Warnock slagging off pundit
15. Ajax’s best players and where they’ll end up (Liverpool linked to De Ligt, Neres and Dolberg)
16. Match Report on Barca/Utd
17. Match report on Brighton/Cardiff
18. Match report on Juve/Ajax
19. Midweek preview (Henderson praised, pressure on Solskjaer)
20. Paul Scoles charged with misconduct.
Obviously this is a snapshot in time, and coverage is dominated by the Utd/Barca game, so you can’t read too much into this. But in general for the last few month across the more serious media I’ve seen nothing but praise for LFC, with most of the more negative stuff (largely focussed on other fans not wanting Liverpool to win) confined to the click bait/revenue led hack sites.
I just struggle to see a tangible media bias against LFC.