News media bias in general
If
Bloggers Aren't Journalists, Neither Are Many Members of the MSM. [George] Stephanopoulos earned
his political science degree at Columbia University and he has been a Democrat political lion ever since,
apparently making him a desirable spokesman for the party's agenda. ... MSNBC, a cable station claiming to be
"a leader in breaking news, video and original journalism," is anything but. It is stocked with partisan
Democrat anchors and, in one instance, Morning Joe Scarborough, a former Republican RINO. Al Sharpton?
Chris Matthews? Rachel Maddow? Lawrence O'Donnell? These are journalists? ... Watching MSNBC
is a chore and an exercise in frustration waiting for the other side of the story. It simply will not be
presented. Instead we are treated with angry scowls and insulting language thrown at Republicans.
WashPost
Ombudsman Won't Quibble: The Post Has a Liberal, Pro-Obama Bias. On Sunday, Washington Post
ombudsman Patrick Pexton noted that Deborah Howell, Post ombudsman from 2005 through 2008, said at the end
of her tenure that "some of the conservatives' complaints about a liberal tilt [at The Post] are valid."
He added: "I won't quibble with her conclusion. I think she was right." Pexton said this
even as he characterized his electronic mailbox as a harsh place when conservatives get going on the paper's
fawning Obama coverage.
The
Self-Destruction of the Mainstream Media. For the past forty years the mainstream media has
become increasingly liberal and more overt in promoting the policies of the Democratic Party. This
evolutionary process reached its zenith in 2008 when the media were instrumental in Barack Obama being elected
President. Many journalists dropped any pretense of objectivity and became not only cheerleaders but
active de facto members of the campaign. During the past two decades no other sector of the economy
has experienced such overwhelming financial and employment devastation.
Media Matters.
Among the most conservative South Carolina primary voters, fully 89 percent had an unfavorable opinion of
the media. The same poll showed Gingrich beating Romney in the primary, 37 percent to
28 percent — fairly close to the actual outcome. Conservatives not only resent the liberal
media for trying to pick the Republican nominee (n.b. the media prefer Romney) but they also resent Republican
politicians who, once elected, spend their careers appeasing the media while abandoning conservative principles
(n.b. the supine leadership of the Republican party in the House of Representatives).
Obama's
Favorite SuperPAC, The Activist Old Media. Let's call it what it is now, folks. The biggest
SuperPAC out there right now is the one working overtime to destroy any Republican who might be so bold as want
to take on the media's Dear Leader in the White House. ... The Activist Old Media has two very specific goals in
mind here, 1) keep the "horse-race" going as long as possible because it will help ratings and revenue,
2) work to damage whomever becomes the GOP winner.
Progressives
and the Media: Still Together after 100 Years. A century ago, a segment of the American media
abandoned their role as facilitator of public discourse and became active participants in making politically
achievable the transformative change being offered by the newly formed progressive movement. The
marriage was undeclared, yet under the cover of darkness they conceived a leviathan child which fashioned a
mammoth government beyond even the imagination of Hobbes.
Election Deceptions.
Conservatives frequently complain that our presidential candidates are chosen by the media for us but give
little thought to how this is actually possible. It is, and has been for decades, the modus operandi of
the media to work hard to predispose the attitudes of voters toward their candidate by planting the seeds of
doubt about the chances of his opponents.
Agenda Journalism: Reporters
and news writers not only assume that they understand a story before it unfolds, they approach events with a
cookie-cutter mentality, a prefabricated plot line. They come equipped with an entrenched political
perspective that enables them to shape the news according to prior specification, a practice that has come to
be known as "agenda journalism." ... Similarly, the controversy over the now-defunct Journolist group does not
cloud the fact that a number of its members were clearly playing partisan politics, attacking Republicans and
suppressing unsavory facts about Obama.
Context-Challenged
Media Doesn't Tell Full Story About Obama's Fourth-Quarter Fundraising. Long, long ago, the
Associated Press simply decided to stop being objective. Other than the final act of officially declaring
their left-wing bias, the AP has done just about everything else required to announce that they are on a crusade,
among other things, to ensure Barack Obama's reelection. But even then, you would think credibility would
mean something to the AP.
Santorum vs.
the Meat Grinder. [Scroll down] Conservative viewpoints are extreme, but the liberal
counterpoints never are so. It's extreme to criticize contraceptives, but not extreme to give them
to 12-year-olds in public schools. It's extreme to oppose all abortions but not extreme to favor every
one of them (even partial-birth abortions) and want them funded with taxpayer money. It's extreme to
believe in traditional marriage, but it's not extreme to support poly-amorous groupings of three or five
lovers in loose "family" arrangements.
Will Obama Go to War?
[Scroll down] Three separate news reports from media outlets that are the first to cheer Obama and genuflect
before his ideas. Three media outlets that are supported by a viewership made up largely of
Liberal-Progressive-Democrats. Three media outlets with staffs and on-air talent that also overwhelmingly
support the president and the L-P-D agenda. All three statements from official Obama administration
spokespersons reported by the so-called mainstream media without comment. One needs only a minimal
amount of imagination to visualize the reactions of these same media outlets if a spokesperson representing
the Bush administration had spoken exactly the same words in exactly the same context.
The biggest little story of 2011.
If the mainstream media had their way, President John Kerry would likely be in the final year of his second
term. Vice President John Edwards might be a leading candidate in the 2012 Democratic primary. In
this alternate universe, John Kerry's three-month stint in Vietnam would be a footnote in his storied rise to
power. And most Americans wouldn't know that he acquired three purple hearts without bleeding in battle.
For the most part, that information reached the American electorate through new media — and in spite of
the efforts of the broadcast news outlets.
The No News Stories of 2011.
As a general rule, when you watch a story on CBS, listen to NPR, or read the New York Times, assume
that the news is prepped in such a way as to suggest the opposite of what really happened.
Amanpour's
Snooty Brand of Liberalism Comes to an End at ABC. On December 13 Christiane Amanpour announced
she would no longer be host of ABC's This Week. Her run as host of that show was filled with shots at
conservatives and their issues as she called Tea Party candidates "bizarre," and scolded that tax cuts would
"hurt" the poor.
Rahm
has deep financial ties to new Sun-Times owners. It's nice to have friends in the media. Mayor Rahm
Emanuel sure will have a ton of buddies in one key local media outlet, because virtually every one of the Sun-Times' new
owners has been a major contributor, business partner or civic ally of his.
Ezra Klein: From 'Journolist' To Liberal Activist.
In the early days of the Gulf War, pundits marveled at the specter of Iraqi troops surrendering to journalists.
Well, now it's even worse: Journalists are giving the Democratic Party its talking points.
The Ever-Worse Establishment
Media. Once again, the Media Research Center identifies the real haters.
Fighting for The Mainstream.
You're probably getting your news from people whose approach to information is so one-sided as to be dishonest —
people, I mean, like Brian Williams, George Stephanopolous, and Diane Sawyer. And yet they appear thoroughly
presentable: polite, well-spoken — exuding elegance and good will even as they go about demonizing
anyone they disagree with.
Ted
Koppel, Elitist Hack. To [Ted] Koppel, the nation was much better off when it was guided by a
small and wise (and supposedly nonpartisan) national media elite that had the brains to separate the wheat from the
chaff of information and tell the public how it should think. That's all been ruined now by the "democratization
of journalism," and the public will ruin the country with their incessantly partisan ravings.
The Media's Debacles. In both
the coverage of the Ground Zero Muslim Community Center and Mosque and the coverage of the great demonstration
organized in Washington by Glenn Beck attracting in the neighborhood of half a million Americans, the
mainstream media once again revealed their bias, blatant selectivity, self induced amnesia, and a rush to
judgment to "shame" the audience into guilt over their assumed Islamophobia, the newest charge in the litany of
grievances with which the public has been maligned focused on racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia in the
past.
Military Scandal, Media Blackout.
Let me preface the facts of this column with two disclosures: first, I have a deep and abiding respect for the
United States military. ... Second, I have equal amounts of contempt for a mainstream media, which is neither
mainstream, nor remotely interested in reporting the truth, if it interferes with their agenda.
Secrets of the American
Nomenklatura. [#1] The media and the Democrats are joined at the hip and have created a
"hereditary celebrity class". One of the fastest ways to celebrity and fortune is to be the child of a
politician or a well connected political operative. ... If you are a Democrat, like JFK, Jr, Mika Brzezinski,
or Maria Shriver who can be counted to toe the party line, the door is wide open. The capper was the
announcement this week, that Chelsea Clinton has been hired by NBC.
Chelsea
Clinton to Report for NBC. NBC announced Monday that it has hired Chelsea Clinton to become a
full-time special correspondent for NBC News. The appointment was immediate. Ms. Clinton will begin
work on stories that NBC expects to use as part of its "Making a Difference" series, which runs on "NBC Nightly
News," said Steve Capus, president of NBC News.
The Editor says...
Is Chelsea Clinton paving the way for her own political career? Is there any doubt that her reporting will be
biased? And really, why is there a "Making a Difference" series on NBC? Journalists who "make a difference" —
or even attempt to do so by expressing their personal opinions — are activists.
David
Zurawik: NBC Hiring Chelsea Clinton a 'Journalistically Bankrupt Decision'. Baltimore Sun television
critic David Zurawik on Sunday called NBC hiring Chelsea Clinton a "journalistically-bankrupt decision."
Talking to CNN's Howard Kurtz about Clinton's debut, Zurawik said if she's been preparing for this all her
life "it's been a largely wasted life".
Media vs. the military.
The Vietnam War and the Walter Cronkite legend inculcated a strong distrust of the media in the military
establishment. The sentiment is that if the press can lose America's wars, it is something to be dealt
with warily, if at all. But what comes across as bias is often the product of structural and unavoidable
aspects of reporting. The primary role of the press is to expose and publicize information, while the
military norm, based on the need for operational security, is to withhold and control information.
Study:
Newspaper endorsements swing left. After overwhelmingly endorsing Republican presidential
candidates from the 1970s into the late '80s, the United States daily newspapers have shifted editorial
support in the past 20 years to Democratic candidates, a new study shows.
To [Heck] with You People.
Look, I am past exhausted talking about liberal media bias. It's real, we all know it, and people
who deny it aren't even fooling themselves. But some things just have to be pointed out.
CNN's
Candy Crowley Picks Up MSNBC's Trial Balloon, Questions Cain's 'Blackness'. CNN's Candy Crowley
and her absolutely shameful interview with Herman Cain over the weekend was yet another piece of evidence that
proves my theory that the MSM is involved in one big left-wing conspiracy. They use each other, they work
together, and because it comes so naturally thanks to their shared ideology and social circles, they don't even
know they're conspiring. Trust me, that's the worst kind of conspiracy, and Journolist was only a symptom
of something much more insidious and widespread. And MSNBC plays a very important role in this.
New Media, Old
Bias. Back in the old days — say, 10 years ago — Christians used to
complain about liberal media bias. The newspapers and networks had a stranglehold on what was considered
news. And because most members of the national media were part of the liberal cultural elite, polite
indifference was usually the best we could expect. Now, of course, all that has changed, right?
What
Will Happen When the People Realize that the Constitution Is No More? Dishonest, manipulative,
agenda-consumed politicians who hold power will not easily surrender that power. Today, an overwhelmingly
"progressive" mainstream media feed progressive politicians' lies as truth directly to the people, thereby
reinforcing the lies, giving the lies credibility in the minds of a mostly gullible electorate.
O'Reilly
Tells Ingraham NBC's Todd Worked for Lib Senator. After radio's Laura Ingraham questioned
Todd about this issue Thursday [9/8/2011], Fox News's Bill O'Reilly brought her on his program Friday
saying, "We did a little research on Mr. Todd... His wife makes a living working for the Democratic
Party. There is a report that Chuck Todd actually worked for Senator Tom Harkin, very liberal
Senator from Iowa".
ProPublica
is the left's biggest muckraker you never heard of. An obscure nonprofit investigative
newsroom's editor in chief is paid $585,117 a year and the group gives away its online stories for
publication by big-time "partners," including the New York Times, ABC World News, Salon.com and
Associated Press. The 32 highly paid reporters seem to investigate only things liberals
don't like.
News Bias, Civil Disobedience, and John Adams'
Rule of Thumb. Almost all of our TV "news" shows are unacknowledged, unchallenged, and
unopposed Far Left to Moderate Left, pro-Big Government apologists. Occasionally they will make a
daring foray out into the hinterlands of "fly-over country," and run a slanted expose on what those wacky
Tea Party people are up to, but mostly they stick with their schtick — smug, anti-American,
elitist doublethink.
MSNBC:
Leaning Left for 15 Long Years. Tonight [7/7/2011] MSNBC's cast and crew will gather in Washington
D.C. to celebrate their network being on the air for 15 long years. In that time its hosts, reporters
and guests have attacked conservatives and Republicans on everything from impeaching Bill Clinton and conducting
a war on terrorism, up to the fight over public unions. All the while some of its reporters and hosts have
been thrilled by the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Barack Obama.
MSNBC's
New Low: Hiring Al Sharpton as On-Air Host. When CNN hired Elliot Spitzer many complained
hiring the disgraced former governor was a new low in cable news. Allow me to submit to you that with
the hiring of "Reverend" Al Sharpton to be their 6pm host, MSNBC has smashed through CNN's record and
established a record for finding a new host in the sewer of society that may never be topped. While
CNN and others have hired people disgraced by political or sexual scandals, in hiring Sharpton MSNBC has
contracted with a "Reverend" who bears false witness and a racial arsonist who is responsible for the
deaths of at least eight innocent people.
Far-Left
Nation Magazine Editor Gets MSNBC Show. If you thought Comcast buying into NBC was going to
change the overtly liberal bias at the network's news divisions, think again. On Monday [8/1/2011], MSNBC
announced that Christopher Hayes, the Washington editor of the far-left magazine The Nation, will be
getting his own show in September.
Pernicious
effects of media bias. It is a well-told story that the mainstream media — at
least to a small degree — have a liberal bias. It's surprising, then, that few people
have examined, or even asked, a potentially more important question: Does the bias matter?
If the media reports the news with a certain slant, how does it affect those who take in the content?
Unbalancing
Act: America needs more media bias, claim some on the left. What the self-styled opponents
of balance really want is something resembling a state media monopoly — but one that is nominally
independent and that is pliant when liberals run the government and adversarial when conservatives do.
That is more or less what existed between the 1970s and the late '90s, when competition greatly weakened
the authority of the formerly mainstream media. Strident leftism is not going to restore that authority.
Singing
the Climate Blues. [Scroll down] Al Gore is not wrong to see that the media is
changing into something that feels more like professional wrestling than like the hallowed network news
broadcast in the Cronkite era. The public at large increasingly sees journalists as entertainers
rather than arbiters. "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" play this for all it is worth and
increasingly the myth of the objective journalist is yielding to the idea of the engaged party frankly
promoting an agenda.
The
Education of a Compassionate Conservative. [Scroll down] Leftist assumption of control
of academia and the media was so swift and thorough during the 1970s and 80s only because many conservatives
had swallowed the liberal line that such values as self-reliance, merit, individualism, and fairness were not
only immoral and indefensible but quite possibly racist and borderline fascist as well.
The
proliferation of media is the best guarantor of accuracy. The multiplication of online news
outlets unsettles some traditional journalists, especially those on the soft Left who have until now been
accustomed to dictating the narrative. Blogs, they complain, are opinionated and tendentious.
Well, yes; but try looking in the mirror, gentlemen.
The
Hill Poll: Most voters see media as biased and unethical. Likely voters hold a dismal
view of the news media, generally regarding reporters as biased, unethical and too close to the
politicians they purport to cover, according to a new poll for The Hill. A full
68 percent of voters consider the news media biased, the poll found. Most, 46 percent,
believe the media generally favor Democrats, while 22 percent said they believe Republicans
are favored, with 28 percent saying the media is reasonably balanced.
Americans
still believe in one man, one woman. For years, the mainstream media has done their level
best to make the redefinition of marriage seem inevitable. As if in concert, local, regional, and
national outlets have published the results of poll after poll under headlines like "Majority of Americans
Now Supports Same-Sex 'Marriage,'" all in an attempt to silence opposition and create an atmosphere wherein
they can finally see the fabrication of same-sex "marriage" achieved.
It's a close Race Between 'Don't Know' And 'Nobody'.
Who's
The Most Trusted Political Reporter? The same poll that showed "undecided" narrowly beating Mitt
Romney for the Republican presidential nomination also showed voters are just as divided on political reporters.
When asked by pollsters at Suffolk University which political reporter "you trust the most," respondents (1,070
of them were polled) said "don't know" (21%) followed by "none" (15%).
Big Media
Suicide Compact. Is there a profit-making business — other than TV networks and
The New York Times — that so disrespects its audience it works overtime to offend them?
What other business metaphorically flips the bird to those who don't subscribe to their social, cultural
and political worldview? That is precisely what big media does to a large number of potential
viewers and subscribers.
