Examples of conservative media bias

[superdave]

I thought we could log all of the examples of conservative media bias, then bookmark every time the subject comes up.

(Oh, and you on the right, if you want to do the reverse, I ask that you start your own thread. We wouldn't want any OT posts to violate the TOS, would we?)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/10/calhoun_bush/index.html

There's this Calhoun guy who claims to be able to verify Bush's Alabama service. But, he's a big liar, and that was demonstrated in February by documents the Bush administration released.

So isn't it remarkable that major news organizations like CBS, the AP, and CNN, are allowing him to repeat lies that were exposed 6 months ago?

It ain't remarkable once you realize that the major news media are conservative water carriers.

[Garcia]

Maybe they are just lazy.
I would wonder what they teach these people in school.
This is similar to the airlines.

Hear me out now.

Aviation people don't run airlines anymore.

Media people don't run the media anymore.
If we are to associate corporations with the conservative side of the political spectrum, you'd guess that these stories are reported as such and/or forced in this manner.

Newspaper men used to run newspapers, but even then they had and applied their agendas. I think your use of the term "media" is too wide ranged to agree with you.

[superdave]

It wasn't the CEO of CNN that booked or conducted the interview.

[Matrim55]

Teenagers today are going to end up looking upon corporations the way baby boomers look upon communism: Something distincly evil and unAmerican. It can't happen soon enough.

[Dan Loney]

The Swift Boat Scum were outed as liars all the way back in April. They should never have been allowed out from under their rocks. But did that stop the cable news idiots? What do you think?

How many retractions on Sandy Berger have been run, by the way?

[BlueMeanie]

Funny you bring this up. I just finished reading Banana Republicans (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1585423424/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/102-8778829-9976929?%5Fencoding=UTF8&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER) by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

One of the chapters, "The Echo Chamber," is quite interesting. It describes precisely how more and more position papers are going straight from conservative think tanks to the mouths of allegedly unbiased reporters/anchors/pundits, and also documents quite well how conservatism is taking over the airwaves.

Excerpt (from pp. 51-52 of paperback edition):

What seems new, however, is the conservative movement's success at developing its own echo chamber that deliberately creates and amplifies these sorts of stories with disturbing regularity and increasing virulence. The Clinton years were marked by an unending cycle of pseudo-scandals that focused enormous public scrutiny on topics with no bearing on public policy and scant evidence of actual presidential wrongdoing -- Scissorgate, Travelgate, the alleged "murder" of Vince Foster and a series of so-called "bimbo eruptions" that trivialized and personalized American politics as never before. For eight years, the serious business of government became a Seinfeld-like sitcom, in which "nothing happened" but everyone talked about it. This occurred in large part because the conservative movement successfully used a three-part strategy to dominate the news cycle:

1. It has used the complaint of "liberal bias" to pressure the mainstream media into giving more sympathetic coverage to conservative politicians and causes.

2. It built its own, idealogically-driven media network as an alternative to the mainstream.

3. It has developed an effective system of promoting conservatives within the mainstream media -- helping them find jobs and advancing their careers and exposure.

These resources do not always enable the conservative movement to dictate the direction of American journalism, but more often than not, they give conservatives a disproportionate capacity to do so.

Other passages in the book do discuss how Dems have at times done the same, but there's no doubt the saturation is, in their words, disproportionate.

Good book, not too long. It gets 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon, but everbody besides one kneejerk numbnut gave it at least 4 stars, and from the comments, it's doubtful that one idiot even read the book. (Gee, people commenting on books they haven't read or movies they haven't seen? Say it ain't so.)

[Yankee_Blue]

The 60 minutes scum were outed as liars. They should never have been allowed out from under their rocks. But did that stop the cable news idiots? What do you think?

How many retractions on 60 minutes have been run, by the way?

...

[superdave]

Sorry, no link, but apparently Novak demanded that CBS reveal their source for the documents.

For those of you who don't understand the difference between irony and related concepts such as coincidence, THIS is irony.

[Dr. Wankler]

Sorry, no link, but apparently Novak demanded that CBS reveal their source for the documents.

