The Media Bias Page

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe Media Bias Page

The Media Bias Page

Introduction:

Many people complain about political bias and incompetence in the electronic media, and many other people think there's no basis for such complaints. For a long time I resisted the idea of producing a page like this because I thought it was too obvious. Some of you still can't see it, so some of the evidence is presented below.

This page includes several subtopics, many of which have moved to their own pages. Splitting them up makes everything load faster. After all, not everyone has fast internet service. (More importantly, if all the sub-topics were on this page, it would be ridiculously large.)

Political bias may be impossible to avoid in today's style of fast-paced 24-hour news coverage. News programs today are apparently designed to retain the attention of hyperactive and impatient viewers — people with dozens of other channels from which to choose, and a remote control always nearby. (Forty years ago, when you had to get up and walk across the room to change the channel, people generally stuck with a program for its duration.) You'll rarely see a news story these days, especially during ratings periods, in which a single camera shot lasts more than three seconds. On a normal day, almost every story is told in less than two minutes. This results in a great loss of detail, and that's where the TV reporter's personal bias comes into play: he or she decides what parts of a story to include or omit.

As many people have pointed out, broadcast news is dangerous, not because of what's reported, but because of what is not reported. This applies equally to both television and radio. Fortunately the internet is becoming a more reliable source of daily news, and it helps fill in the gaps. Personally, I haven't owned a TV since 1980, so the internet really comes in handy. If you're looking for current national news, you can gather more information in five minutes on the internet than you can get in an hour of watching television.

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The following subtopics are on pages of their own
... although some are further down this page.

Bias in general, as it relates to news media (Scroll down.)
Specific examples of biased news coverage
Preferential treatment of Barack Obama before and after he was elected,
and especially after being sworn in, and continuing to this today.
JournoList - Evidence of an actual conspiracy to bias the news.
Specific people and organizations often mentioned in the debate over media bias.
Bias related to gun control issues
Coverage of the "War on Terrorism"
Biased coverage of environmental issues
... including the media campaign against bottled water.
Biased coverage of economic issues
Biased news coverage of "tea parties"
Bias related to social issues: Race relations, feminism, "diversity", homosexuality.
Cultural and political bias in motion pictures
The National Endowment for the Arts
Cultural and political bias on television
The V-chip: An ineffective substitute for parental supervision.
Pro-Islam bias in the media
Pro-Islam bias at Google
Sensationalism vs Journalism
Dishonesty, not just bias
Suppressed news -- examples of "spiked" stories
Terrorist attacks reported as "isolated incidents"
Un(der)-reported news stories about the war in Iraq
The Secret Superhighway and the Homogenization of North America
News media critics
National Public Radio
The Fairness Doctrine
The Public Broadcasting Service
The New York Times
Dan Rather
Rathergate: The CBS Memo Controversy of September 2004
Junk science, dubious statistics and rash presuppositions
Environmental Propaganda Movie Reviews
News Media Incompetence, Sensationalism and Dishonesty
Newsroom Clichés
Obsolescent Media -- declining newspaper sales and TV ratings.
Bernard Goldberg's New Book, "Bias"
Links to other internet resources
Overflow section! There's more material in the Spillway.
The Technology and Politics of Broadcasting,
including the transition to digital TV, the V-Chip, closed captioning, and other topics.
Radio Broadcasting and the so-called Fairness Doctrine.

News media bias in general 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. 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. 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. 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 wasSmarterTimes.com, a site that painstakingly points out flaws in The New York Times. Since then, similar sights have cropped up that skewer theLos 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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