A Challenge to Rightwing Bloggers Who Blame the Media for the Cheney Mess

[ProSense]

Peter Daou

02.15.2006

A Challenge to Rightwing Bloggers Who Blame the Media for the Cheney Mess

Prove it. One of the great absurdities of our time is the persistent notion that the traditional media skews left. Reporters buy into it, Democratic strategists and leaders buy into it, and rank and file rightwingers live by it. As I've written previously, the right controls all branches of government, talk radio is dominated by rightwing voices, there's a cable channel devoted to the rightwing perspective (and two others racing to do the same), there's a herd of rightwing pundits spewing anti-left venom across editorial pages, radio, television, the internet, etc., Bush's press conferences are cloying jokefests, and "neutral" journalists echo deep-seated pro-GOP myths.

Snip...


Of course, reporters take some comfort in being attacked from both sides, believing that it somehow justifies their actions and nullifies the complaints.

So here's my challenge to rightwing bloggers who assail the media for liberal bias (and to journalists who think it's all a he-said-she-said pissing match): Back up your claims. With concrete examples of bias. And without the tautological crutch that any story critical of the administration is proof of liberal bias.


I'll back up mine:


++ ISSUE: Cheney shooting incident --- NARRATIVE: Bush and Cheney are infallible --- EXAMPLE: ABC News covered the Cheney hunting incident by downplaying the significance of the weapon itself. ABC reported that "the vice president accidentally shot prominent Texas lawyer Harry Whittington with a pellet gun while hunting for quail." Cheney used a shotgun, not a pellet gun. ABC later altered the story to read, "a shotgun loaded with birdshot." (Which is why we maintain screenshots of all print stories we reference.) This exemplifies a common tendency of the media, namely, to play defense for Bush and his team, downplaying negative news or polls.


more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/a-challenge-to-rightwing-_b_15765.html

[fooj]

1. Excellent. Prove it.

Peace.

[Mythsaje]

2. How interesting...

"some Democrats argue that Bush is breaking the law by spying on people in the United States without a warrant and without congressional or judicial oversight." This spin mirrors the GOP effort to paint this as a partisan controversy, but that dog won't hunt. Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have raised serious questions about the program's legality.>>

Not to mention, it's absolutely FUCKING TRUE. It's not some democrats arguing this point, it's a basic fact.

Of course, we know that the media is screwed up.

[blm]

6. That's a classic technique of theirs. Act like a stone-cold fact is just

partisan spin. Yet they take GOP spin and present it as facts all the time.

[ProSense]

3. MSM continues to cover for the administration

Text++ ISSUE: Cheney shooting incident --- NARRATIVE: Bush and Cheney are infallible --- EXAMPLE: NBC News quoted ranch owner Katharine Armstrong as saying Cheney's pre-hunt picnic may have included "a beer or two." The MSNBC website has since been scrubbed to remove the quote with no explanation for readers.

[karynnj]

4. This morning Katie Couric mantioned that

while Cheney himself said he had a beer - and it was left in the transcript - FOX cut it out of the broadcast.

[ProSense]

8. Imagine that! I guess a drunk

Vice Prick doesn't fit FAUX news' idea of good public relations shill.

[blm]

7. Why NBC gets away with so much proBush coverage is a mystery. Dems MUST

KNOW by now that GE is looking to destroy the Dem party completely so fascism can reign unchecked.

[Unmarked Poster]

10. Good point

Media Matters covers a lot of that

[blm]

5. GOP control of media was a deliberate move on their part that started over

20 yrs ago.

Dems better get it through their SKULLS that until we take that battle on and EXPOSE the control to the general public, NO OTHER ISSUE can be heard fairly.

[AX10]

13. and again, the left needs it's own media echo chamber.

[emulatorloo]

9. Kicking and sending this baby to the greatest page EOM

[Catherine Vincent]

11. Redstate dot org pay attention!

That's a blog that the CNN blogger chick goes to often for conservative views.

[blm]

12. Wanna bet CNN avoids Pete's challenge?

.

[AX10]

14. The media does not have always prop up the GOP, just push down the Dems.

ISSUE: 2006 elections --- NARRATIVE: Dems have no message --- EXAMPLE: The New York Times ran yet another article (courtesy of Dem-basher Adam Nagourney) that paints congressional Democrats as "heading into this year's elections in a position weaker than they had hoped for." It was, as Josh Marshall put it, "a pretty lazy piece of journalism." What's more, the piece neglected to mention that when asked, Americans say they prefer Dem candidates and the Dem agenda in 2006 by wide margins over the GOP. Kid Oakland elaborates: "I'm sick of articles like this from Adam Nagourney and, to be frank, I'm sick of the New York Times political coverage in general.... Basically, after years of reading this stuff, and hearing similar sentiments echoed on NPR, I think blog critics of mainstream media political coverage are right. There's a persistent media bias that has the genetic code of GOP spin and there's no point in giving it energy or credence. The press is no friend of the Democratic Party and has not been for years."

Exactly. The media just needs to 'editorialize' and make the Democrats appear to be weak an inept. That's why the Dem's poll numbers are not higher than they should be.

[blm]

15. The media does exactly that in almost every headline they write to skew

the story against Democrats.

[satya]

16. Media skews left? Bring back the fairness doctrine and fix it, then.

Funny how you never hear the Reich wingers calling for that, hmmm? It's all that damned Ray-gun's fault for getting rid of it in the first place, gave them durned lib-ruls control of our airwaves.

[blm]

17. If Repubs really believed that the Fairness Doctrine would've been brought

back by 1989.