Michele Bachmann Rips Through the Shroud of
Contempt. Control of the cultural and media landscape places some powerful weapons in the
hands of the Left. One of their favorites is the Shroud of Contempt, which they use to muffle
targeted individuals by declaring them unfit to be taken seriously. The public has been conditioned to
applaud "moderates" and recoil from "extremists," so painting someone as a horrid extremist is an effective
way to airbrush them out of the national conversation.
Don't
Let Liberal Establishment Choose Our Candidates. Obviously, the liberal media do not have the
best interests of Reagan conservatives in mind when they do their "reporting." So when they tell us
certain GOP candidates are unelectable or electable, common sense would counsel us to take their advice with
mounds of salt.
Maybe this has something to do with it...
Many
in Congress invested in news media. Many members of Congress have financial interests in the media
that cover them, financial disclosure documents show. The Center for Responsive Politics reported Wednesday [6/15/2011]
some 60 senators and representatives, or their spouses, have investments in at least 19 media corporations.
CNN
still despises Republicans. One can take MSNBC, hose it off, dress it up in moderate looking clothing
and call it CNN. It is still a liberal network with an agenda that includes ridiculing Republicans and
ensuring that their deity Barack Obama is reelected. John King is more dangerous than Chris Matthews
because at least with Matthews the screaming leftist lunacy is laid bare for all to see.
Perpetual Media War Against Palin Exposes
Imbecility of Mindless Critics. Palin is loathed for what she represents, not for being dumb.
Her "stupidity" is simply a shorthand rejection of her unacceptable political ideas. This became
obvious when detractors were unable to provide meaningful examples of how she lacks intelligence.
On Eligibility, It's Up to the States.
For much of our American history, we had a safety net that existed to deal with that political class when its
actions and its oaths became divergent — the press. What would Watergate have been without
Woodward and Bernstein? Our press used to pride itself on being our watchdog — that assiduous,
obstinate handful of reporters who knew, and revered, the service they provided our free nation. However,
as we have painfully become aware, that press no longer exists in this country, as it has grafted itself onto
the far left corner of that political class. To protect their real estate in that corner, they have
refused to approach this issue honestly, and have, rather, responded to the citizens of this country with
ridicule and derision.
Media Bias in Layout.
When it comes to printed news, the front page trumps all — especially the front page above the fold. This
is the part of the paper that contains the headlines and the color pictures; it's the part of the paper that's put
on display on the sides of city streets. On any given day, more people see the front page of a newspaper
than any other page. The stories that make it to the front page above the fold are the ones the newspaper
editors feel the public would — or should — find most important.
Corsi Book An Important One.
As I have come to learn firsthand, the anti-journalist does not seek to report the news. The anti-journalist attacks the
people who do report the news or, just as likely, ignores them completely. When in attack mode, the anti-journalist
disregards the facts and dismisses the fact finder as partisan, whacko, reckless, and inevitably, in regard to Obama, racist.
No reporter in America knows this form of abuse better than Harvard Ph.D. Jerome Corsi.
Soviet Propaganda Would Fit In
With USA Of Today. Today, the Obama administration is inserting federal government dictates into
major aspects of life and the economy in the USA. In the USSR, the governing Communist Party directed and
controlled all aspects of life and the economy. Today in the USA, political correctness is used by American
progressives to control speech and to suppress undesirable criticism. In the USSR, speech-control played a
major role in silencing the opposition. The nuanced difference is that those who critique Obama administration
policies are accused of being racists or bigots; in the USSR, individuals who criticized the government were
described as spies, traitors or "enemies of the people."
George
Soros' Ties to Major News Organizations: When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million
to National Public Radio, it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized NPR's federal funding.
But that gift only hints at the widespread influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media.
Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004, has ties to more than 30 mainstream
news outlets — including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC.
Why
the New York Times Gets Everything Wrong: It's the Left-Wing Bias. There's no secret anymore as
to why the paper has become worse than it ever was. The editors and writers are on the political left;
and they are pompous enough to think that since everyone they know thinks the same way, what they are writing
is objective. This is not to say that its bias is a relatively new thing. It's just that in the
paper's heyday, you could find relatively straightforward top-notch reporting. But even then, on certain
issues, there was very little difference between the editorial side and that of the reporters.
Mainstream Media's
Paradise Lost. The new graduates of journalism schools are faced with few or no prospects of
the future they envisioned. In the minds of many members of the mainstream media, the fault for this
drastic turn of events lies with the conservatives and those ignorant masses in fly-over country, not with
themselves. Therefore they lash out more than ever against conservatives and Republicans.
If Republicans Acted Exactly Like Democrats.
One of the best ways to illustrate the utter corruption of an ideology is one of the oldest: imagine if
political party "x," did what political party "y" is doing, and see if it passes the stink test. For this
purpose, I offer Exhibits A, B and C: Wisconsin, Indiana and the Oval Office, three places where what
is occurring stinks to high heaven.
The Government of the Big
Lie. Faced with nationwide economic misery caused by politicians' runaway deficit spending, some
people choose resignation, others, disengagement. Far too many Americans still robotically swallow the
left-flavored pabulum which is spoon-fed to audiences by alphabet TV networks, newspapers, and the entertainment
industry. ... Busybody politicians have fashioned decades of debacles. And yet many voters continue to
cave in to manipulation by government-worshiping "journalists" and the busybody politicians.
The Bias They Can't
See: NPR's reporters, regardless of how much they might annoy us, are clever, intelligent
people. As professional communicators, hired for their abilities and not how good their hair appears
on camera, they know how to make words sing and dance. They understand how to advocate without advocating.
Advocacy begins with the choice of stories to cover. When you cover the "controversial" Arizona immigration
law with great attention and give very little attention to stories that reflect badly on immigrants, you exhibit
bias even though no clear advocacy has been shown. Of course, the media will argue that they cover the
"newsworthy" stories. This is convenient cover when you get to decide yourself what is and isn't
newsworthy.
The Media's Deadly Sin.
As a nurse, I've learned that people's behavior tells us a lot about their underlying condition. My
diagnosis of the media: The average liberal "journalist" today is a rigid ideologue who is
unbelievably lazy.
AP
Stylebook inconsistency is fruit of political correctness. Today, class, we will discuss
matters like The Associated Press Stylebook (APSB) and such. ... Transgendered people, according to APSB
editors, are called exactly what they want to be called. Think those editors grant the same courtesy
to those who consider themselves pro-life? Guess again. Here's what you'll read under the APSB
heading for "abortion": "Use anti-abortion instead of pro-life and abortion rights instead of
pro-abortion or pro-choice." The APSB editors couldn't have been more flagrant in their double
standards if they had written, "Pro-abortion and pro-choice people have pure, noble motives and seek to
protect those rights cherished by all Americans, so much so that we're going to refer to them as champions
of 'abortion rights.' Pro-lifers, on the other hand, are simply whacked out, anti-abortion
nut jobs."
America's Marxist Media. How
did the mainstream media get to be the way they are? To find the answer, let's turn to an old source.
Helen MacInnes was a Scottish-born novelist whose writing career spanned nearly four and a half decades.
Most of her 21 novels dealt with the struggle against totalitarianism. During World War II, she
wrote stirring novels of the fight against Nazi Germany. After the conclusion of that war, while other
writers were busily plotting stories of the threat of a reincarnated Nazism, she was among the first to understand
that communism, with its subversive hooks already well set in the upper levels of many governments, including ours,
represented a far greater threat to human freedom.
Democrats
rope-a-doping Republicans on spending. [President] Obama passively professes his desire "to
work with Republicans on responsible spending cuts." That prompts GOPers to produce multiple compromise
proposals in the hope of finding one Obama will support, even as they wear themselves out promising not to
shut down the government as they did in 1995. Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leaders are attacking GOP
spending cuts as "mean-spirited, reckless and irresponsible," confident that most journalists will simply
repeat their charges without lifting a finger to test their validity.
The Media and
the Republicans. [Scroll down] This evolution of the mainstream media culminated
in the election of Barack Obama, who on the surface fulfilled all the requirements of an ideal presidential
candidate for the chattering class. He was one of them. Ivy League educated, well spoken,
attractive, and said all the right things designed to appeal to the myopic worldview of the
New York-Washington-Los Angeles media axis. But above all he was African-American, an opportunity to
wash away the collective guilt so imbedded in the psyche of the press. Barack Obama also knew that he
had those tangible and intangible factors that would allow him to manipulate the media, and he did so.
The mainstream media became, in the phrase often attributed to Lenin, useful idiots.
The Manic-Depressive
MSM. In the fall of 2008 and early 2009, the left dared to dream big. Back then, we saw
the Daily News' hagiographic endorsement of Obama (their publisher and erstwhile Obama speechwriter has since
seen the light). This was quickly followed by Rahm Emanuel's ham-handed "Never let a serious crisis go
to waste" quote. In early January of 2009, even before Obama took office, John Judis of the New Republic
wrote, "A decade ago, I might have been embarrassed to admit that I was raised on Marx and Marxism, but I am
convinced that the left is coming back." James Carville promised their reign would last for
40 years. ... Two years later, and all is lost.
Major Networks, the Lamestream Media Again
Shows Hypocrite Colors. By now just about every American, save for most of the Obama supporters,
knows how "in the bag" the big networks of ABC, CBS and NBC are for the socialist loving, liberal Democrats
from the Obama Administration on down to the bottom of the line. They keep proving it on a daily and
nightly basis.
CNN's conservative
'Hail Mary' pass. CNN is struggling. The news and opinion channel, launched in 1980, has
seen its all-important primetime ratings steadily erode since the creation of its primary competitor, the
Fox News Channel, in 1996. Long gone are the days when CNN was the only game in town and had a monopoly
when it came to 24-hour coverage of the news and issues that affect Americans. The decline in viewership
of CNN has been arguably due to its left-leaning take on news and its leftist political commentary.
Rewriting Ronald Reagan.
Everything [Reagan] changed he managed to do against a daily wave of news media hostility to his agenda.
Think of everything Reagan did, and then add: He did it all before Fox News. He did it all before
the Rush Limbaugh phenomenon. He did it all before the instant battle cry of his defenders could hit the
Internet. He did it all before C-SPAN caught on and people could enjoy the game of watching entire speeches
and debates and then observing how the network tricksters discombobulated them into liberal hatchet jobs.
Spilled Milk.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has expanded its definition of "discrimination" to include things
that no one thought was discrimination when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The Federal Communications
Commission is trying to expand its jurisdiction to cover things that were never included in its jurisdiction,
and that have no relationship to the reason why the FCC was created in the first place. Yet the
ever-expanding bureaucratic state has its defenders in the mainstream media.
The worst of Times.
The New York Times today [1/30/2011] offers what it calls the backstory on its publication of the stolen
WikiLeaks documents. It includes the intriguing fact that the White House didn't try very hard to deter
publication, but the report by executive editor Bill Keller mostly reads like house propaganda and a Pulitzer
application. There is a laugh-out-loud moment. It comes when Keller writes that "it is our aim to
be impartial in our presentation of the news." It's hard to imagine he believes that. Certainly
nobody else does.
With
Olbermann Gone the News Media Is Now Even More Dishonest. Like most conservatives I am of
course thrilled to see my political nemesis Keith Olbermann gone from his perch at MSNBC. His Angry
Ted Baxter routine in which he hurled insults and dishonesty like a monkey hurls his own poop, was never a
pretty sight. But that doesn't mean I couldn't at least somewhat respect Olbermann for flying his
partisan flag. With Olbermann gone, the news media is somehow even more dishonest today than it
was yesterday.
I Wish I Were a
Democrat. Oh, to be totally unaccountable for one's failures and blunders, pleading
good intentions as a one-size-fits-all justification. Small wonder Democrats always talk of
their plans for the future, not the results of their past activities. They never look back
for good reason: how would they explain the endless vista of messes? But for the media,
good intentions are good enough. And so the Democrats are portrayed as forward-looking, while
the Republicans as stuck in the past.
Democrat Diversion Strategy
Succeeds Again. The Democrats and the left have once again succeeded in their most well-worn, time-tested,
and effective tactic: diversion. For the past six days, the country has been watching the spectacle of the
Republicans and those on the right defending themselves from absurd and trumped up accusations. This strategy has
been so successful over the years that the left and their allies in the media are now greatly emboldened.
The Media Has Declared...
WAR! Journalism, like any business, enjoys great highs and suffers noticeable lows. Scandals of
false stories have rocked no less than CBS and the New York Times in recent years. But this? This was
different. This was a near-industry-wide failure. I will argue that this was the worst moment of
journalism I have ever witnessed. This was not just an embarrassment, but it was a lie filled with such
wishful hate as to damage the industry beyond repair to a huge portion of an audience already doubting or dismissing
its credentials. What's worse is that no one complicit in this horrific failure to the core of credibility of
the profession much cares.
Separation of
Journalism and Politics. A question that I have been asking for quite some time was brought to
the fore once again with the pervasive and obnoxious liberal bias in the so-called news reporting of the
assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Why does anyone continue to purchase and
read the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, and other mainstream publications which have
replaced accurate reporting with faux news accounts rising to the level of outright lies? And why does
anyone waste time watching "news" programs anchored and/or reported by the likes of Rachel Maddow, Keith
Olbermann, Christiane Amanpour, and others on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, and the like?
Playing the Violence Card.
The very word "demonstration" is a euphemism for "show of force." Labor unions have always used the
threat of violence. "Community organizing" is what left-wing activists do when they are trying to gin up
a rent-a-mob for the benefit of the TV news cameras. Just to be helpful, the MSM used to warn every year
of "a long hot summer" if summer jobs programs for urban youth weren't passed. Whenever there is actual
violence by lefties, as recently by "students" in Britain or by government workers in Greece, our lefty friends
play both sides of the street. If there is property damage, they blame the police for not controlling
the crowd. If rioters get injured, they blame the police for "overreacting." Did you know that
almost all MSM reporters are labor-union members?
Progressives and the
'Bad Stuff' in the Constitution. It is hard to actually believe that something as prototypically
American as a public reading of the U.S. Constitution by people recently sworn to uphold it could be at all
controversial. For that matter, it is even harder to believe that such an exercise should become the
subject for ridicule by the very people — the press — whose free speech the founders
went out of their way to protect.
How Did All That Happen?
How did villains become heroes, global warming become "climate change," and the most liberal senator become a
"bipartisan" president? ... Lurking somewhere behind all these improbables is a rather small Western elite
that is enormously influential in the media, government, the arts, universities, and Hollywood.
Autism Fraud Just the Tip of the Iceberg.
Last year the World Health Organization, having exaggerated the world AIDS problem by 12-fold, then hyped SARS
and then spent four years terrifying us over avian flu (remember avian flu?), converted the mildest flu strain
in decades (swine flu H1N1) into the first flu pandemic in 41 years simply by rewriting the flu pandemic
definition. Aiding it was a study in Science magazine that completely misrepresented the citations it
used as authority.
2010 a Banner
Year for MSM's Ministries of Mistruth. In George Orwell's 1984, set in a pre-computer era,
Winston Smith, working in the misnamed Ministry of Truth, alters documents that contradict or conflict with
his totalitarian government's take on history, wiping out inconvenient truths or revising them to fit the
current template. In 2010, the establishment press ramped up its propaganda role, acting as a
collective of preemptive Winston Smiths. They ignored or massaged important news stories in ways that
prevented the vast, relatively disengaged majority of the population (probably 85%, but perhaps as low as
80% thanks to the Tea Party movement) from getting their arms around the truth without doing a great deal
of independent research.
The 10 Biggest 'Non-Story'
Stories of 2010. [#10] The Resurgence of State's Rights — Somewhat supported by the Tea Party movement,
and certainly related to ObamaCare and Arizona's immigration battles, the broad issue of state rights in the context
of constitutional government is garnering interest among Americans perhaps like never before. The 10th Amendment
is being championed on an increasing number of fronts and even the concept of "nullification" has returned to our modern
dialog. Big Media really isn't into the whole Constitution thing. It would never occur to them that
Washington is less than omnipotent.
Illegal
aliens are illegal and alien. Are "illegal aliens" simply misunderstood "undocumented immigrants?"
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Diversity Committee believes so, and it's engaged in a campaign to
"inform and sensitize journalists as to the best language to use when writing and reporting" on the issue.
That may sound nice, but there is nothing insensitive about calling a crime a crime.
Conservatives More Charitable than Liberal Scrooges.
While liberals often want to take other people's money and spend it the way they think is proper, liberals are,
on the whole, hypocritically far less generous with their money than conservatives that they demonize are.
Countless studies point this out, yet the false notion and stereotype that conservatives are harsh and do not
care about others stubbornly persists, most likely because such false memes are propagated and perpetuated by
the liberal members of the mainstream media.
In
2010, Media Scolded Americans as Anti-Islamic, Anti-Immigrant Bigots. Condemning everyday
Americans as racist, anti-immigrant Islamophobes was a favorite media theme in 2010, as documented by the
Media Research Center's year-end Best Notable Quotables of 2010. Polls showed most Americans supported
Arizona's effort to curb illegal immigration and opposed building an Islamic center near the site of the
destroyed World Trade Center towers — but on both scores the media elite stacked their coverage
against the public.