For those of you who don't understand the difference between irony and related concepts such as coincidence, THIS is irony.

This is the kind of thing that makes the editors of The Onion go, "damn, now we can't run that story next week."

[SoFla Metro]

When John Kerry's position evolves, he's a flip flopper. When Bush and Cheney change their story from one day to the next, they are "clarifying," at least according to CNN (on the "we can't win the war on terror" from Bush and on Cheney's contention that the "wrong choice" on Nov. 2 would result in further attacks).

[Ian McCracken]

Sorry, no link, but apparently Novak demanded that CBS reveal their source for the documents.

For those of you who don't understand the difference between irony and related concepts such as coincidence, THIS is irony.

See, irony would be if Novak was accused of falsifying a story. He wasn't. Ergo, no irony. CBS on the other hand, are comprised of the biggest hack leftist journalists in the business.

[Smiley321]

See, irony would be if Novak was accused of falsifying a story. He wasn't. Ergo, no irony. CBS on the other hand, are comprised of the biggest hack leftist journalists in the business.

Now you're being unfair, Eleanor Clift is still reporting at Newsweek.

[SoFla Metro]

See, irony would be if Novak was accused of falsifying a story. He wasn't. Ergo, no irony.
It is indeed irony. It is a classic, textbook example of irony.

[DoyleG]

Teenagers today are going to end up looking upon corporations the way baby boomers look upon communism: Something distincly evil and unAmerican. It can't happen soon enough.

Those same teenagers can't even take care of themselves.

[superdave]

Here's another one.

ESPN is doing all kinds of stuff with the soldiers in Iraq. Why now? Doing it, I don't question. Doing it immediately after the GOP convention? That's no coincidence.

And if someone pipes in with, well, 9/11 anniversary, that's even worse, since those poor bastards aren't in the desert because of 9/11. Bush was planning this war from Day One. Trying to elide those differences is a key element of the Bush campaign strategy, and if this is what's going on, ESPN is subtly giving millions in free publicity to the Bush campaign.

And Al Michaels was slurping Condi Rice last night. What, no reference to her having been named Iraq Policy Czar lo those many months ago?

[Foosinho]

Did you know: Daryn Kagan and Rush Limbaugh are dating? Wow.

Which got me searching, and I found this gem of an example (http://mediamatters.org/items/200407060009) of conservative media bias... from *gasp* CNN!!!

[Dr. Wankler]

Did you know: Daryn Kagan and Rush Limbaugh are dating? Wow.

Which got me searching, and I found this gem of an example (http://mediamatters.org/items/200407060009) of conservative media bias... from *gasp* CNN!!!

http://mediamatters.org/items/200407270004

I remember this gem from Tucker Carlson, too. For those disinclined to click on links, it's the one where Carlson said that Clinton called half the country wackos in his DNC speech.

[superdave]

You're gonna have to take my word for it, but I'm home sick from work, and I had CNN's noon program on. They were covering Bush's UN speech. The hairman was interviewing two correspondents from European newspapers. At first, it wasn't anything unusual, but then he started badgering the guys to parrot the Bushie line and bash the UN. He actually asked if the UN would become "irrelevant" if it didn't pitch in in Iraq!! And he ALSO actually asked if the UN was being "petulant" by saying, in essence, you broke it, you fix it (the UN to the US, I mean.)

The notion that it's BUSH who is being petulant by refusing to admit he f'ed up never seemed to cross his mind.

The thing is, CNN can't outfox Fox. There's a reason MSNBC is rising. Whether it's Scarborough (right) Olbermann (left) or Matthews (center), they have a point of view.

[superdave]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/politics/campaign/25cbs.html

"CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq.

The announcement, in a statement by a spokeswoman, was issued four days after the network acknowledged that it could not prove the authenticity of documents it used to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.

The Iraq segment had been ready for broadcast on Sept. 8, CBS said, but was bumped at the last minute for the segment on Mr. Bush's National Guard service. The Guard segment was considered a highly competitive report, one that other journalists were pursuing.

CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.

"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement. "

[mozilla]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/politics/campaign/25cbs.html

"CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq."

God Bless Karl Rove


:)