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Media Matters
War of Words
Is media bias a big deal? Or is it just the media being media?
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. These pressmen represented the classic liberalism of the Scoop Jackson variety — committed to equality among men at home and the belief that a strong America was a force for good in the world — and generally represented the views of those to whom they reported the news.
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.” With the advent of television, the opportunity to be seen and heard furthered the ways in which the press increased its influence over the lives and psyches of everyday Americans. These men, embodied by the likes of Walter Cronkite, saw themselves as crusaders whose task it was to lift the minds of their fellow citizens out of their dreary middle-class ethos and into a more worldly one.
In earlier times, and especially those when Republican administrations held sway, they came off as courageous and zealous exposers of government tyranny and corruption. Even up until the Bill Clinton scandals, there were still members of the press — joined of course, by members of the “new media” — who didn’t shirk their duty to report all the gruesome details which eventually led up to his impeachment. But things sure changed in a hurry. The hairsplitting minutiae that was the 2000 election seemed to drive them over the edge and out into the open. And they’ve never looked back.
Instead of speaking truth to power, they now hold the reins when it comes to shaping popular opinion and consequently view themselves as kingmakers; and their preferences are not hard to discern. Try as they might to deny this, it has never been more evident than in the last few election cycles. How? Let me count just a few of the ways.
President Bush was continually vilified for his supposed cowboy image, being compared as you might imagine, in an unflattering way with John Wayne. His use of the term, “bring it on,” in reference to bloodthirsty killers, intent on murdering innocent women and children, was met with tsunamis of derision. USA Today bewailed his “combative tone” and quoted Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who called the president’s language “irresponsible and inciteful.” We’re still waiting for comment from the estimable Sen. Lautenberg on Barack Obama’s use of vulgar street-talk when wondering “whose ass to kick” while dealing with an environmental issue that is clearly over his head.
Or how about other examples of bad language? Bush was famously and thoroughly trashed by the media when he referred to NY Times reporter Adam Clymer as a bodily orifice during an open-mike gaffe at an outdoor Labor Day rally in Tennessee. The reaction when Joe Biden dropped the f-bomb during the signing of the healthcare bill at the White House? Puff pieces like this one from CBS that asked if the entire kerfuffle was, “Just Biden Being Biden?”; while over at ABC they wondered, “Was Joe Biden’s Swear a Big Deal?” I’ll leave the answers to you.
George Bush, a man who rarely talked about his time in the Texas Air National Guard, was for years subjected to what had to have been the most scrutinized military records in American history, to the extent that a formerly respected member of the media employed forged documents in an attempt to discredit the president’s service. Yet, any attempts to delve into the military escapades of John Kerry were deemed unpatriotic and even spawned a new pejorative term; swiftboating, which is, I guess, another word for the job formerly held by the media.
Bush was constantly compared to Herbert Hoover as presiding
over a terrible economic downturn and although he had earned an
MBA from Harvard, he was widely regarded as a fiscal dunce. Not
so his successor — whose main qualification for the presidency
was a career spent in community organizing — upon whom no blame
for our current mess seems to fall. Here’s Paul Krugman, hitting
on his two favorite subjects, love of Obama and hatred of “Bush’s
War,” defending
his hero: “And fear-mongering on the deficit may end up
doing as much harm as the fear-mongering on weapons of mass
destruction.”
And in a more recent development, our friends over at
NewsBusters have pointed out that the conservatism of Supreme
Court Justice Samuel Alito was pointed out by the media ten times
more often than the obvious liberalism of nominee Elena Kagan.
The blatancy of this kind of coverage cannot forever be
overlooked by an increasingly edgier electorate. Is it any wonder
then, that the media has been losing its hold on the American
public?
Yet the pendulum might be swinging back again. It seems that the far left segment of the media isn’t too pleased with what their champion, Barack Obama has accomplished lately, even with a friendly Congress. How far might they go in failing to defend him should the November disaster everyone expects come to pass?
Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Lisa Fabrizio
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http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/01/war-of-words
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smokehouse| 7.1.10 @ 6:43AM
You fail to mention their lies and innuendos about Joe McCarthy. The media ruined this crusader and even drew in many conservatives with their filth. They did the same with President Bush that drove his poll numbers down, just as they wanted.
gypsie| 7.1.10 @ 8:47AM
smokehouse, for every action,there is an equal and opposite reaction. The filth they have flung at conservatives, libertarians and patriots of all stripes has had a vicious rebound effect, to wit: hardly anyone is watching, reading or listening to their driveling propaganda anymore. That's why they are begging for a taxpayer bailout: they can't get us to voluntarily subscribe, so they want the ObamaNazis to pick our pockets
Tomas| 7.1.10 @ 12:43PM
Notice that Biden never opens his eyes when he smiles.