No great surprise here:
New
York Times Editor Bill Keller is a registered Democrat. According to voter registration records,
New York Times Editor Bill Keller is a registered Democrat. Keller has been registered as a Democrat
since 1998 with his Manhattan apartment listed on forms as his address. The New York Times has long
been criticized by conservatives as politically biased in favor of Democrats. In 2007 a Rasmussen poll
found that 40% of Americans believe the paper has a liberal bias.
The Editor says...
That's only because 50% of Americans don't recognize bias when they see it.
Television's
Latchkey Journalism. TV news' phony objectivity, once personified by avuncular Walter Cronkite, has
mutated into the "bratcast." When CBS' Cronkite for decades told millions of viewers each day "that's the way it
was," Americans were expected to take it as gospel truth from the lips of a grandfatherly wise man. In the
Internet age, with its endless flavors of news reporting, a Cronkite is as obsolete as an 8-track tape player.
The
Washington Democrat-Media Complex. When someone says "journalist" do you have a picture of a
fedora-sporting, cigar chomping, agitator of jaded mien and independent mind, a man stubbornly outside the
political establishment looking in and eyeing it all with suspicion? Do you get a flash of a writer
that stands in opposition to entrenched powers, one looking out for the Little Guy? If so you've been
watching too many black-and-white moves from the 1940s. Today, "journalist" simply means an extension
of the Democrat Party.
66%
of Voters Are Angry At The Media. Sixty-six percent (66%) of U.S. voters describe themselves as
at least somewhat angry at the media, including 33% who are Very Angry. A new Rasmussen Reports national
telephone survey finds that 31% say they are not angry at the media, but that includes just nine percent (9%) who
say they are not at all angry.
It's Maureen in America Again.
Especially after bad days, liberals like to go to columnists like Maureen Dowd at the New York Times for
some reassurance that everything's fine with liberalism and it's just the rest of us who are a bad mix of
weird, greedy, ethnocentric, dumb and scary.
The Censorious Sound
on the Left. Let's give the media a break and conclude that when it comes to Rush Limbaugh, they just have
no common sense. Fine. That's where fact-checking comes in. A couple of minutes on the computer would
have proven that these quotes were pure fantasy, put forward by radical leftists, with no substantiation whatsoever,
purely to assassinate this man's character, as is their wont. But the Left — including many in the "news"
media — is so blinded by its hatred of Rush Limbaugh that it will accept any accusation as authentic, and the
more salacious, the better.
Has Big Media Global Warming
Bias Begun to Endanger the Public? Why did the AP and the [Boston] Globe de-emphasize Maine officials' snowpack
warning, especially when doing so endangered the property and safety of the public they are supposed to serve? The
Globe is owned by the New York Times Company. Both the Times and the Associated Press are heavily invested in the myth of
Global Warming...
When Bias Has Its Own Media.
Bias always exists, but journalistic bias has a tipping point at which instead of a free press, we have a
propaganda press. When does that tipping point occur? Henry David Thoreau wrote that there is a
certain amount of injustice in government, just as there is a certain amount of friction in operating a
machine. But when "friction has its own machine", then the injustice is no longer an unfortunate
byproduct, it is now the purpose of the machine.
The
Issues vs. The Mainstream Media. The mainstream media has become thoroughly useless to the
American voter, offering information that focuses on personal quirks and foibles, rather than the candidates'
positions and, if applicable, voting records on issues important to the American electorate. Perhaps
this is why so many Americans are turning away from traditional media outlets for their information, political
or otherwise. Since even before the 2000 election — and poll after poll, both scientific and
not, bears this out — the American public has become intensely disenchanted with not only the status
quo of our political class but with the grotesquely transparent engagement in political activism by our "free
press."
Liberal
media bias is real, revealing. Polling of MSM journalists showed they voted 9-1 in favor of Bill
Clinton over George H.W. Bush in 1992 and voted in the same margin for John Kerry versus George W.
Bush in 2004. No surprise, then, that the Center for Media and Public Affairs found Kerry received
77 percent favorable coverage in 2004 while Bush received 34 percent favorable coverage —
quite a chasm, in my view. Hypothetical question: If Bush had instead received nine out of 10
votes of the MSM in 2004, does anyone really believe Kerry would have garnered that 77 percent favorable
coverage compared to Bush's 34 percent?
Distrust in media hits record high.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans do not trust the news media to accurately and fairly report the news, a new
high according to a Gallup poll out Wednesday [9/29/2010]. The percentage of Americans who distrust the
media has been steadily climbing since the mid 1990s, when distrusts in the news media rated hovered around
45 percent.
The Election's Done; What
Now? The statist ideology of Progressivism first shaped federal law in 1890 and has moved forward
for 120 years, reshaping the states and cities along the way. Progressive education reshaped the public
schools in the 1930s, proceeding since uninterrupted; it has produced generations of journalists who have
evolved from professionals into political pimps for Progressivism.
Dupes — and Traitors.
One of the last mysteries of the Cold War is why so many seemingly intelligent Americans believed to the bitter
end that the Soviet Union — history's most vicious dictatorship and an economic basket case —
was paradise on Earth. Well, now we know. In his new book Dupes, Paul Kengor provides a
stunning, detailed exposé of how the Kremlin set out to manipulate those among us whom Lenin famously
described as "useful idiots" — Americans who could be made to fall hook, line, and sinker for Soviet
propaganda and who then used their influence to swing public opinion behind the Soviet Union's policies.
Journalistic Misfeasance. The
Gallup Organization has just released the results of a poll that, for the fourth straight year, reveals that
the "majority of Americans say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately,
and fairly. The 57% who now say this is a record high by one percentage point." Those that do express
trust in the media (43%) tie a record low.
Why Are Voters Only 'Angry' When They're Tossing
Dems Out? Interesting, isn't it, that if you listen to liberal journalists, the voters are
always angry and stupid when they're tossing Democrats out. But they're high-minded and caring when
they're giving Republicans the heave-ho. You may recall that in 2006 and 2008, when Democrats took over
both Houses of Congress, it was those high-minded, caring "soccer moms," looking out for the welfare of their
families, who went to the polls to vote for Democrats. They were never described as "angry" or "irrational"
or "throwing a temper tantrum" — even though they were cleaning house just as the voters did
Tuesday [11/3/2010].
Fire the Media. The
Giant has awakened. The American voter just threw the bums out of Congress — not enough of them,
but a very good start. The crucial question today is: Will the Giant just turn over and go
back to sleep? ... The Giant must fire the media. It's the easiest thing in the world, as Rush
Limbaugh has pointed out for twenty years and more. It's called the "on off switch" on your
TV, or your browser, or your iPhone.
As
the Election Approaches, Do Not Trust the MSM. I am ashamed to admit that there is one thing the
contemporary mainstream media does well. Having spent years studying politics, history, and language, I
find it amazing that media is able to convince people to believe conflicting narratives. The creation
and perpetuation of these contradictory beliefs cannot be possible without a media structure, as well as an
educational structure, that discourages, and too often scorns, analytical thinking.
With Tagline, MSNBC Embraces
a Political Identity. MSNBC, once the also-ran but now the No. 2 cable news channel, has a
new tagline that embraces its progressive political identity. The tagline, "Lean Forward," will be
publicly announced Tuesday [10/5/2010], opening a planned two-year advertising campaign intended to raise
awareness of the channel among viewers, advertisers and distributors.
Obama,
Democrats got 88% of 2008 contributions by TV network execs, writers, reporters. Senior executives,
on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and
NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according
to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Media Bias: The Chasm Widens.
Thanks to the Washington Examiner, which analyzed data from the Center for Responsive Politics, we learn that
"senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying
employees of ABC, CBS and NBC" were overwhelmingly in the Obama camp. Overall, 1,160 employees of the
big three networks gave Democratic candidates and campaign committees $1.02 million, while 193
contributed $142,863 to Republican candidates and campaign committees. That's a 7-to-1 ratio.
Interview
with Sally Pipes on ObamaCare at Six Months. [Scroll down] "I would say the mainstream
media, of course, always likes to increase the role of government in our lives, and Obama, Pelosi, and Reid
believe that government can make decisions for the American people better than we can make for ourselves.
It's an ideological vision that they have, and that is not the American way.
Bozell Launches 'Tell the Truth' Campaign.
Media Research Center President L. Brent Bozell III is calling on members of the liberal media to "Tell the
Truth" about the administration's efforts to push the U.S. toward socialism.
The Nexus between
Liberals and Racists. Conservatives are disparaged, insulted, belittled, and denied the public
pulpit, just as blacks once were. The common denominator in each travesty is the mainstream media.
Seven
Deceptive Mainstream Media Techniques. Just a few decades ago journalism in this country was
actually about reporting the facts. Yes, journalists may have leaned to the Left, but at least
reporters made an effort to be fair. Today, journalists are more interested in "making a difference"
than in any antiquated standards and they play by PRAVDA rules. Every news story is filtered through an
ideological prism and instead of asking who, what, when, how, and why, the stories are framed around a
simple rule: How can we hurt the Right and help the Left?
Are
conservatives suspicions regarding the media justified? Yes. Howard Kurtz whines that
"[Conservative] candidates seem to regard it as an affront when reporters challenge them on their past
statements and inconsistencies, which is a basic function of journalism. They are avoiding or
limiting interviews with all but the friendliest faces as a way of circumventing the press. And some
of them delight in skewering the mainstream media, a tactic that plays well with their base." It's
interesting that Kurtz doesn't mention the Obama administration's attempt to boycott Fox News, and its
ongoing complaints about that network.
Seven
Reasons Government Has Become Completely Dysfunctional in America. [Scroll down] For a
long time, the mainstream media in this country could fairly be classified as center-left. However, over
time it has drifted from center-left to far-left and it has affected the way our politicians behave.
Politicians on the Right know they can't get a fair shake from the media; so they tend to be overly cautious,
even though the populace leans to the Right. On the other hand, politicians on the Left have been
emboldened by the unwavering support of the media.
Why
the Media Ignored the Nashville Flood. In a climate where chatter is constant and ubiquitous,
newsworthiness now seems to be determined less by what's most important than by what all those other media
outlets are talking about the most. Sheer volume of coverage has become its own qualification for
continued coverage.
Opposing viewpoint:
Newsweek
Offers Offensive Explanation For Why Media Ignored Nashville Flood. [Scroll down] Or how
about this for a narrative: Tennessee was one of the few states Obama didn't win in November 2008.
As part of the media narrative concerning Bush and Katrina was that he was racist — or, at the very
least, that race played a factor in the slow response — couldn't the press have played up the
"Obama Lost Tennessee" angle concerning why the White House didn't declare a state of emergency there until
May 4[,] days after the floods began? Readers are advised that this "narrative" suggestion is by
no means an accusation on my part that McCain's victory in Tennessee had anything to do with Obama's slow
response to the Nashville floods. Instead, as media rarely need plausibility for their conspiracy
theories, this would have been just as feasible a narrative as Bush's response to Katrina involving race.
War of Words. As we know,
the world of political journalism has radically changed in the post-WWII decades. The methods, the tone
and the very role of media have morphed over time, although they have always been prone to liberal leanings.
They began as mere reporters, whose sole function was to chronicle events in Washington. ... Then, as the
influence of radical socialists who had begun to infiltrate journalism schools in the 1930s began to take
effect, they came to view their profession as a way to "change the world for the better."
The Left and Its
Talking Points. The Journolist story demonstrates active, covert collaboration among leftists
to plant political themes in the media. Long-time listeners of conservative talk radio are aware of
audio montages where old-line media talking heads repeat verbatim a set of words that can't be anything
other than shared talking points. A perfect example was the 2000-era Dick Cheney "gravitas" showcased
by Rush Limbaugh. It's one thing to ask how proper reporting of Obama might have changed the outcome
of the election. I'll ask a bigger question: Did old-line media journalists share talking
points to prop up the global warming issue?
More
about the JournoList scandal.
Too Many Voters
Unaware Of How The Mainstream Media Corrupts The News. My sister is an intelligent senior citizen
but she doesn't watch Fox News very much though does watch CNN and upon further discussion told me she'd never
heard of Anthony ("Van") Jones, the green-jobs czar ousted from the White House after Mr. Beck exposed his
communist background. Her television news sources are CBS, NBC, and ABC, and, as a Democrat, she had
no problem voting for the relatively unknown Illinois Senator Barack Obama. She also refuses to get
involved with the World Wide Web. I've done a similar personal survey of persons I know to be Obama
supporters and, similarly, their news sources are the same.
The
Difference between 'World Opinion' and Left-Wing Opinion. Here's a challenge: Can you
name one difference between what the media refer to as "world opinion" and left-wing opinion? Take
all the time you need. No matter how much time you take, you probably won't come up with any
examples. ... The world's media and virtually all international organizations are leftist in their
politics, and they define "world opinion" and in turn shape it. Of course, there are other
powerful institutions in the world that shape public opinion. But virtually none of them
contravenes the left-wing views of the world media and world organizations on world issues.
The revolution
is not being televised. [Scroll down] Paradoxically, over the last two generations, the
aging leftists have been quite successful in establishing their agenda without violence, by infiltrating and
dominating the education, legal, and media establishments in our country. Teaming with the trade unions
whose movement has been a tool of the International Communists for over a century, this coalition has succeeded
in radically altering the American economic, political and moral landscapes. Their foothold has been so
firmly established, especially in the media, that those promoting traditional American values can scarcely
get their voices heard through what now amounts to the Pravda media.
Good Riddance to Newsweek. It is
extremely doubtful that The Washington Post will find a buyer for Newsweek magazine and it would not surprise
me if Time magazine disappears as well. Both are an offense to anything that passes for journalistic
ethics or practices and have been for far too long.
ABC's Davis to SEIU.
Another jump from the media to politics: ABC News's deputy political director, Teddy Davis, emails that
he's leaving the network to join SEIU's already-muscular communications and politics operation.
The Naked Left. The
establishment media, which has been obviously tilted to the left for fifty years, petulantly denies any
leftist bias. This utter denial continues more than forty years after Agnew's speech against the television
elites in 1969 and in spite of polling data, such as a Gallup poll which shows a huge plurality considering
the media more liberal than conservative and a Zogby Poll which shows 64% of Americans seeing a liberal bias
in the media.
Brent
Bozell Reacts to Americans' Heightened Anger with the Media. A new Rasmussen poll found an
astonishing two thirds of American voters are at least somewhat angry at the media, including an entire one
third who said they are 'very angry.' That's disturbing but unfortunately, not surprising. The
liberal media lost touch with the public and fair reporting long ago, and Americans are sick of their
lavish praise for a President that is leading our country and economy into a disastrous state. The
American people are abandoning the old media by the millions because they are simply fed up."
The Origins of the Lapdog Media.
Noam Chomsky, a self-declared socialist, once said, "Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the US
[mainstream] media." Never would he have imagined that his critique would apply more than ever to the present-day
relationship between the mainstream media and President Obama. This march to the media's present role of being
in league with the Obama administration is the culmination of the good-versus-evil narrative of modern journalism.
Media no longer report
just the truth. We've become so acclimated to politicians in both parties lying that we can
hardly distinguish between fact and fiction or, worse, actually believe the drivel spewed by either.
But at some level this is understandable as you would hardly expect objectivism from either party.
The calamity in this cauldron of mendacity, however, is the media from whom one would expect a fair and
balanced news offering.
Media's fiscal credibility
deficit. There's a good reason to remain pessimistic about deficits as far as the eye can see.
It's called the "news" media. Legislators who want to get re-elected will clearly want to avoid any spending
decision that will create bad national publicity. And our news media, the manufacturers of bad national
publicity, will send crying victims down the assembly line at the slightest thought of a social spending cut
or freeze.
Integrity in the Rear View Mirror. Looking
for your integrity in the rear view mirror is becoming an occupational hazard in the newsroom. ... In the run-up to
Obamacare; Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and prescription drug relief were all celebrated as social
landmarks. Yet somehow these programs are never judged to be failures once they become corrupt and/or
insolvent.
CNN's decline follows rise of grass-roots
America. In a year when America's tea party activists have been surging, cable news networks that
slam the grassroots movement have been dying in the ratings. Is it merely coincidence? As widely
reported, 2010's first quarter ratings for cable news networks were released earlier this month. Compared
to the numbers in 2009, Fox News Channel, frequently reported as a favorite of the tea partiers, actually gained
3 percent over last year's numbers, but MSNBC, whose left-leaning commentary has been far more critical of
the movement, has dropped 15 percent of its audience.
Bill Maher's 'Black' President.
[Scroll down] It is the liberal media machine which ignores intellectual blacks like Thomas Sowell
or Walter Williams and elevates racial hucksters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to the level of "community
spokesmen." It is our leftist-dominated entertainment complex which continues to glorify black low-lifes
and gang-bangers in music and on film. It is the liberal academics who continue to insist that America
is a fundamentally racist nation, and that "reparation" must be made to peole who never experienced slavery
by people who never engaged in it.
