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(CNSNews.com) -- Conservative bias in the American news media is "not simply a matter of taste, but of life and death," a panel of liberal radio talk show hosts and representatives of leftist organizations told a group of Democrats on Tuesday.

"There is no more urgent problem facing America today," stated Mark Lloyd, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), one of 10 panelists who spoke on "Media Bias and the Future of Freedom of the Press."

The forum was chaired by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and focused on what Lloyd called "ideological distortion" that is "built into the current system."

No individual or group dedicated to the monitoring of liberal media bias was invited to the event, though Conyers said he might invite "an independent or a Republican" at a similar forum in six months.

"Whoever has the most money has the loudest voice," Lloyd said, which means that "multi-national corporations dominate the debate today. Profit is what counts," instead of "promoting a democratic dialogue."

Other panelists focused their criticism on "the right-wing media," which Al Franken, a comedian and radio talk show host, described as a "coordinated propaganda machine capable of causing symptoms closely resembling mental illness."

In his opening statement, Franken named "the Fox News Channel, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the Washington Times and, of course, talk radio" as media that work in league with the Bush administration and corporate-funded think tanks.

Franken also charged that people in "right-wing radio," such as conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, "routinely lie, they spread hate, and I chose to do the job I'm doing right now" on the liberal Air America network "because someone needed to push back."

After Franken stated that he had gone on USO tours to boost the morale of U.S. troops abroad, he accused Limbaugh of being a "one-man demoralizer," for telling his listeners that "liberals want soldiers to die." Limbaugh's program, he noted, is broadcast on Armed Forces Radio.

"These guys will just lie," Franken added, since "their purpose is not to serve their audiences, but to manipulate them."

Eric Alterman, another senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of the book "What Liberal Media?" said there's so much wrong with the media "that one could go on forever."

Over the past five decades, Alterman said, Republican politicians, writers, television pundits and think tanks have been remarkably successful at convincing the American people of a "liberal bias" in the media.

"Using the very same media outlets that they complain don't give their cause a fair shake, they know that slamming the other side is little more than a way to get their ideas across while drowning out opposing voices." Alterman called it "a massive bait-and-switch operation."

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