Scott at Wunderkinder looks at the Pew Study on the Media and notices that the numbers shine a peculiar light on many self-styled “moderates”:
[…] conservative media members seem more forthright about possible bias in either direction in the media in general. 68% of conservative members could think of a news organization that was especially conservative; the same could think of an organization that was especially liberal. Meanwhile, there was a 30-point gap for moderates (70% could think of an especially conservative organization, 40% for a liberal one) and a 55-point gap for liberals (79-24%).
I guess Big Media’s twelve step self-improvement program will continue to be deferred until they can admit they have a problem.
They’re such liars that they can’t even answer an anonymous survey honestly. What would make anyone think that they’re going to report the news accurately. Moderate, my ass.
Or maybe it could be just that the whole idea of a “liberal media bias” is the most laughably ridiculous and disingenuous claim since “I did not inhale”. The media went after Clinton when he fucked up just as much as they’re going after Bush now. The media are a bunch of meek, obsequious little rats who kowtow to whichever side is in power until they catch a whiff of vulnerability. Then it becomes all about sensationalism. The only liberalism present in the media is with regard to social issues, and even that’s only because they don’t want to offend a significant percentage of their audience. On foreign policy, which most Americans know nothing about and care less, they are incredibly hawkish. Even now, most of the coverage is not against the ridiculous war in Iraq, just in the way we’ve carried it out. The range runs from more or less neutral (but always sensationalist) to Fox, Rush, and Michael “Hitler” Savage. THAT is the reason more respondents came up with examples of right-wing media outlets, because far more explicitly and vociferously right-wing outlets exist.
Hmmm … no, that’s not it.
Mike,
Damn, I really never took the time to view it all honestly. Now that I read your thoughts, the clarity and measured strength of your reasoned, unbiased grasp of the TRUTH about the media has brought me around. It is as if blinders have been removed from my eyes. My God! I can see! I can see! All this time, I have wrongly seen NPR, BBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, BET, Newsweek, Time, U.S.News and World Report, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, the players and coaches of the Miami Dolphins(sorry, wrong category), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, The Detroit Free Press(you get the idea–I could go on for a while) as liberal advocacy groups disguised as legitimate news organizations, BUT now you have opened my eyes. It was my far-right extremism that made these middle-of-the-road, moderate, sensible groups appear leftist when compared to my rightist lunacy. You are like a breath of fresh air–I have never heard that argument/point made before. I thank you humbly. What do you think? Is Brit Hume Satan?
Mike, if you think the media has no bias (as opposed to the alternative that they just wont admit to their bias), then you’re going to have all kinds of fun getting the media to admit that the real story is:
Because, you know, the media is an honest, self-policing institution, and if they were liberal they’d admit it, just like if they were meek, obsequious little rats they’d admit that too.
I believe the self described “moderates” described themselves honestly. By the standards of the folks they hang out with, they are moderates (heck, they may have even seriously considered voting for Lieberman.) They just don’t realize they live in a bubble.
The whole survey is fatally flawed by asking people to label themselves, rather than rating them on the basis of party registration or views on hot-button issues. It’s almost as if someone didn’t want to show just how liberal the media really are….
The problem isn’t that the liberals in media are lying in the survey; rather, the problem is that they don’t see just how liberal most of the press is. I remember a few years ago Dan Rather was asked whether he thought The New York Times was liberal, and his reply was, “Middle of the road.”
If the NY Times isn’t liberal to them, then they’re not going to see too many other liberal news organizations.