CNN
to Advertisers: We're the Only 'Non-Partisan' Cable Network. Stuart Elliott of the New
York Times's Media Decoder blog reported on Tuesday [4/13/2010] that CNN, a network known for its consistent
liberal bias, is now incredibly touting itself as "the only credible, nonpartisan voice left" on cable
television. Elliott noted that this spin was being pitched by the network at a Tuesday morning [4/13/2010]
event for advertisers at the Time Warner Center in New York City.
Considering
The Source Of Today's News Is Crucial. [Scroll down] Circulation figures for many liberal
news publications have plummeted and yet this hasn't stopped the continual demonizing of the conservative
majority in this country. It's as if their editorial boards live in a womb nourished by a placenta of
left-wing dogma and are totally oblivious of reality. They still haven't a clue of what the Tea Party
movement means and continue to portray it in a negative light. Reports that come from the Associated
Press, Newsday, Newsweek, Reuters, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post need
to be read with a jaundiced eye.
O'Reilly
Notes Blatant Media Hypocrisy on Protestor Anger. Last night [3/30/2010], Bill O'Reilly used recent
instances of inflamed, occasionally violent liberal protests to give his viewers a lesson in Media Bias 101.
Lefties dominate the mainstream press, and are reluctant to cover events that don't suit their agendas, he
stated. "The Mainstream media largely ignores crazy stuff generated by the far left because many media
types sympathize with liberal politics." It's hard to put it more succinctly than that.
More
about media bias related to "tea parties".
Deadly
Triumvirate Destroying America. [Scroll down] This boils down to the biased, dishonest, and
fraudulent mainstream media posing a mortal threat to the survival of our democracy. If America is to
survive as the greatest country on earth, it requires an informed citizenry getting the information needed to
make sound judgments. That's not happening now, and until it does happen we'll be under the shadow of an
existential threat. So, the public better start going out of its way to get both sides of the issue.
That means they have to stop relying on the mainstream media as the exclusive source of news and commentary.
Wonder where
the next 'crisis' will be manufactured. Now the MSM plays a vital role covering up initial
results that fall well short of "expectations" and the financial justification erodes before our eyes.
Never once does the MSM compare real versus actual results, or re-examine the business case, or question the
ability to achieve the desired outcomes. The stimulus inability to create jobs and the inconsequential
climate improvement promised by the "cap and trade" bill are conveniently ignored by the MSM. The
Mainstream Media is an active co-conspirator to government greed and manipulation, hiding in plain sight,
and has forfeited any credibility as a fair and balanced check and balance of power.
More examples
of media bias in President Obama's favor.
Believing
the worst: There is an unspoken but real impulse in today's media to see
themselves as "independent" of America, even above America, not so much because they are
superior to America but because America is so egregiously flawed. It is their role
to shed light on America's failings. They're not keen at being seen as
Americans. They choke at the idea of wearing flag pins.
Self-indulgence: The
enraged speeches and street disorders across the country that accompanied the inauguration of President
Bush may tell us more than we want to know about what is happening to this country. Elections are
supposed to be an alternative to other ways of settling political differences, including riots, military
coups and dictatorships. But riots have been re-christened "demonstrations" by the mealy-mouth
media.
The Legacy
Media's War on Conservatives: I've been writing a lot lately about the disconnect between the
American legal profession and the American mainstream. The legacy media is no different from the bar on
this score. Because of that, it is shriveling into extinction. It can't survive on a competitive
playing field by enraging its consumer base — the only potential savior on the horizon is the
possibility of a bail-out by our current Leftist government.
Declare War on the
Establishment Media. [Scroll down] I say that the establishment media is, as a
collective entity, intellectually and ethically corrupt. Not just liberal, but intellectually
dishonest, often knowingly, to a stupendous degree. So many examples could be given, but here's
one that is apt right now: There is no standard too duplicitous on which these media folks will
act on behalf of their liberal ideology.
Journalists' Tweets Show Their Liberal Bias.
Survey after survey shows the ideological bent of most mainstream press reporters favors the Democratic Party.
And that's before one reads their stories, watches their news broadcasts and considers their collective mea
culpa after giving Sen. Barack Obama the hands off treatment during the 2008 election cycle. Still,
press members continue to cling to their impartiality pose. But watching how some reporters work in
our Twitter-fied culture makes it even more obvious such a stance can't be believed.
MSNBC President Phil Griffin Finally Comes Clean on Channel's Liberal
Slant. It took a while, but MSNBC President Phil Griffin has finally admitted and embraced his
cable network's hard-left slant. He told the Chicago Tribune that he will try to carve out a niche on
the left, hoping some day to rival the Fox News Channel's record-setting ratings.
MSNBC's
Matthews: Washington Post 'Used to Be Liberal', Now 'Hard to Read Ideologically'. Chris
Matthews could have a future in comedy if only his funniest moments weren't unintentional. Here's
today's knee-slapper: The Washington Post is not ideologically liberal in its editorials.
Mass media and private
liberty. The spectacle of a White House warring against the single television news network which
does not fawn over the president, and attacking his most prominent talk radio show critic, brings home just how
bureaucratized information, opinion, and thought have become in America. In television news a handful of
institutions determine what is newsworthy and what is not for those tens of millions who only get news from
the video screen. That decision — what is "news" — decides everything.
More
about Obama vs Fox News Channel.
When
Liberal 'Journalists' Attack, Real Americans Suffer. Andrew Breitbart's recent smackdown of Max
Blumenthal at CPAC (for his vicious smears against James O'Keefe) serves as a reminder to us all that when
Liberal "journalists" attack, they have one goal — and it isn't reporting the truth. It is to
win at any cost no matter what the damage is to the victim. It is called the politics of personal
destruction and it reflects the utter nihilism of Liberalism.
Tea Party Movement
vs. Elites: The danger of the "birther" question is irrelevant because the elitist [New York] Times will
always find something that they can use to try and discredit anyone who isn't liberal. And if there is a crowd
of a thousand tea party protesters the media will canvas all of them until they find one willing to say something
objectionable.
A Biased Media at Work.
[Scroll down] This kind of frontal attack on conservatives is glaringly obvious, relatively straightforward
and easy to counteract. Napolitano was forced to issue an apology to veterans [for the Homeland Security
Report, "Right-wing Extremism"]. However, less obvious are the unrelenting, insidious tactics of mainstream
media which disproportionately report events that favor liberals and liberal agendas over those of conservatives.
The media has even gone so far as to censure (sic) coverage of stories that favor conservatives or conservative views.
Such biased coverage or, entire lack of coverage, marginalizes issues important to the conservative agenda,
damages the ability of conservatives to have their ideas accurately and fully presented and, ultimately, inflicts
damage on the conservative position.
James O'Keefe and
the Fourth Estate's Double Standards: Reporters for top media outlets have masqueraded over the
years as workmen, students, and even bartenders in their effort to expose corrupt officials and misdeeds —
and, of course, to get a good story (and maybe some coveted journalism awards). Well, who could imagine
such journalistic shenanigans in light of the way the mainstream media is portraying James O'Keefe III, 25,
the videographer who became famous for exposing ACORN, the liberal community organizing group?
Confessions of an anchorman.
There is a case to be made that the steady drumbeat of hyped-up threats — SUV's that roll over,
kitchen-counter bacteria, road rage, swine flu, amber alerts and the stations' willingness to enlist governments
and institutions to solve those "perceived" problems, actually drives a lot of bad and unnecessary public
policy. But it's a formula that has worked as a cash cow for your local TV station.
Losing the Pro-Abortion Media
Bias: Former New York Times reporter Alex S. Jones ... sees the bias in the mainstream
media as not political but "cultural." He defines this as "a set of beliefs" that can "skew"
reporting. Taking the word "political" out of the equation doesn't make any sense.
"Partial
truth" abortion: Many in the media resent any suggestion that they are
either politically biased or that journalists' personal views stop them from doing a
good professional job of accurately reporting the news. The way the issue of
partial birth abortion has been reported — or not reported — gives
the lie to such protests.
Use and Abuse of
Euphemism: Whatever you think of the practice of partial-birth abortion, surely no one can truly
be pleased with the media convention of describing it as "a certain abortion procedure" or "a controversial
abortion method." … Even the practice of referring to it on the second, third, or fourth mention as
"what opponents call 'partial birth' abortion" is questionable. What do supporters call it?
Bias, Witting and Unwitting, Among the
Gods of Journalism
The hidden agenda of
unionized media: [Scroll down] You should also know that your "objective" network
correspondent, roaming the halls of Congress right now trying to ferret out the "truth," probably pays
hundreds, or even thousands of dollars in union dues to AFTRA every year. He or she, in all likelihood,
depends on AFTRA for one of those "Cadillac" health insurance plans that is the subject of so much debate. ... Now,
do you really think your friendly network correspondent is gonna criticize the Senate Democrats' bill?
How To Kill
Political Correctness Before It Kills Us. I've been doing consumer reports for over 34 years
and, from my perspective, the No. 1 consumer issue is the sad state of the mainstream media. It has
become something other than a segment of the media, and now can be correctly described as a propaganda organ of
a Democratic Party controlled executive branch of the U.S. Government. What's worse, it is totally biased,
dishonest, and fraudulent and can no longer be trusted to deliver the information needed by the American people.
5
Ways Liberals Misjudge the American People: [Scroll down slowly] Because the Left controls
the mainstream media, they can often get away with lies no conservative ever could. Put another way,
conservatives tend to be more honest because they have to be while liberals are used to having the mainstream
media cover up, ignore, and explain away their lies. The problem with that is that over time, the MSM
has become less powerful and the new media has filled the gap.
New
Rasmussen Survey: Voters See Media As Liberal, Biased & Too Powerful. A new survey
from Scott Rasmussen finds that more than half of all voters (51%) believe "the average reporter is more
liberal than they are," and two-thirds (67%) think the media have "too much power and influence over
government decisions." Rasmussen's poll was released Thursday [1/14/2010].
Are
You Ready to Subsidize Reporters? [There is] some recent poll data collected by
the Pew Research Center. Only 29 percent of 1,506 adults surveyed said news
organizations generally get the facts straight. The facts! Sixty percent said
the press is biased, up from 45 percent in 1985. Just 26 percent said that news
organizations are careful their reporting is not politically biased.
Obama's
War on Fox Is Liberalism's War on Dissent. Liberal politicians have been spoiled with mainstream media
favoritism for so long that they believe anything other than sycophancy is mistreatment. Their selective outrage
is as hollow as it is risible. In fact, Fox News seems much more conservative than it is because no other
television network over the past half-century has been anything but decidedly liberal.
A Leninist View of
the American Media: Conservative exasperation with media bias is a tired refrain, a waste of
energy. ... The premise that now guides the mainstream media is something we haven't seen before in this
country — thus the never-ending consternation of conservatives at the blatant bias of the media
and the nonchalance of its practitioners when caught in the act. We have seen press behavior like this
before, though — not here, but in China and the Soviet Union during their classical Leninist
eras. ... Where conservatives see dishonesty, double standards, and deception, media practitioners see
themselves as fulfilling their role in consolidating Party power in pursuit of a socialist utopia.
Welcome
To The Ministry of Propaganda. Freedom of the press was included in the Bill of Rights for a
reason. The founders of this nation expected the "fourth estate" to keep government honest by informing
the public of the truth. When the press becomes a creature of government, and freely declines to report
fully, completely and honestly to the public then it is no longer free. It has enslaved itself...
Conservatives and the
death of newspapers. Not long ago journalists were champions of free speech. Now they
routinely manipulate, ignore or suppress information. They've become the gatekeepers of multiculturalism
and political correctness.
The
Total Disappearance of the Mainstream Media. Now it's time to look at the mainstream network
news stations, if we must. How in the world could they lose out to cable stations to begin with, and
why do they keep slipping? They slip because they do not deliver the news. They in fact deliver
the news with innuendo and thinly veiled bias. When that is impossible, they simply skip the story.
It is time to face facts; politics rules when it comes to news.
The Slave Press. Freedom of the
Press, like almost all our constitutional protections, has been murdered by the courts and the Left. Those who
view slave masters like Castro as "liberators" have no notion of what freedom really means. The Left does not
want the responsibility of freedom, especially in the arena of facts, ideas, and opinions. What we have today
in America are willing serfs of The Slave Press. It exists solely to expand the power of the Left, and the Left
exists only to grasp power and to choke liberty.
Media Malfeasance. The majority of Americans
realize the liberal bent of the old media. Most can identify opinion pieces that are increasingly presented as news,
but they have to resort to the net or talk radio in order to be made aware of all the good news which is deliberately
relegated to the back burner in the (remaining) newspapers and nightly news broadcasts.
Our Dangerous Media. For decades, the old media,
consisting of the big three networks and the newspapers of most major cities have had a stranglehold on what information gets
disseminated to the public at large. The media elite have decided which issues qualify as news. Not surprisingly,
the majority of the information that makes it to the airwaves or in print is overwhelmingly one-sided, reflecting a
world-view steeped in progressive values and blatantly hostile to traditional values.
What is Bias? Here
are the "Seven Violations of Media Objectivity":
1. Misleading definitions and terminology.
2. Imbalanced reporting.
3. Opinions disguised as news.
4. Lack of context.
5. Selective omission.
6. Using true facts to draw false conclusions.
7. Distortion of facts.
The
Media Has Lost the Public's Trust. A recent report indicates that the
general public's trust in newspapers and television news are at all-time lows. In addition,
another report shows that newspaper subscriptions are facing an accelerated decline. These
reports, combined with the major networks news programs and CNN's continued slide in ratings,
means the public is fed up with news coverage that is not fair and balanced.
The
Slobbering Sycophants of the MSM. There was a time, after all, when Americans actually had a
rather high opinion of those who brought us the news in a fair and reasonably objective manner, and when
editors and publishers didn't allow their opinions to bleed all over the rest of the newspaper. But
those days are long gone. Today, nobody trusts print or TV journalists. Liberals may have been
delighted to find the MSM working overtime to get their guy elected last year, but in the final analysis
nobody respects a whore.
In
the Tank: A Statistical Analysis of Media Bias. During the 2008 presidential election,
even center-left observers have noted the unmistakable bias of the prestige news media toward
Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party in general. As we shall reveal, the bias
of the media is pervasive, ideologically motivated, and quantifiable: that is, it has been admitted,
measured, and analyzed in statistical terms. Those results reveal a media doggedly out-of-touch
with the political center and tilted decidedly leftward.
Liberals
whine about conservative media: Neil Gabler, professor
at the Annenberg School of Journalism at USC pretended to be
unable to detect liberal bias in the media, including leftwing papers like the one
he was writing in. Perhaps that's because he also failed to notice that the Annenberg
School is run by a former Clinton Administration official and — like journalism
schools across the country — its faculty is 100% leftwing.
On
frivolity, dubiety and the truth in medialand: It is not news that the
Establishment press hangs way out there over the leftward edge, and long has. In
1972 more than 90 percent of top people in the national print and electronic media
voted for George McGovern. In April, 1980, only about 2 percent of the editors
attending the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington
indicated in a survey they wanted Ronald Reagan to be the next president.
Most
deny conservative media bias: A new poll indicates most Americans
disagree with top Democrats that there is a conservative bias in the media that
shouts down and drowns out liberal voices.
A Double Standard at CNN: The double
standard at CNN is: when those on the right do something it is fishy and needs an expose. When the same
thing is done on the left, it is just "the given."
We must hold the media
accountable. Conservatives have made a target of the liberal biases of the
"mainstream" media. It has become a tired attack, wrung out of its freshness and meaning by
constant repetition. So why not leave it alone? The reason is simple: It's too
important to leave alone. The liberal media's ideological prejudices are growing ever
more blatant, outrageous, and dangerous.
Liberal Media on Life Support. [Scroll down slowly] Ten years
ago, this might never have surfaced, as the media giants, in their lockdown control of the presses and airwaves, seemed
to have things their own way. Then the Internet emerged as a free and alternative center of power, a 'press' that
looked at the press with the critical eye that the press turned on others, and an age of exposure began. Skeptics
took aim at the press and its doings. Blogs rose that put the Times under their microscope. Powerline and Hugh
Hewitt took on local papers, which are now in some trouble. Instapundit pointed out double standards when and
where they occurred.
The Ten Worst Media
Distortions of Campaign 2004. [For example] Dan Rather's forgery fiasco; ignoring,
then attacking, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth; spinning a good economy into bad news; and
swooning over John Edwards' image [while] ignoring his liberalism.
Mika:
With One Exception, Every CBS Reporter, Director, Anchor A Liberal. Give Mika Brzezinski credit for candor.
She has stated that during her 10 years at CBS, every reporter, producer and anchor she knew, with one exception, was a
liberal. ... Will Mika's revelation trigger a frantic internal investigation at CBS to root out the Republican interloper?
