Rep. Lamar Smith: 'The greatest threat to America is a liberal media bias.'

[meegbear]

Yesterday, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) launched the Media Fairness Caucus, made up of about a dozen House Republicans, aiming "to fight liberal media bias." The group will "point out unfair stories, meet with members of the media, and write op-eds and letters to the editor to highlight media bias," Newsmax reported. Appearing on Fox News today, Smith declared that "liberal media bias" is a bigger threat to the United States than the recession or terrorism — and Fox’s Bill Hemmer seemed to agree:

SMITH: Let me just say — this is going to sound radical, I don’t mean for it to be radical — but to me, the greatest threat to America is not necessarily a recession or even another terrorist attack. The greatest threat to America is a liberal media bias. ...

HEMMER: I would not necessarily call that radical.

<snip>

Smith must be concerned about a media system that hosts Liz Cheney a dozen times in ten days, or invites twice as many Republicans on as Democrats to discuss the stimulus package, or consistently favors conservative commentators and politicians on the Sunday political talk shows. Not to mention an entire cable network that blatantly cheer-leads for the far right.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/04/smith-media-bias-threat/

You can see a clip of this 'meeting of the minds' at the link above.

[d_b]

1. Appearing on Fox News today, Smith declared...

is as far as i made it.

[JaneQPublic]

5. With sentiments soon to be echoed in the Washington Times...

...by MSNBC pundits Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough, on radio programs hosted by Rush, Hannity, etc., etc., etc.

[mnhtnbb]

2. Media Fairness Caucus--made up of old white men sitting around

getting themselves off at the idea that the world doesn't kowtow to them.


:argh:

[NewJeffCT]

3. They've been "working the refs" on this issue for 40 years, though

just so people believe it... heck, it's pretty much an established meme that the media is liberal that our side has to overcome every time we're on TV, on radio or somewhere else in the media.

I think with Olbermann, Maddow, DU, DailyKos, HuffingtonPost, MediaMatters and Think Progress, etc, the word is getting out that the media is not quite so liberal as the RW claims, though. Eventually, people will start believing the media is not quite so liberal.

[Tempest]

4. He'll get the 30% and decreasing crowd agreeing with him

But the rest of America will see him as a raving lunatic.

[gratuitous]

6. You know, I heard that

Let's see, was it on Rush Limbaugh's daily three-hour show? Or was it when Liz Cheney was on MSNBC this morning? The Joe Scarborough program? Gordon Liddy’s radio show? It might have been Sean Hannity’s show on Fox. Or it could have been Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox, but it could also have been his radio show. Now that I think of it, that could have been George Will’s column in the Washington Post. Unless it was Charles Krauthammer’s column. It might have been David Brooks in the New York Times. Or that new fellow, Russ Douthit, in the Times. Maybe it was Ann Coulter’s column? Megan Gallagher? Armstrong Williams? Maybe Pat Buchanan on any one of a half dozen CNN or MSNBC shows . . . hmmm.

Just about all of them seem to be able to get the word out about how hard it is for conservatives to get their views aired or published. So it must be true, right?

[tblue]

7. The greatest threat to 'his' anti-constitution America, that is.

He should worry.

[DCKit]

8. They wouldn't be organizing if they didn't feel a threat.

Faux must've put out the word that their viewer numbers are falling. What's going to happen to the Republicans, fascists and neocons if too many people start looking for an alternate news source?

The meme of a liberal media (not to mention "fair and balanced") is failing, and they're getting ready to fight back.

[bluedeminredstate]

9. If a liberal said that the RW media

was more of a threat to America than terrorism then we would see the heads of Bill O'Reilly, Elisabeth Hassselback, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Liz Cheney, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Pat Buchannan, etc., etc. explode in a collective outburst. To the RW gasbags NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL, is more threatening to this nation than terror and Islamofacism. TWOT (the war of terror) is their favorite talking point since it's obvious they can't run an economy.

[BarbaRosa]

10. How would he know, has he ever seen a liberal media?

I'm not sure I have, not for a while at least.

[Touchdown]

11. Good thing we don't have a liberal media then.

:eyes:

[Kievan Rus]

12. No, the greatest threat to America....

is right-wing peddlers of hate that push unstable people over the edge and convince them to go shoot somebody...like Scott Roeder and the Pittsburgh cop killer.