We investigate the market for news under two assumptions: that readers hold beliefs which
they like to see confirmed, and that newspapers can slant stories toward these beliefs. We
show that, on the topics where readers share common beliefs, one should not expect
accuracy even from competitive media: competition results in lower prices, but common
slanting toward reader biases. On topics where reader beliefs diverge (such as politically
divisive issues), however, newspapers segment the market and slant toward extreme …