Ex-Washington Post Ombudsman, Who Recognized Liberal Bias, Killed in
New Zealand. Howell agreed with readers who saw "a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama" in the
paper's campaign coverage, as she had earlier determined "Democrat Barack Obama has had about a 3 to 1
advantage over Republican John McCain in Post Page 1 stories since Obama became his party's presumptive nominee."
Your
Turn: Judge and Decide the Worst Media Bias of 2009. For each of the 16 categories,
pick one quote — the one you think is the most outrageous in the category. Then move on
through all of the categories.
Online
Picks for Worst Media Bias of 2009 Unveiled. Nearly 8,000 of you participated in the
public online voting for the Best Notable Quotables of 2009 (7,903 to be exact), weighing the idiocy
and outrageousness of dozens of quotes from liberal reporters and celebrities.
GE shareholders
erupt in anger over MSNBC's leftwing bias. Anger erupted at GE's annual shareholders meeting on
Wednesday [4/22/2009]. "The crowd was angry with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt," one person observed. "Some
former employees said they were embarrassed by it." The complaints came hot and heavy. During the
question-and-answer period, shareholders repeatedly asked executives about political views expressed on MSNBC
and CNBC.
HuffPo
Decries General Electric's Control of NBC, MSNBC ...But Only On Some Topics. The Huffington Post is concerned
all of a sudden that General Electric is engaging in top-down control of the news because they tried to stop Keith
Olbermann's attacks on Bill O'Reilly. The Post is right to be concerned about GE's control, but they haven't shown
much interest in GE's network push for green investments and carbon trading that will line their own pockets.
NBC: National Broadcasters Against
Conservatives. On December 7, 2007, as the country solemnly remembered Pearl Harbor and the
timeless sacrifices of soldiers long dead, one of our major television networks decided that running ads praising
today's modern armed forces constituted a bridge too far.
Some of the roots of media bias:
Tracking Your Digital Trail.
[Scroll down] Most people never realized that after World War II, the higher-ups among these various radical
entities ventured forth to head educational institutions and media outlets. For example, Edward Barrett, who
served as head of our government's overt psychological warfare program from 1950-52, became dean of Columbia University's
Graduate School of Journalism. ... William Paley, an alumnus of the U.S. Army's Psychological Warfare Division went
on to head CBS, and C.D. Jackson led Time/Life.
Is
GE Using CNBC, MSNBC to Promote Cap-and-Trade for Financial Gain? It has been something that there have
been rumblings about, but no one has really put the x's and o's together entirely — that General Electric is
using its media arm, NBC Universal to promote President Barack Obama's so-called progressive agenda for its own financial
gain.
The Editor says...
GE and Obama are both pushing for a "smart" electric power grid. Coincidence?
Is
GE dancing to the White House piper? General Electric, more intimately tied in with government than nearly
any other company, rolled out a new intiative this week, called "healthymagination." That odd name draws a parallel to
GE's 2005 initiative "ecomagination." Like ecomagination, healthymagination held its launch event not at corporate
headquarters in Greenwich, Conn., but here in D.C.
GE a corporate sponsor.
For all of the carping liberals did for eight years about corporate cronyism in George W. Bush's White
House, they seem to turn a blind eye to the same behavior in President Obama's. With plans in place for
a major overhaul in the health-care industry, General Electric is positioning itself to become a major
beneficiary of these health care reforms.
Obama Staffers Attend Secret Dinners With Lefty
Media. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz has let the cat out of the bag in the Post's April 27 issue
about a regularly scheduled secret media dinner attended by some of the top left-wing journalists in the country. ... The
secret dinners for Obama staffers and his boosters in the Old Media have been going on for "more than a year" and are
sponsored by David Bradley, the owner of the Atlantic. In attendance have been some of the most well known lefty
journalists in Washington.
Jake Tapper Isn't
Letting Go. Jake Tapper isn't the easiest guy to interview. After all, when your interview
subject is a competent journalist, he or she already knows all the tricks of the trade — the subtle
flatteries, the ever-so-slightly leading questions — so Tapper isn't about to say any more than he
has to about his personal politics or what goes on behind the scenes of his job as ABC News White House
correspondent. Or it's possible Tapper doesn't want to talk about these things because he's one of
the last remaining journalists in America who take the responsibilities of their jobs seriously, and thus
place a premium on their credibility.
2008 liberal media
awards: It's time for the 21st annual Media Research Center's awards for the most biased, manipulative
or downright goofy quotes from liberals in the "mainstream" media. I'm honored to serve, once again, on MRC's
distinguished panel of conservatively-biased judges.
From
Being Watchdogs to Needing Watchdogs. The mainstream media, who forgot Felix Frankfurter's
admonition that "freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society," long
ago abdicated their role as government watchdog and now require a watchdog themselves. Never has that
been clearer than in the 2008 presidential election, during which they are covering up rather than covering
Barack Obama's shady past and alliances, his knee-deep involvement in corrupt practices threatening the very
core of our democratic system, and his many policy misrepresentations.
Why Reporters — and Judges and
Professors — Are Biased. That the news media were biased in the 2008 presidential election is now
acknowledged by fair-minded people, left or right. ... Given how obvious this bias is, the question is not whether
liberals in the media tend to offer biased reporting. The question is why? Why can't liberal news people
report the news without any slant? ... For most liberal news reporters ... the purpose of news reporting is not to
report news as objectively as possible. The purpose of the media in general and of reporting specifically
is to promote social justice and the social transformation of society.
Mainstream Media Needs Rehab For Liberal
Overdose. This bias from the small town markets to the industry's big guns creates an
interesting dichotomy — because the majority of news organizations have swung so far to the left,
other news outlets who don't follow suit appear "right." Or worse, the rosy glasses of the majority make
leftist extremes appear normal. Yet, despite the mainstream media's best efforts, the majority of
Americans remain conservative.
Satire:
Coming
soon to a lefty rag near you. In the months to come, we can expect all kinds of horror stories from the
left about alleged Bush-Cheney atrocities. These will deflect attention from present-day problems and provide
liberal thinkers with the intense indignation they so desperately need. In addition, the bevy of Bush-Cheney
sins will supply the media and individual opportunists with "product." So, in order to get ahead of this
inevitable situation, I will now predict some future headlines...
Democrats
Most Reliable Constituents: The Press. Surveys of journalists conducted over the past three
decades show the media elite are extremely consistent in choosing Democratic candidates on Election Day.
If only journalists were permitted to vote, we would never have had a President Reagan or a President Bush, but
would have instead faced Presidents McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry. It wouldn't have been close.
Media Credibility:
As an "independent conservative," I'm expected to see liberal media bias lurking everywhere, but it's not just
me — and it's not just conservatives. I know liberals, including newspaper editors, who think
the "news" pendulum had swung dangerously far to the left. Beyond recent studies by the Pew Research
Center and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, other research shows that the media has tilted to the
left; indeed journalists themselves have openly admitted as much.
Helen Thomas: Symbol of
Media Decline. The gold standard for reportorial behavior is supposed to be "objectivity" and the
appearance of impartiality. That does not apply to opinion journalists who are often ideologically oriented and
whose very livelihood depends on a readership/listenership/viewership that is attracted to them precisely because of
their punditry. We are talking about straight reporters who supposedly arrive at the table with no intent to
weave an agenda into the story. It can be argued, as this writer has, that anyone who covers the bitterest
gut-wrenching political battles of our time and claims to have no opinions is likely to be judged either a liar
or a moron. The point is — Does he/she try to play it down the middle in a way that is credible
to a public that simply wants unvarnished facts?
Zogby Poll: Voters Believe Media Bias is
Very Real. Nearly two-thirds of those online respondents who detected bias in the media (64%)
said the media leans left, while slightly more than a quarter of respondents (28%) said they see a
conservative bias on their TV sets and in their column inches.
Exactly How Biased is the American Media?
The average American voter is starting to come to grips with the fact that those who control the flow of their
information, "the media," are neither independent nor unbiased. In a September 2007 Gallup survey of American
voters, 45% said the media is too liberal, compared to only 18% who said the media is too conservative and 35% who
said the media is about right. The results of that survey demonstrate how far left 18% of Americans are today, and
how uninformed another 35% are.
America's Second Wake-Up
Call! In the last 40 years, there have been nine major surveys of editors and reporters
who work for national media. The most they ever voted Republican in a national election was 14%; the
more common range has been 4% to 7%. This is one reason why no matter who wins a political debate,
the media almost en masse repeatedly tell you their man won. And most voters who don't pay close
attention will believe them. It's called coordinated propaganda.
Old Media News In The Tank.
The old broadcast and print media outlets have abandoned any pretense of objectivity and impartiality in this
year's general election, further eroding their credibility. It makes one wonder. Is the future of
news already here, or are we transitioning toward something still over the horizon?
Even Harvard Finds The Media
Biased. The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No,
on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers. Just like so many reports before
it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press,
Politics and Public Policy — hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy — found that in
covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans.
Keeping the press honest:
"If you look at the surveys, we've accomplished our primary mission, which is to educate the American people
about the bias that exists," he [Brent Bozell III] says. "One survey in 1987 showed ... that only
25 percent of the people believed there was such a thing as media bias. Today, according to a
recent survey, that figure is 79 percent."
Reader responses overflow after story.
When Politico editors John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei tackled the subject of media bias Tuesday [10/28/2008],
they knew they were venturing into controversial territory. Still, they hadn't predicted the most
intense reader response Politico has ever received, with hundreds of e-mails pouring into their inboxes
within hours of the story hitting the web.
"Swiftboating,"
Media Myths and the 2004 Campaign. The media's ability to shape opinion derives from its power
to slant the news — the pervasive activism known as "media bias" — and also from its
power to choose what is and is not reported. But 2004 marked a watershed in American
political history. That was the year the old media lost control of our national conversation.
Tim Russert Took Media
Bias Seriously. In 2001, my first book, "Bias," came out. It was an insider's look at bias
in the media. Not one network news correspondent would have anything to do with me. I couldn't get
on any of their morning news shows to talk about the book (which was a national best seller), or their evening
shows or their weekend shows or even their middle-of-the-night news shows. No one in network television
wanted to discuss the issue, no matter how many Middle Americans thought it was important. Russert was
the lone exception.
The War Inside NBC: It was a black
day for journalism in NBC: [Tim] Russert's death released one of the last brakes slowing NBC's descent
into political activism and journalistic irrelevance. NBC was once the proud home of real journalists.
People such as Chet Huntley and David Brinkley brought its standards to — and above — the
level prevalent in most news organizations. But now, it's an asylum for people such as Chris Matthews
and Keith Olbermann.
Enough Already! I have
just about had it with the conservative punditry and their plaintive wailings about the unfairness of the
self-proclaimed "mainstream media" (I think the designation "Big Media" would be more appropriate as applied
to the information service of the leftist elites, which is anything but mainstream). "Where is the
outrage?" "Why does the mainstream media concentrate exclusively on the failings of the right while
completely ignoring the failings of the left?"
Inside the Disinformation Machine:
If you think the media has a liberal bias today, wait until you see what the left has in store for America's
future. Extremist billionaires, "netroots" activists, and nonprofit pressure groups are creating a new
media network. Through blog journalism, they aim to discredit the media outposts of the right while
remaking the Internet in their own image.
Evangelicals are
in the news, but not in newsrooms. It's unclear exactly how many evangelicals work in newsrooms, and
federal laws against religious discrimination prevent news managers from asking about a job candidate's beliefs.
But the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported in 2007 that 8 percent of journalists surveyed
at national media outlets said they attended church or synagogue weekly. The survey also found 29 percent
never attend such services, with 39 percent reporting they go a few times a year.
A
Shameful Week for the Press. I have always tended to think that conservative complaints about
the media are a little exaggerated. There are occasionally obvious instances of bias and clear examples
of a double standard, but most reporters don't want to fall into those and some conservatives are surely too
sensitive to them. But this week has changed my view. I have never seen, and I admit that I could
never have imagined, such shameful, out-of-control, frenzied, angry, condescending, and pathetic journalistic
malpractice.
Stunning
results in early voting in California. California has begun early voting already as well as
mail-in balloting. The number of people who have gone in to vote in person has been extensive. The
results so far prove what we had always suspected. The polls are being proven as totally unreliable.
Academedia Bias: Too
often we treat academic and media bias separately when their relationship is much more symbiotic. After all,
not only are media elites trained in academia but they frequently return to school to teach and "give
something back" to the educational system that spawned them.
Poll:
Democrats Trust Media More than Republicans Do. Harris released one of their latest polls on the 6th
[3/6/2008] and it showed that less than half the general American public trusts the press. With the state of the media
today, this should come as no surprise to anyone. But, the numbers are pretty amazing when it is realized that 54% of
those responding said they did not trust the press while 46% admitted that they don't trust television news either.
'Whitewash'
Indictment of Liberal Media Convinces, Says Zelnick. No one does a better job than L. Brent Bozell III
and his Media Research Center in documenting the liberal bias of much of the mainstream news media. Some
of their citations of my former colleagues' wisdom make me laugh out loud. Others make me furious.
The Fall of the
American Press? Many of the reasons given for the challenges facing the newspaper and the media
in general are well known, but perhaps worth recounting. … [For example] journalists are no longer seen as
disinterested parties pursuing the truth, but as elites who themselves profit from pushing certain agendas.
The revolving door between the halls of power and the news studios underscores this concern.
Third
CNN Staffer Joins Obama's Team, As Does ABC Vet; Revolving Door Up to Ten. Following the path of
CNN Middle East correspondent Aneesh Raman and producer Kate Albright-Hanna, who both jumped aboard the Obama
campaign last year, senior political producer Sasha Johnson this week announced she's leaving the network's
Washington bureau to take the Press Secretary slot at the Department of Transportation.
Media Lies: Plenty
know by now that in 2004 the progressive Pew Foundation published an extensive poll exposing the five-to-one
ratio of liberals to conservatives in the news-reporting media. Strangely, media outlets must believe that
we have forgotten this because they continue marching forward just like the vain and gullible monarch penned
by Hans Christian Andersen.
Media bias impacts the news you hear and don't hear.
Time for "Propagandist Buttons" to identify
biased "journalists" on air. Canada Free Press (CFP) editors Judi McLeod and Arthur Weinreb
advocate that [Gwen] Ifill and others of her ilk should be identified for what they are: propagandists
not journalists; that "journalists" advocating for the election of Obama should be forced by the networks who
hire them to wear buttons proclaiming them as "Propagandists". In short, in fairness to television
viewers everywhere, the Katie Courics, Rachel Maddows et al should be forced to wear on-air the "Propagandist
Button", a sort of Fairness Doctrine that really works.
BBC
to probe its 'bias to the Left'. The move comes just five months after another internal BBC report
claimed that the organisation was Left-leaning, out of touch with large swathes of the public and guilty of
"unconscious self-censorship" on issues it found unpalatable.
The Pulitzer Racket:
Conservatives often ponder why more young conservatives don't go into journalism. Here's one easy reason:
The path to prizes and prestige doesn't come from fierce investigative probing into liberal sacred cows or sharp-eyed
conservative commentary. It comes from pleasing liberals with stories that advance their agenda.
Hillary On The Hotseat:
One need look no further than yesterday's Wall Street Journal to figure out why the Left has been so adamantly opposed to
its sale to Rupert Murdoch. The Wall Street Journal has had the audacity, the effrontery, to challenge, actually
challenge, one of the Left's most cherished shibboleths: Queen Hillary. Doing what 'mainstream' journalists
have failed to do for, oh, the last ten years or so (except when a Republican is president), the WSJ put the 'investigate'
back in 'investigative journalism.'
Scandalous
"Scandals". Now that ABC News has the list of phone numbers given to them by the "Washington
madam," the question is: Whose names will they publicize if they find out that there are public figures
whose phone numbers are among those they have? Let us suppose, just for the sake of argument, that these
names include Karl Rove and Ted Kennedy. Are both names equally likely to be revealed?
All the news
that fits. Only a dyed-in-the-wool leftist would think to label CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times,
the Washington Post and the three major networks, as the mainstream media. Only liberals who are so
delusional as to regard their politics as middle of the road could be that mistaken. Normal people are
aware of the fact that these news outlets are not only not mainstream, but are clear out of the water and
perched on the far left bank. However, those of the liberal persuasion have repeated that lie so often
and for so long, I'm afraid they've actually come to take it as gospel.
The blind leading the
bias. What a splendid joke. If I'd wanted to prove the unconscious bias of the media, I
would have picked exactly such a panel, and watched to see if anyone actually noticed the screaming absence
of a single conservative voice.
Al-Jazeera now biased,
says leaving reporter. The most high-profile US journalist on al-Jazeera's English language service has
left the channel, attacking its narrowing world view and increasingly anti-American editorial slant. Dave Marash,
a former ABC correspondent, said that editorial input from Washington had "gotten smaller and smaller" and that the
Qatar-based management were exerting control on the channel's overseas bureaux.
Al Jazeera Hosts
Party for a Terrorist. An Israeli official has accused the Arabic satellite television
channel Al Jazeera of "unprofessional" behavior in hosting a party at its Beirut office for
newly freed arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar. … Kuntar was accused of killing four Israelis, including
a four-year-old girl whose head he smashed with a rifle.
