Almost every time I have watched any sort of Fox News program, or listened to conservative talk radio, I have heard the phrase "liberal media" thrown around. Republicans are pushing this idea in an attempt to discount the power of traditional media (old, established media sources like the New York Times, ABC News, etc.) and to indirectly promote new media like talk radio, cable (fox) news and unregulated internet sources.
As it turns out, most experts from both the conservative and liberal sides of the spectrum who have studied the media have been unable to find a liberal bias in mainstream media as Fox pushes (one example is Eric Alterman's book What Liberal Media?)
For any example the Republicans can give of liberal media bias, a counterexample can be offered for the Democratic side. Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin is one of the most recent cited examples of the "liberal media" trying to stick it to the Republican Party on purpose. Although Couric's questions were perfectly legitimate and could have most likely been handled by any competent sophomore DWA major, I will humor Palin's claim that she was blind-sided by the big, bad media elite. Even in the case that she was, I could cite John Kerry's interview with Charlie Gibson leading up to the 2004 election as conservatively slanted (link to transcript at the bottom of this post). He grilled John Kerry on his war record in addition to cutting off Kerry's attempts to explain himself.
From what I can see in America today, the current administration is getting itself involved in scandals that merit the media exposure it is getting. Valerie Plame and Scooter Libby, Trent Lott, and Charles Keating among others coupled with Bush's taste for bending Constitutional laws seem to merit their share of exposure to the public. There is no need to spin these stories in any sort of liberal fashion, they are ugly and sinister to being with.
It is time for the Republicans to stop complaining about media bias and own up to their own scandals and gaffes. If Sarah Palin doesn't read any newspapers, she should at least have the ability to name any one respectable periodical (when asked on national television, twice!) if she plans on being vice president of the United States.
Link to Kerry interview transcript:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2004/Story?id=123457&page=1
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I agree with conservatives that teh media is often biased. My invitation to them- Let's fight media bias together. There's been a lot of talk in the corporate media about a Obama/Ayers "association". Some claim that it's been a long time coming.
But I'm still waiting for John McCain to denounce his unwholesome relationship with G. Gordon Liddy. Where is the moral outrage, and who hears cries of conspiracy from the Right regarding mainstream media's suppression of this story?
Read the nasty details in THIS LINK to an article from May.
Here are some highlights:
“How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns -- including $1,000 this year.
Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.
Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist?
Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history -- and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as "a prisoner of war."
All this may sound like ancient history. But it's from the same era as the bombings Ayers helped carry out as a member of the Weather Underground. And Liddy's penchant for extreme solutions has not abated.
In 1994, after the disastrous federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he gave some advice to his listeners: "Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. ... Kill the sons of bitches."
He later backed off, saying he meant merely that people should defend themselves if federal agents came with guns blazing. But his amended guidance was not exactly conciliatory: Liddy also said he should have recommended shots to the groin instead of the head. If that wasn't enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets "Bill" and "Hillary" when he practiced shooting.”
Read SERENDIPITY.
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