CNN and Hillary Destabilize
Pakistan. We can now understand why Musharraf's November 3 state-of-emergency
decree took foreign news outlets like CNN off the air. Musharraf, who is one of the main
targets of the al-Qaeda international terrorist organization, recognizes that the so-called
"CNN effect" in global affairs can destabilize foreign governments, including his own.
It's no wonder that he recently complained about being betrayed by the Western media.
America is in Deep Trouble.
Though most Americans are far more conservative than anyone living or working in Washington DC today, the conservative movement finds itself playing defense to a
long list of socialist anti-American aggressors. No, not the Soviet block or Red China, but your friendly
DNC Headquarters, their minions in the press, and your next door neighbors, many of whom are unaware of
their socialist standing.
Excerpts from How to Identify,
Expose and Correct Liberal Media Bias: Tips for identifying and
documenting bias in news stories.
What can we do
about media bias? The Associated Press is the 500-pound gorilla of media bias. They
are the gatekeepers of our news and they're extremely powerful. The liberally biased AP is a
monopoly when it comes to distributing news to our nation's newspapers. It's useless to complain
to them though, because they don't care.
No candy coating here ...
Some of the media is still
lousy. When it comes to the liberal/leftist media in general, especially The New York
Times, … The Washington Post, … and The Los Angeles Times, they never disappoint media analysts
for their basic anti-Bush, anti-Republican, anti-conservative, anti-American, anti-military, anti-capitalism
and free enterprise, and anti-Western civilization biases, stances, commentaries, and
misinformation/disinformation.
Give 'em that liberal
media bias. The Media Research Center has released its 19th Annual Awards for the Year's Worst
Reporting in its ever-vigilant attempt to point out some of the greatest examples of left-tilting bias in the
mainstream media. Next to Christmas, it is one of my favorite things about the month of December.
I offer a small sampling of my favorites.
Liberal
bias in media is no secret, but now it's proven. Our American media machine is broken.
Journalists can no longer be trusted. Many conservatives have seen years of evidence that the mainstream
media is shifting further and further to the left. But this week a new study from the Center for Media
and Public Affairs shows an unprecedented bias in the network news coverage.
Four
Times More Journalists Identify as Liberal Than Conservative. A survey conducted late last year
and released Monday, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, confirmed the obvious —
that compared to the views of the public, conservatives are under-represented in national journalism while
liberals are over-represented. Jennifer Harper of the Washington Times discovered the nugget buried deep
in the annual "State of the Media" report from Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism and FNC's Brit Hume on
Tuesday night highlighted the findings from the survey of 222 journalists and news executives at national
outlets: Only six percent said they considered themselves conservatives and only two percent said they
were very conservative.
Hispanic news
a GOP liability. Although Spanish-language press is not monolithic, news coverage, and particularly
political coverage, tends to focus on advocacy for its community, analysts said. It's new territory that
Democrats have been quick to grasp, deploying Spanish-speaking lawmakers to make the party's case on education,
national defense and, most recently, immigration.
The Editor says...
That's just a roundabout way of saying that the Hispanic press leans to the political left even more than
the English-speaking press.
Journalists dole out cash to politicians (quietly).
MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008
campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom
checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to
Republicans. Two gave to both parties.
Poll
Finds Journos At Bottom Of 'Prestige' Jobs. Hang down your head, journalist — your
fellow Americans don't think your career is much to be proud of. The annual Harris Poll measuring public
perceptions of 23 professions and occupations came out Wednesday — and you can find journalists in
the Bottom Ten.
Hitting a New Low in Bias: The truth is,
to be pro-life is to be anti-violence. No one who is truly pro-life could ever advocate or engage in
violence, whether shooting an abortionist outside an abortion clinic or tearing an unborn child apart inside
that clinic. But for the media, that truth doesn't fit their fiction of what "pro-life" means. So
they ignore it.
A Reporter-Turned-Congressman
Waves Yellow Flag On Media Bias. At their best, the news media help promote our democracy.
Like many Americans, though, I am increasingly concerned about a bias in the mainstream news media. To
me, there is a significant liberal slant in news reporting that prevents the American people from getting
facts about critical issues facing our country. Without facts, Americans cannot make informed decisions
about issues, and our democracy is threatened.
No Extreme Democrats for MSM?
So, we have a "moderate" in Hoyer facing an extremist in Murtha in this fight for Party Majority leader.
But, one would be hard pressed to see any MSM outlet presenting the facts in such a light. In fact,
the MSM seems to want to present the story as a corruption issue instead of a war issue, even as they want
to assume that the recent election is a vote by the electorate to get out of Iraq.
MSNBC, Leaning Left And
Getting Flak From Both Sides. MSNBC, which bills itself as "the place for politics," is being pummeled by
political practitioners. "It's an organ of the Democratic National Committee," says Steve Schmidt, a senior
strategist for John McCain's campaign. "It's a partisan advocacy organization that exists for the purpose of
attacking John McCain."
Americans
See Liberal Media Bias on TV News. By a 39% to 20% margin, American adults believe that the three
major broadcast networks deliver news with a bias in favor of liberals. A Rasmussen Reports national
telephone survey found that just 25% believe that ABC, CBS, and NBC deliver the news without any bias.
New Evidence of Liberal Media Bias. This
study found evidence that conservatives were more likely to perceive media bias than liberals, but that both
conservatives and liberals detected bias in media outlets that leaned against their political perspectives.
In the end, however, because conservatives were more critical of the media both in general and in response to
specific outlets, the results seem most consistent with the claim that a liberal political bias exists in the
mainstream news media.
How
to Detect Bias in the News: At one time or other we all complain about "bias in the news."
The fact is, despite the journalistic ideal of "objectivity," every news story is influenced by the attitudes
and background of its interviewers, writers, photographers and editors. Not all bias is deliberate.
But you can become a more aware news reader or viewer by watching for [these] journalistic techniques that
allow bias to "creep in" to the news.
Affirmative Action for Conservatives:
Thomas Edsall, who served for many years as the top political journalist for the Washington Post, has told Hugh
Hewitt on his radio show that Democrats outnumber Republicans in the national press corps by a margin of
anywhere from 15 or 25 to 1. That is important personal testimony and evidence from someone
who toiled in the mainstream media.
We
are biased, admit the stars of BBC News. It was the day that a host of BBC executives and star
presenters admitted what critics have been telling them for years: the BBC is dominated by trendy,
Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism.
Fair and Balanced? You
Bet. I worked in newsrooms for most of 30 years, with a couple of breaks for grad school
and political campaign work. I can say with confidence that I can count on one hand the conservatives
I worked with during those years in mainstream news. They fall into two categories: those with
whom I worked in the early 1970s who were relics of the days when you might actually find a conservative
in a newsroom, and a couple in the 1990s who, like me, had made a gradual transition from left to right.
Michael Moore and Bill Clinton: Birds
of a Feather. The public has a right to know why Clinton didn't catch bin Laden and when
"facts" in Moore's documentary aren't true. Moore and Clinton's reactions prod the public to view
skepticism and balance as biased attack. Clinton even called it "a conservative hit job" and that
the public questions about his role in not stopping bin Laden were there due to "a serious
disinformation campaign to create that impression." Plenty of conservatives have been
the benefactors of "liberal hit jobs" on NBC, ABC, and CBS but it happens so often, usually
no one notices.
Media Anarchy Has Its
Downside. One can't exaggerate how large Fox looms in the liberal imagination. They see it
as huge and mighty and credit it with almost mythical powers. It is a propaganda channel whose mission
it is to destroy the Democratic Party. That's part of why Clintons' performance had such salience.
Finally he was standing up to an evil empire.
Attacking the Messenger: The
Left Unhinged by The Fox News Channel. Since the dawn of the information age,
groups have tried to manipulate news organizations by going after their advertisers. … Even
in the recent attacks on the Fox News Channel, groups have used Rupert Murdoch's relationship
with cigarette maker Philip Morris and how that led to Murdoch's vast media empire ignoring
stories about the negative effects of smoking. It isn't enough, however, to try to
control the behavior of the American people by controlling the legal products they have
access to in the marketplace. The left wants to control what you think and read by
controlling your information sources.
Prepping the '08 Media Battlefield:
The left hates Fox because it reports things that ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times and the Washington Post
would otherwise conceal from the public. The war on Fox will continue, because the libs know it's
essential to prepare the battlefield for the 2008 election. If they can marginalize Fox — and
even revive the old "fairness doctrine" to kill conservative talk radio — they could restore
the left's monopoly on national news. So what are Republicans doing in response? Nothing.
Crazy like a
Fox (News). As Fox News celebrates its 10-year anniversary, media watchers should appreciate how
Fox, which tilts right, has provided balance to major new operations such as CNN and the New York Times, which
tilt left. Go to most newsrooms and you'll find a staff that overwhelmingly voted for John Kerry in 2004,
while the rest keep their politics to themselves lest they be considered biased. A survey of the
Washington press corps found that 89 percent voted for Bill Clinton in 1992.
Liberal
Media Allergic to American Values. Elite news editors shrug at their reporters' highly politicized
activities — from AIDS fund-raisers to pro-abortion rallies, environmental propaganda and unhinged
Bush-bashing (new case in point: New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse's recent moonbatty screed at
Harvard University assailing everything from Gitmo to the Mexican-U.S. border fence). But wear a
flag pin? Heresy!
Big Government Solutions Don't
Work. Politics as usual is aided by the complicity of the media. Economic ignorance,
bleeding heart emotionalism, and populist passion pervade our major networks and cable channels. ... In
countries where everyone knows the media produces government propaganda, people remain wary of what they
hear. In the United States the media are considered free and independent, thus the propaganda is
accepted with less questioning.
Meet the Real Katie
Couric. On September 5, Katie Couric took the helm of the CBS Evening News, a program tainted by
decades of Dan Rather's liberal bias. But a review of Couric's 15 years as co-host of NBC's Today finds
that she brings her own liberal baggage, and she seems unlikely to challenge the biased approach that has eroded
the credibility of CBS News and the rest of the media elite.
New Network, Same Old Biased
Katie. After more than two decades in which Dan Rather used his anchor desk to push a liberal
agenda — culminating in the forged document scandal in 2004 — the CBS Evening News needed
its new anchor to be the epitome of fair and balanced journalism. Instead, the CBS brass hired Katie
Couric, who put her liberal fingerprints all over Today during her 15 years at NBC.
Reporting, opinions
and 'just plain rude'. Reporters have an obligation to maintain an objective approach to
the stories they cover. That's not to say they don't have opinions, but if they are going to have
credibility as reporters, they need to keep those opinions out of their stories. Instead, we've
grown used to reporters becoming talking heads on television, where they speculate incessantly about
the meaning of stories or the outcome of stories or the virtue of the people they write about.
The database double
standard. Here is the most insincere question a liberal TV news star can ask: How can
President Bush turn around his poll numbers? … The media's crocodile tears are not even laughable,
just nauseating. Pushing down the president's approval rating seems to be their daily task.
Media
bias on full display. The reason to point out that this military tribunal case was actually a
5-4 decision is because other 5-4 decisions get reported in a very different way. For example, when the
court upheld the University of Michigan law school's use of race in admissions in a 5-4 decision, [one of the
nation's most important and influential newspapers] called the ruling "deeply divided."
You Can't Spell Pap Without the AP.
Like many of its contributing entities, it is a mere shell of its formerly unbiased self.
The Collapse of Network
News: For the last decade or two, the Big Three network news ratings have declined and their
once-iron grip on public opinion has loosened, prompting this debate: is this decline merely a sign of
increasing 24-7 media availability (cable news, Internet sites) or is the liberal tilt of the networks driving
conservative viewers away from these networks in favor of alternative outlets?
The Media Adore Warren Buffett.
Buffett targets people in general, not just a particular group. In a press release, [Rev. Thomas J.]
Euteneuer took aim at almost every aspect of Buffett's agenda, saying that "Warren Buffett's philanthropy aims
at killing pre-born children not curing childhood disease, eliminating the poor not poverty, and destroying the
developing world not aiding development." That may seem harsh. But while [Bill] Gates is dedicated
to "global health" issues, he, too, underwrites the pro-abortion agenda.
DisHonors Awards
2006: The most outrageously biased liberal reporters of 2005.
The political
Pulitzers. The recent unveiling of the Pulitzer Prizes had more of the same politicized
whiff that the Oscars oozed earlier this year. Merit is taking a back seat now to "edginess" in
both the news and entertainment media.
Vote
against an unethical media. To my fellow conservatives, Republicans, and even independents, who
are so frustrated with some in the GOP for abandoning the principles of our party, that you plan to sit out
this election, I implore you to change your mind. While I share your anger and disappointment, I am
still eagerly going to vote on November 7th for one simple reason. To stop those in the
mainstream media trying to hijack this election.
The Desperate
Mainstream Media Go Racist. Imagine that when far-left California Rep. Maxine
Waters was running for office, a number of Republicans didn't like her platform and so they
called her "Aunt Jemima" or depicted her as a slave girl who took her marching orders from
her "massa," Terry McAuliffe. This is exactly what happened — in articles
and political cartoons — during the confirmation hearings of Condoleezza Rice as
secretary of state. And how did the Mainstream Media cover this rank racism? Not
by calling it by its name and not by condemning Sen. Robert Byrd, the former Grand Kleagle of
the Ku Klux Klan, who led the Democratic pack in delaying Rice's ascendance to this august
position. Instead, they were uniformly mute about the racist assaults and slavishly
echoed Rice's critics.
Rumsfeld
gets pranked. Young students in journalism school ought to be taught
that "by their stories, you shall know them." The media reveal their opinions
about the world not only in their endless pontificating verbiage, but in the topics
they choose. The "news" becomes whatever floats their boat, whatever they
urgently want the people to know.
There is much more about this incident in News
media issues related to the war.
Reporter
behind Rumsfeld grilling. An embedded reporter from the Chattanooga Times Free
Press is claiming credit for the blunt questioning yesterday [10/8/2004] of Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld by American soldiers in Kuwait.
Editor's Note:
There is a difference between a journalist and an activist. A journalist tells
the reader what's happening. An activist makes things happen (and then
reports it). The reporter who supplied this question is evidently an anti-war
activist and a troublemaker who was only there to make a name for himself.
Bush-hatred is a threat to national
security. Would newspapers in the midst of World War II have printed the fact
that the United States had broken German and Japanese codes, enabling the enemy to secure its
communications? Or revealed how and where Nazi spies were being interrogated? Nowadays,
newspapers win Pulitzer Prizes for such disclosures.
Give Back the Tainted Pulitzers. It's a
shame and a tragedy when the nation's two major papers win Pulitzer Prizes for running stories harming national
security that were clearly based on questionable sources with a partisan political agenda.
The
BBC's commitment to bias is no laughing matter. It's high time the debate moved on from narrow
notions of political bias. Far harder for the BBC to gainsay is that it has a liberal cultural bias, one
that envelops pretty much all programmes, not just news and current affairs. If you want to find the most
solid evidence of partiality, look at the BBC's entertainment output — its dramas, comedies and arts programmes.
The
Clintonite who owns National Enquirer. What the tabloid's readers, in politics and out, may not
know is that a key owner of the Enquirer is a prominent New York investment banker and one of Hillary Clinton's
key backers, Roger Altman. Altman was an official in the first Clinton administration, and his name is
often mentioned as a possible Clinton Treasury Secretary.
The media's
partisan "domestic spying" fight. When given a choice between more information about
our intelligence-gathering methods and less safety, or less information about our
intelligence-gathering and more safety, which do the public choose? The public tends to
prefer more safety. The media prefer more information. And the media would prefer the
public believe it agrees with them, even if it has to cook a few surveys to establish that canard.
More information about the "domestic spying" issue can be
found here.
All the
news... It's always fascinating to return from travel overseas and step back into the
alternative universe of America's media elites. … Coming back to Washington is a reminder of
just how anti-American the American media elites really have become.
AWOL in the
War of Ideas. It's one thing to give the devil his due. It's another to do the
devil's public relations. How else to explain a dispatch from the Associated Press referring
to Osama bin Laden as "an exiled Saudi dissident"? Such spin may not be inaccurate but it's like
calling Jeffery Dahmer an "eccentric gourmet." It rather misses the point, don't you think?
The Decline of Mainstream
Media: What common sense has comprehended for decades now finds support by yet another
scholarly study: The media has a leftist bias. … As if to confirm that bias, over the past
few months, the media have given this research scant coverage. … The researchers expected to find
a left-leaning bias, but were astonished at just how behemoth this left-wing bias is.
The Late Jeane Kirkpatrick Warned of
Media's 'Unaccountable Power'. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, who passed away Friday morning, adapted a
1983 speech on the influence of the news media, into the forward for the Media Research Center's 1990 book,
And That's the Way It Isn't: A Reference Guide to Media Bias. She proposed: "Some people
believe, and I am among them, that the power of the media today constitutes the most significant exercise
of unaccountable power in our society."
Simply Put, the US Mainstream
Media Provides an Inferior Product. The prevailing opinion among the overwhelming majority of
the American public is that there are some very big problems with the mainstream media. The most common
problems noted are the unarguable existence of a political agenda and the elitist pose displayed toward the
American public and those who govern. While I generally agree with both of these observations, I also
believe, when all is said and done, that we are simply being offered an inferior product.
American
journalism's founding fathers: People on the left and right fault contemporary
journalism for (a) giving the Bush administration a free ride, or (b) extreme bias against all
things Bush and Republican. Charges of media bias and the controversy over good vs. bad
journalism are older than the nation, literally.
Deceptive Polling: Polls are
among the most telling expressions of bias in the media. They are very often agenda-driven, used
to make a political point, or to pile on a favorite target. The most controversial and flawed
poll that has been most cited in recent weeks has been the CBS News poll finding that President Bush's
approval rating was down to 34%. But another poll, purporting to find that U.S. troops are weary
of the Iraq War or want a premature withdrawal, is also suspect.
Media Polls: Pimping
for Obama? Polls are manipulated in a number of ways, including question wording, the order
in which questions are asked, and how respondents are chosen. ... Pollsters acknowledge that they are
oversampling among three demographics that the Obama campaign is targeting: young people, minorities
and Democrats.
CNN Poll: All Americans Are Racists. For
creating a story out of nothing and then finger pointing at US society and saying how evil it is, this
Dec. 12th CNN story takes the cake. In "Poll: Most Americans see lingering racism —
in others", not only is a somewhat leading poll cited as evidence that America is still rife with racism, but
CNN uses comments emailed to them by their viewers as some sort of follow up proof for it!
NBC/WSJ Poll: What The 'Today' Show Didn't
Report. These days, it is almost as telling what little gems media organizations choose to hide
from the public about their own polls as what they share. The release of the most recent NBC/Wall Street
Journal poll is a fine example.
Pollster guilty of fake data conspiracy: A
polling company owner admitted participating in a conspiracy to falsify data in order to meet deadlines for clients.
Suspicious Surveys:
You can be sure that when the media release a poll tied to a major news event, it's often biased. … Take
the ABC poll. It was conducted from Aug. 17 to 24. Yet for some reason it wasn't released
until Sept. 10, the day Petraeus delivered his much-anticipated report on the surge. We also wonder
who actually conducted this poll on the ground in Iraq. Hope they weren't the same local reporters and
translators that U.S. newspapers and TV networks employ, many of whom have been found to be less than credible.
Media polls as
instruments of propaganda. The MSM's relentless propagation of Democrat-generated
dezinformatsia has portrayed Operation Iraqi Freedom as a quagmire, the booming economy as an
unjust bust and the President as a lawless spy and has even suggested that George Bush is at
fault for high fuel prices. All this certainly has taken its toll in the polls. These
polls become self-fulfilling when the MSM incessantly pushes a particular perspective, polls the
indoctrinated masses in search of that perspective and then reports the results as "news."
Speaking of deception...
Sacrificing
truth on the altar of diversity. Houghton Mifflin's ploy was recently described by reporter
Daniel Golden in a Wall Street Journal story on the lengths to which publishers go to get images of minorities
and the disabled into grade-school textbooks. A Houghton Mifflin spokesman claimed that able-bodied
models are presented as handicapped only as a last resort. But according to one of the company's regular
photographers, the deception is the norm. At least three-fourths of the children portrayed as disabled
in Houghton Mifflin textbooks actually aren't, she told Golden.
Note: Other examples of what is now called news "fauxtography" are shown at the top
of this page.
Dow Jones Chairman on Media Power: We're Goliath, Not
David. One of the most persistent tics of the passive-aggressive press is its denials of its power,
that it doesn't run the country, or at least try to run the country. All that journalism-school
boilerplate about how the media is merely a watchdog, or like it's the BASF of democracy, you know, it doesn't
make everything, it just makes the secret ingredient that makes everything better? Baloney. Some of us
signed up for the media-criticism business because the media want to pretend they're not major players in the
political process….
The Fourth Estate and Public
Opinion: Several studies to assess the political views of national reporters in
the major press pools of Washington and New York find that those reporters overwhelmingly
self-identify as "liberal" or "Democrat." A recent survey, in fact, determined that
only eight percent of those reporters would vote for a Republican — no surprise to
objective media analysts.
The
scandalmongering co-presidents: To [the news media, President Bush is] the enemy,
and he must be taken out. And they're doing everything they can to make that happen, including
rigging the polls against him by oversampling Democrats, and including nonvoters along with voters,
to make him appear even less popular than he apparently is.
Media
Madness: Those who wonder why fewer and fewer Americans are buying newspapers
or tuning into network "news" need only look at this week's coverage to see why. "Hard"
news stories are harder to come by every day, and those events and issues that do get coverage
carry more than just a "tinge" of bias, ignorance or both.
New York Times: Less
Communism = Bad News for Chinese People. Apparently, not even the communists
are socialistic enough for the New York Times.
Media Maelstrom Over Michael
Brown. "Where do I go to get my reputation back?" Ray Donovan, President Reagan's
Labor secretary, poignantly asked that question when, after the media had adjudged him guilty,
he was acquitted in court of corruption charges. Former FEMA Director Michael Brown might ask
the same question.
The news
media. Surveys galore have shown that somewhere around 90 percent of the writers, editors
and other personnel in the news media are Democrats and only about 10 percent are Republicans. We
depend on the news media for information about government and politics, foreign affairs and war, public
policy and demographic trends — for a picture of the world around us. But the news comes
from people 90 percent of whom are on one side of the political divide. Doesn't sound like an
ideal situation.
The pendulum
is swinging away from patriotism. When I was growing up, Veteran's Day, then
called Armistice Day, was a great national holiday, with parades and expressions of gratitude
to the military troops who kept this country free. Now it is hardly recognized. December 7,
the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor which started World War II, is barely mentioned in the
news, but there is extensive coverage in the media on the anniversary of the first atomic attack on
Hiroshima, and later, Nagasaki.
New evidence of left-wing
media bias. A new study from UCLA confirms that the media veers sharply to the left. Of
20 major news outlets studied, 18 tilt to the left.
The Plot to Kill the President: Forty-two
years to the day after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, an American Muslim was
convicted of joining the terrorist organization Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush.
A lot of media attention was devoted to the former but not the latter. Could that be because the media
loved Kennedy but hate Bush?
BBC
edits out the word "terrorist". The BBC has re-edited some of its coverage of the London
Underground and bus bombings to avoid labelling the perpetrators as "terrorists", it was disclosed
yesterday. Early reporting of the attacks on the BBC's website spoke of terrorists but the same
coverage was changed to describe the attackers simply as "bombers".
Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA
Political Scientist. While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is
conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York
Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage
by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream
media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left.
The Best Notable Quotables
of 2005. The 18th annual awards for the year's worst reporting.
Christmas Is Getting Less Merry
Every Year. Just when you think you have it figured out, life kicks you in the back
of the knee. Over my 30-year career in journalism, I have tried to resist generalizing about
the media. You know, that it is rife with left-wing loons bent on imposing a secular society
on the country. In the past, I would have never said that. But that was then, this is
now. I have come to believe that the American press is so secular Karl Marx would be appalled.
L.A. Times admits false
claim about Falwell. A column by a rabbi published in the Los Angeles Times falsely
asserted Rev. Jerry Falwell claimed lesbian actress Ellen DeGeneres played a role in the 9-11
attacks and Hurricane Katrina because she was the host of the Emmy Awards before both events. The
Times ran a correction explaining the Baptist minister "made no such claim."
The Leftward Course Of Human
Events. [The managing editor of Human Events was forced to resign upon the
insistence of the Southern Poverty Law Center.] How do you explain to your wife that you
lost your job — not for some work-related grievance — but for
exercising your first-amendment rights and, as a freelancer, expressing a point of view?
Substitute Any Other Group and
the Liberals Would Be Howling. The world's largest news service, the Associated Press,
sent out a story today with an alarming headline that the appointment of Judge Samuel Alito to the
Supreme Court would "tip" the Supreme Court to Catholics. The story went on to identify the
religion of each member of the court and indicated Alito's appointment as another indication that
"Catholics have become part of the nation's political mainstream."
Wahington Post Goes After the
Roberts' Children. If you can't come up with something disgusting about the actual
nominee or his wife then rough-up the kids some and see what happens.
Sen.
Hutchison: Roberts line crossed. Citing "simple decency," Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
demanded Friday [8/5/2005] that journalists quit poking around for details on Supreme Court nominee
John Roberts' adopted children.
The People, the Press, and
the Pulpit: The increasingly important role of religion in public life
presents a challenge for the press. The media have particularly low credibility
in this area — even journalists themselves have doubts about their ability to cover
religious issues. Public and press concerns reflect a huge but familiar gap: on
the one hand, the American public is one of the most religious in the West. At
the same time, there are more than a few non-believers in the nation's newsrooms.
Outlawing Thanksgiving Here and
Abroad. Everybody had a good laugh on November 17 [2004] when President Bush
pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys named Biscuits and Gravy. The Washington Post noted
that the event was covered by "dozens of international reporters, photographers and television
cameramen." But the stories we saw in the Post, on CNN and elsewhere neglected to
mention that the President went on to speak eloquently about the religious significance
of Thanksgiving. The media are clearly uncomfortable with the topic.
A petty, partisan
press. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the media are less concerned about the big picture
today, or how all this will look in history, than with how the Bush administration's victory in Iraq will
affect the 2004 elections. After all, studies have shown that nine out of ten journalists vote for
the Democrats.
Liberal whining about the
media: In its search for What Went Wrong, liberalism has decided to admit that it has a
problem. Surprisingly, the problem is us — the news media. We went wrong, or
rather, right. We went and became conservative.
Journalistic bias?
Part II: The question posed in my previous column — “Does a (still) largely liberal
news media (still) exhibit a largely liberal bias?” — can be answered both as a matter of logic
and as a matter of fact, and in both cases, the answer is: Sure.
NBC News Blames Bush for
Iranian Threat. Andrea Mitchell seemed extremely concerned that the new
Iranian president may turn out to be one of those [1979] hostage-takers, and that his
election may play into the hands of the Bush Administration. In other words, don't
blame the Iranian government for the fact that it is run by terrorists who hate
America. Blame Bush.
Raising the
bar: It seems the world of media — somewhat self-righteous at its
worst — is in a bit of a philosophical pickle on this one. For starters,
many of the supporters of the notion to protect anonymous sources are the same publishers,
editors and broadcasters who helped make this the year of "open government" and "open records."
How the Media Created
Rovegate: It's clear, based on the notes of his discussion with Matt
Cooper of Time, that Rove wasn't aware of the facts and didn't have access
to classified information about Valerie Plame's service or status in the CIA. He
said she "apparently" worked at the agency. In any case, it turns out she isn't
covered under a law designed to protect the identities of secret CIA agents.
What If Karl Rove Were A
Democrat? The Center for Individual Freedom has provided an excellent list of cases involving
Democratic officials possibly violating national security or using classified information that have been
ignored or glossed over by the major media. It's hard not to conclude that the media are targeting Rove
because he is a conservative Republican.
The
Dems' obsession: The Democrats and the Old Media are getting as much
mileage as they can out of President Bush's reportedly low approval ratings. But
the smart money says they ought to be more concerned about their own problems.
Extreme
Conservatives vs. Unlabeled Liberals. Study shows there have been six
times More "Conservative" than "Liberal" labels on network news since election day.
A seminar in
old media liberal bias: For an object lesson on Old Media liberal bias, read the
transcript of the May 17 press briefing by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
America's
One-Sided Campus Media: For the past sixteen months I have been a weekly
opinion columnist for UCLA's newspaper, the Daily Bruin, and have seen exactly
how media bias works. … From the high and mighty editor to the yeoman reporter,
the newsroom is the liberals' private party. The conservatives in the newsroom are not
welcome — and it's made certain they understand that.
The
Joseph Goebbels award. Events of this past year have shown the need
for a special award in journalism for those who think that the purpose of reporting
news is to cause the public to adopt the political views of those who do the
reporting.
A Tsunami of Media Bias Hits
America. The anti-Bush media bias that preceded the President's re-election
was back in a big way at the end of the year when officials of the United Nations and some
influential journalists started a campaign blaming the U.S. for being "stingy" and "slow" to
respond to the Asian tsunami disaster. The purpose of the campaign was two-fold — to
rehabilitate the U.N., making the organization look relevant in world affairs, and to damage Bush
politically as he attempts badly needed legislative reforms of the Social Security, legal, and
income tax systems.
This Just In: Liberal Media Bias Comes
to a Halt. Gone are the days when the Big Three networks, plus the New York Times and the
Washington Post, decided what was newsworthy, usually with a liberal spin.
Confirming John
Roberts: Journalists walk around with the knee-jerk assumption that they are the
most essential forces of democracy, there to enrich the nation and its citizens. They truly
see themselves as the conscience of the country, the First Amendment ideal in the flesh.
Ari's
bias briefing: Fleischer was impressive in the nearly impossible job
of keeping the anti-Bush hounds of the press at bay. They were harsh in the first days,
when they were bitter about not getting to suck up to President Gore. They were hostile
in the last days, as John Kerry's chances slipped away.
U.N. Covers Up Payments to
Journalists. Ian Williams of The Nation magazine, has been on the United
Nations payroll, writing articles for the world body and even coaching U.N. officials
on how to deal with the press. … Accuracy in Media
has learned that the U.N. has been paying journalists here and abroad to spread
the U.N. message to an American and international audience.
Fourth
estate or fifth column. There are still people in the mainstream media
who profess bewilderment that they are accused of being biased. But you need to
look no further than reporting on the war in Iraq to see the bias staring you in the
face, day after day, on the front page of the New York Times and in much of the rest
of the media.
Fred Barnes Calls
Sheehan a "Crackpot," Rues Media Focus on Her. Barnes criticized both
her and the media's treatment of her: "This woman wants to go in and tell the
President that the war is about oil because the President wants to pay off his
buddies. She's a crackpot, and yet the press treats her as some important protestor."
Rather
Is Gone; Whining About Leftist Media Is Not. Mark it well — the
media does lean left. News that comes our way is, for the most part, devoid of a
perspective that reflects anything close to a Judeo-Christian, culturally- and
economically-conservative position.
Liberal and
Conservative as Defined by the Media. Obviously American notions of "liberal"
and "conservative" don't translate well to the complicated muddle that is politics in the
former Soviet Union. Yet that doesn't stop the American media from pretending as
though they do. Why? Because to the establishment press, "liberal"
and "conservative" aren't so much ideological descriptions as moral
ones. "Liberal" is the literary equivalent of a white hat for the good guys,
while "conservative" is a black hat for the bad.
The news,
askew. Ideally, news should "slant" to the truth. Practically, the
presentation of news usually skews towards sensationalism. As news consumers, we
accept this, though too rarely compensate for it.
Ted Turner Compares
Fox's Popularity to Hitler. Ted Turner called Fox a propaganda tool of the
Bush administration and indirectly compared Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's
popular election to run Germany before World War II. Turner made those
fiery comments in his first address at the National Association for Television
Programming Executives' conference since he was ousted from Time Warner Inc. five years ago.
Big-Media Dinosaurs Face
Extinction. As the big-media Dinosaurs die off one by one — the
catastrophic meteor to blame for their impending extinction is their own damning
construct — their transparent liberal bias. That bias is now, and
will continue to be the fossil fuel driving tomorrow's new media — a new
media whose long awaited arrival, and much needed influence has already begun.
Egregious
leftism in the media: Most of the guilty insist they are mere mainstreamers,
centrists – yet surely they know better. They betray themselves when they
open their mouths.
How Newt Gingrich Caused
9/11: George W. Bush's record of accomplishment doesn't sit well with the History Channel, which
recently linked the ascendancy of Newt Gingrich to 9/11. The President's words shot in the face of the
liberal establishment, and the History Channel's words seem to have been written by the liberal
establishment.
Washington Post Buys Slate.com
Where Nearly All Voted for Kerry. In acquiring Microsoft's Slate.com, the Washington Post bought
a Web magazine at which nearly every editor and reporter voted for Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.
Slate.com headlined an October 26 article about a survey of their own staff: "At this magazine, it's
Kerry by a landslide!" In 2000, 12 of the 13 in the top editorial positions voted for Gore, with the 13th
going not for Bush but the libertarian.
Newsweek's
Senators to watch: After perusing the year-end issue of Newsweek, I defy
any editor there to deny this magazine is a mouthpiece for the political Left. Their
cover boy was Senator-Elect Barack Obama of Illinois, the "rising star," as the Democrats
and so many admirers in the press have dubbed him. … Barack Obama is just another
ultraliberal legislator from a blue state, another Teddy, another Hillary — another
politician only the liberal media wants to usher into power. And
"News"-week is leading the charge.
The party of
government. A Pew Research Center survey of journalists and media executives conducted earlier
this year found journalists identify themselves as liberals as opposed to conservatives by a five-to-one
margin. In a 1997 poll for the Center for Media & Public Affairs, 66 percent of respondents agreed
that news media "favor a liberal point of view." A Freedom Forum survey found that 89 percent of the
Washington press corps voted for Bill Clinton over George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot in 1992, while Clinton
garnered only 43 percent of the popular vote.
Media: Ashcroft
Was Worse Than Arafat. It might seem odd to compare and contrast two
recent news stories — the resignation announcement of Attorney General
John Ashcroft and the Paris death of Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat. But
an examination of the two demonstrates the degree to which the "news" media's compass
of objectivity is so terribly misaligned. To read the coverage, you'd think
Ashcroft was the tyrant and Arafat the liberator.
The
fourth estate rumbles for more privilege. Maybe you haven't noticed, but
the mainstream media are suffering from the perception that they're just the teeniest
bit arrogant. Oh, who am I kidding? They behave like they're nobles or a priestly
class. Dan Rather, Brian Williams and Peter Jennings might as well wear flowing ermine
robes. From their palaces in midtown Manhattan they determine what the peasants see
and read.
Black
Clergy Denounces "Racial Motivated Attacks" on Condoleezza Rice. A
coalition of black clergy Friday [11/19/2004] denounced recent "racial motivated
attacks" by three editorial cartoonists, the Washington Post and the New York Times
upon National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who was recently nominated by
President Bush to serve as the next secretary of state.
Obama
fever: Here are a few mainstream media rules of thumb: Minority Democrats in public
office are inspirational role models. Minority Republicans in public office are
embarrassing sellouts. Minority Democrat politicians are principled. Minority
Republican politicians are misguided. Minority Democrat politicians represent the
hopes and dreams of all Americans. Minority Republican politicians are traitors
to their "communities." These rules are unwritten, of course, but the minority
politician double standard is glaringly obvious in the national media fawning over
newly elected U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat.
Van
Gordon Sauter, president of CBS News 25 years ago, on CBS News
today:"For
one thing, it has no credibility. And no audience, no morale, no long-term
emblematic anchorman, and no cohesive management structure. Outside those
annoyances, it shouldn't be that hard to fix. … I stopped watching it
some time ago. The unremitting liberal orientation finally became too
much for me."
What they
didn't teach in Journalism school: In [the] Wall Street
Journal, Fred Barnes writes about a GOP official asking a group of
twenty or so journalists how many knew personally an evangelical
Christian. Only a couple of hands went up. Then the offical
asked how many knew a homosexual and every hand went up. Although
conservative Christians make up 40% of the population and homosexuals
make up under 5%, elite journalists don't know any Christians. That
shows up whenever they try to report on Christians or Christianity.
The Media Elite: Where
do they stand? Robert and Linda Richter, of the Center for Media and Public
Affairs, surveyed 104 of the "most influential television writers, producers, and executives"
to find out where they stood on the issues. Their results are as follows:
• 93% seldom or never attend religious services.
• 75% describe themselves as left of center politically,
compared to only 14% who place themselves to the right of center.
• 97% believe that "a woman has the right to decide for herself" whether to have an abortion.
• 80% do not regard homosexual relations as wrong.
• 86% support the right of homosexuals to teach in public schools.
• 51% do not regard adultery as wrong.
• Only 17% strongly agree that extramarital affairs are wrong.
What Liberalism Hides Behind
Bylines? The Dan
Rather/CBS fiasco, together
with its arrogant, delayed, pathetic and mostly unbelievable attempts at
justification, introduces a more subtle, and perhaps more inimical,
subject. What militant liberalism lies hidden beneath the bylines of so many
reporters who write news, or alleged news, for the print media?
Liberal
media bias: here's the proof. Folks know what Liberal Media Bias is. Even
those who deny it have to know what the rest of us are talking about. Anybody can read
it between the lines, see it on CBS (also ABC and NBC), hear it on NPR, and almost feel
it, it's so thick at times. Like an oil slick over the news, LMB permeates American
journalism's elite. But defining Liberal Media Bias isn't easy.
Excuse me, sir, your bias is
showing. An article in the most recent issue of American Journalism Review reveals another layer
of bias in broadcast journalism. According to the article,
network journalists routinely lobby politicians they cover for favorable votes on broadcast regulation.
The article tells how politicians whose votes benefit broadcasters receive awards from the industry.
Legislators who do not vote the way the networks want get threatened with negative coverage on the evening
news. According to AJR, "We need to see the media business for what it truly has turned into: a
huge economic special interest."
Media Critic Has Sharp Words for Media's
"Radical" Style of News Reporting. One of the nation's leading media watchdogs says there is a
powerful element of the media today that has gone beyond mere "liberalism" and has moved into "sheer radicalism."
What media
bias? Larry Elder cites several examples of blatant political bias in
network television news coverage.
The
Liberal Media: Every poll shows journalists are more liberal than the American
public — and the public knows it. Leading journalists may deny their bias,
but every survey over the past 25 years shows journalists do not think or vote like the
American public. Reporters overwhelmingly vote for Democrats, their views on issues such
as abortion and gay rights are well to the left of most Americans, and large majorities want
big government even more involved in the economy.
L.A. Times poll
skewed. Kerry, Bush survey sample was 38% Democrats, 25% Republicans
"Partial
truth" abortion: Many in the media resent any suggestion that they are
either politically biased or that journalists' personal views stop them from doing a
good professional job of accurately reporting the news. The way the issue of
partial birth abortion has been reported — or not reported — gives
the lie to such protests.
Nixon, Bush
and the Media: The press treatment of George W. Bush is motivated by hate,
spite and a vicious disregard for the truth and the national interest. What the media
is doing to Bush is unprecedented — worse than what was done to Nixon because it lacks
journalistic virtuosity. What the media is doing to Bush is inexcusable because,
unlike in the case of Watergate, there is no smoking gun, precisely because there
was no crime.
Newsroom conservatives are
a rare breed. If you'd like to check out an endangered species, don't bother
with a trip to the zoo. Just drop by the newsroom of your favorite newspaper or TV
station and ask to see the conservatives.
Liberal
media? I'm shocked! A new survey by the Pew Research Center says
journalists have political and ideological leanings more liberal than those of the general
public. Or, as a sensible headline might have put it: "Researchers ferret out
the obvious yet again."
More Stuff the Left Has Gotten Away With
Lately: The partisan mainstream media hates it when the Right points out their bias. But
sometimes we just can't help it. Here are three recent comments by well known liberal senators that
received little comment in the Big Media. Thankfully, conservative sources will not let things like these
slide.
Media Bias in Australia. The
taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) occupies a position in Australia similar to that enjoyed by the
BBC in the United Kingdom. ... No Australian commercial network approaches the ABC in terms of reach and, arguably,
influence. It is well-funded, amply staffed and under more or less constant criticism for projecting a left-wing
take on just about every aspect of Australian life that it touches.
Rupert and Hillary: News Corp.
CEO Rupert Murdoch's fundraising for Hillary Clinton was treated as a man-bites-dog shocking news
story. Keith Olbermann's little-watched MSNBC program went crazy with the news. It has
been assumed that Murdoch, whose $60 billion media empire includes the Fox News Channel (FNC), the
Weekly Standard magazine and the New York Post, is a conservative who wouldn't be caught dead supporting
a left-wing Democrat like Hillary. In truth, Murdoch is an opportunist who plays both sides of the
partisan street.
Stephanopoulos Urged
Foreign Assassination. Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson prompted
a firestorm of media outrage after he suggested that the Bush administration
should assassinate a foreign leader who posed a threat to the U.S. But when senior Clinton
advisor George Stephanopoulos publicly argued for the same kind of assassination policy
in 1997, the press voiced no objection at all.
Kennedy and McCain: This Is
Media Balance? Conservatives and media watchdog groups are aghast at a longstanding radio debate
program that has Sen. John McCain "pitted against" Sen. Ted Kennedy — "a discussion between the
Democrats' favorite Democrat and the Democrats' favorite Republican."
Comedy
Central's "That's My Bush" Targets First Lady
They
Couldn't Get Dubya, So Now They're After Jenna
Liberal media show their stripes every day.
Media bias determines which stories make it to the front page and which ones don't.
For truth in
journalism: Do the people have a right to know the biases of the people from whom they
get almost all their information about politics, politicians, candidates and causes? Seems
to me that an honest journalist has to answer yes.
Tom Brokaw vs. conservative
"jihad": In an interview with Jane Hall in the most recent Columbia Journalism Review, Brokaw
suggests there is no such thing as liberal media bias … and then asserts that liberal bias is an
"obligation" of journalism.
A Lesson in
Dallas: Hitting the street and answering that leftist rant is one way even a small group
of conservatives can force their message to stand next to the radicals in the so-called mainstream
press. Just don't expect much coverage from the press.
Hate
speech from the left: In December 1994 I wrote the first of what would become
a yearly series of columns on the subject of liberal hate speech. I had noticed that when a
prominent Republican or conservative said something offensive about liberals, it typically
set off a storm of media condemnation, while an anti-conservative smear voiced by a liberal
or a Democrat rarely drew any protest.
The Communist Party And The American Media
Elite: Is America's left-wing media elite about to suffer the fate of the Communist Party of the
old Soviet Union? I ask this question because my weekend reading raised some interesting parallels
between the Soviet leadership and the current structure of the US news media.
Liberal
media bias, part I: Bernard Goldberg, author of the
bestselling "Bias" says, "If
the media elites don't take the wake-up call, ...I think they're
going to become the journalistic equivalent of the leisure suit — harmless
enough, but hopelessly out of date."
Liberal
media bias, part II: Journalists somehow think that they are the only species
on the planet who can keep their biases in check because they're professionals. Well, I
don't think that's true.
Liberal
Media Bias, part III: The problem there and the problem far more responsible
for the public's losing trust is when the New York Times rams ideology down your throat in
every part of the newspaper, not simply the editorial page.
Give Public Broadcasting its
Freedom — Now. Philanthropist Joan Kroc's recent gift of $200 million to National
Public Radio adds to the millions of dollars in tax-deductible donations from corporate underwriters and
private citizens that pour into public broadcasting coffers each year. In light of the Kroc gift, and with
growing evidence that public broadcasting has been almost totally commercialized, isn't it time to wean public
radio and television from the millions of dollars it receives from national, state and local governments?
Does the media give soft-glove
treatment to Democratic gaffes? Critics of President George W. Bush derive great pleasure from
his inability to pronounce the word "nuclear." As a candidate, they ridiculed Bush for not knowing the
heads of Pakistan, Chechnya and India. But what of the gaffes made by various liberal politicians?
Journalists' liberal bias:
Why it matters, how it hurts. Liberal bias matters. This bias affects consumers of "news"
in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
We Distort, You Figure
It Out. This, of course, is no longer journalism. It may be entertainment. But it is
not responsible information upon which we can any longer rely.
Silly
liberal denials of bias: The suggestion …that the news media do not tilt
to the left, is just not serious thinking. Or, if it's coming from those who would
consider themselves serious thinkers, it's just not intellectually honest.
Liberals
in denial: What is it about many liberals that blinds them to their true
nature? What makes them think that they are unbiased, objective, open-minded, tolerant
and free of "hate"? Why are they so often in denial — even about their
own liberalism?
Media suffer from acute denial
syndrome. The derision the big media holds for all things conservative, especially when that
conservatism has a religious component, is beyond debate.
No
media bias? Denials of media bias seem to have become more frequent or
more vehement lately. Some in the media try to dismiss the accusation as old stuff. But
the only real question is whether it is true, because the truth doesn't wear out with
the passage of time.
In denial
about radio and TV. Liberals are especially uncomfortable with people who
worship God and not the state. Most broadcast programming and reporting in big
newspapers reflect these biases.
Media
Bias Matches UNESCO Intolerance: Popularizing the anti-Christian principles
of the UN Declaration on Tolerance.
Media
Bias on Media Bias: One of the incredible feats of media journalists
is denying that there is media bias by equating it with conspiracy theories. When
people share the same bias, they don't need a conspiracy. The harm comes from the
fact that most of the public gets to see only that part of reality which has been
filtered through the same preconceptions shared by 90 percent of those in the media.
Will a new left-wing TV
network rescue the despondent Dems? Only the looniest leftist could nourish the notion
that today's broadcast or cable-TV networks shortchange or suppress liberal views.
Media Bias Basics: This
study shows the political composition of the media — voting patterns, political affiliations and
beliefs — as expressed to researchers by the reporters themselves. This is followed by a
review of public opinion on liberal media bias, and what members of the media have said about liberal
media bias, and a guide to how to identify liberal media bias.
Quoting from "Media Bias Basics": Seventy million Americans rely on
broadcast television for their news. They form opinions based on what they hear and
see and to a lesser extent, read. Since citizens cannot cast informed votes or make
knowledgeable decisions on matters of public policy if the information on which they
depend is distorted, it is vital to American democracy that television news and other
media be fair and unbiased.
Media bias: can they
still deny it? Why does it matter, the way the media frames issues and uses certain terms
or expressions? Ronald Reagan, for example, called his anti-ballistic-missile defense shield the
Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI. But many in the media use the term "Star Wars," an expression
that Reagan loathed.
Media Donations to People for the
American Way: Perhaps it's past time that we stopped calling these entities "news"
organizations and called them what they really are: liberal propaganda machines.
Profiles In Bias: from the Media Research Center.
Clever Is the Word for a Biased
Media: The professional news readers are very smooth, very clever — so clever, in fact,
that they can slant stories to their liberal bias often without a ripple of suspicion.
Ethics and Morality Training
for the Media? Although we don't yet know what the facts are, the mainstream media has seized
this story and is using it, to the great glee of the far left in this country, to indict the entire U.S.
war effort in Iraq. While our combat troops undergo this ethics training (which is already a standard
part of their training), it might be a good idea if the mainstream media put its journalists and executives
through "ethics training" to highlight the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards in
their reporting, writing and broadcasting.
Small-Time Crooks: The pattern is
clear. The current scandal frenzy is not a campaign against fraud — it's a campaign against
business and capitalism. The people leading the hysteria about "corporate crime" are eager to expose and
condemn fraud by a private businessman — but they ignore or excuse it when the lies are told by
federal employees.
Media Fraud: Media
bias is no longer news. Poll after poll has shown that the vast majority of journalists vote for
Democrats, even though the country as a whole is pretty evenly split between the two major parties. By
itself, there is nothing wrong with this. It becomes a problem when media bias becomes media
fraud. Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting "facts" in
news stories is something else.
Out-FOXing the Media: Fox
News is on the side of the United States; it is the network for the Red states.
Editor's Note:
When columnists refer to the Red states and the Blue states, they are making reference
to this map which
shows the county-by-county results of the 2000 presidential election.
All the
News That Fits: How the media color their coverage.
Serving Al Gore.
"We now have incontrovertible front-page evidence. The New York Times is eager
to run stories that are harmful to conservatives and they sit on stories that are harmful to Democrats."
New York Times on the
Defensive: Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. comments on the newspaper's pro-homosexual bias.
The "myth" of media
bias: "Journalists have to admit that their bias leads to slanted reporting. ... It is also time
for people to stop demanding the mythical unbiased reporting that has never existed. An objective reporter
is not one that takes no stand in covering a story, but one who in search of the truth reports what the truth
really is."
Editorial: Slouching
Toward Censorship
Media Reality Check: A weekly
report on major news stories distorted or ignored by the mainstream media.
Newsweek: Bush
Is 'Dim and Perverse', in a remarkable departure from any pretense to objectivity.
GOP's
Big Battle: Media Bias. Bill Clinton "fulfills a
campaign promise," but when President Bush does likewise, the mainstream media
give a stunningly different spin.
Back to the top of the page
News media critics
Dallas Morning News
Watch: Here is the place to get an objective media bias analysis of the
news coverage in the Dallas Morning News, and other media as well. Comment is
encouraged from Dallas Morning News journalists and editors, as well as readers
regarding our critique of news bias.
Web Critics Take Aim at Old-Style
Publishers: A small but growing contingent of amateur and semi-professional media critics
are taking aim at newspapers and periodicals, picking up where those papers' ombudsmen (if they have
them) leave off. One of the first to appear
was SmarterTimes.com, a site that painstakingly points
out flaws in The New York Times. Since then, similar sights have cropped up that skewer
the Los Angeles Times (LAExaminer.com) and
the San Francisco Chronicle (Chronwatch.com).
Back to the top of the page
Back to the top of the page
Links to other internet resources
Media
Bias Videos: See for yourself!
Suppressed News dot com
National Anxiety Center: Information to
refute the "crisis" news you often see in the national news media.
The
Parents Television Council: "A nonprofit organization dedicated
to improving the quality of prime time television, restoring positive values, and making
TV a socially responsible medium."
Truth In Broadcasting: provides
visitors with direct links to RealAudio Internet broadcasts that
discuss modern-day political, economic, and religious issues. Each
web-cast is archived and reports all the news that the
controlled media never does.
TV–B–Gone: A one-button remote
control that sends the power-off code for every known make and model of television.
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