Very creepy guy.
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Andrew| 7.1.10 @ 7:25AM
I am almost too sick to watch any longer the dis-assembly of our great republic by men and women of such low moral caliber. Where's the exit?
Melvin| 7.1.10 @ 7:59AM
Growing up in the sixties, there was still a bunch of pretty good journalists circulating about, and for the most part before the advent of mass media television there wasn't any shortcut that could be taken by journalists.
My father bless his heart has subscriptions to the morning newspaper, "The Oregonian," the evening newspaper, "The Journal," and the local Washington County Newspaper, "The Argus."
All three of the newspapers contributed to my learning to read, I would like to think.
This was before syndication and the gobbling up of smaller newspapers by bigger news papers . There was a political bent to these papers but either it wasn't to noticeable or I just at the time didn't care for politics. But the journalism was of good quality.
Then the coming of Vietnam changed everything. Journalists changed from just being a fly on the wall reporting news as it actually happened to becoming the fly in the ointment by injecting they're opinions and politics into the story line.
The media takes full credit for influencing public opinion in and around the world that is singly handily made the United States to loose the Vietnam War on the political front.
As we all know, it has been downhill from there ever since.
Now journalists are called, "Presenters" as they are known in the EU.
Journalists are no longer known for their journalistic ability but are more known for being doe-eyed, blond lotsa hair, leggy and bosomy.
The younger journalists today want to take the shortest way possible for getting a Pulitzer and many have been caught fabricating a journalistic fabrication.
I can't really blame them I guess, because they have not had any mentors to force them to be good journalists.
It is a shame that so-called journalists spew out on a daily basis of nothing more than 2nd rate tabloid trash, because there was a day were one could sit on the throne, with a good newspaper, the faithfull dog snoozing at the feet and get a brief respite from hollering children, and the honey do list.
Thanks to Wifi even that has been taken away form the male species.
Ned| 7.1.10 @ 10:44AM
Mel - I grew up in Portland in the 60's too (Wilson HS class of '66) - and to me "good journalist" is an oxy-moron. As a group they are as biased and as dishonest as I am capable of imagining, and I think they have set the tone and created the political divisions that exist today by ignoring or forgiving any outrage on the left, while piling-on to even the most obvious falsification about the right. As a classic case-in-point, I offer the media's treatment of Gov. Palin.
Zenger| 7.1.10 @ 1:34PM
It is painful now to admit, but I once aspired to join the profession known as journalism when its practitioners adhered to honorable principles and a code of ethics. The rabid partisanship of journalists really surfaced after the night of June 17, 1972 with that break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington DC. Wanting desperately to "get Nixon," everyone - practicing journalists like Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post and also J-school profs and students - were in high dudgeon, animated and foaming at the mouth, heady with their new-found power. When they eventually "got Nixon," journalists were convinced of their greatness, and they remain so to this very day, despite so much evidence to the contrary. I crossed over to the "dark side" of the communication field, eventually serving in advertising and public relations. Its honest work. More than one can say about journalism today.
Christopher Holland| 7.2.10 @ 2:47AM
In a democracy the exit is called a polling booth. You can use it to good effect in November. Don't waste the opportunity.
Don L| 7.1.10 @ 7:33AM
The medias has morphed radically since the 40s from anti-government to a very biased pro-(big) government.
Kelly Staples| 7.1.10 @ 7:51AM
Lisa Fabrizio, don't kid yourself - the pinko press will circle the wagons for their Hero every time push comes to shove. The good news is that us hayshakers in fly-over land are finally catching on. Remember in November!
WRTolkas| 7.1.10 @ 8:21AM
Dear Kelly Staples,
You have written words of truth. MSM has made their Faustian deal and so have lost their souls. Just wait and see.
Don't forget this November 2nd, and keep vigilant.
Have a safe weekend and 4th,
WRTolkas
Ret. Marine| 7.1.10 @ 7:52AM
Whereas, there is always two sides to a story, the media of today chooses to side only with the story on their side. Yeah they lost my interest some decades ago.
Christopher Holland| 7.2.10 @ 2:48AM
Shareholders in the NYT know that too. They really have something to complain about.
Mattled| 7.1.10 @ 8:24AM
If we don't attack the media like they attack us, we are finished.
Put their faces on display in newspapers, TV ads and billboards and call them what they are----LIARS.
Publicly doubt them, call them out and let them defend themselves.
Why do we have to do it every day?
Offense.
Offense.
Offense.
If we turn just 5% of their audience against them, we will have won.
PCC| 7.1.10 @ 8:31AM
One shouldn't take the media too seriously. Besides, ignoring them is probably the best way to infuriate them.
Instead, one might take some advice from the character of Alonzo Harris in 'Training Day':
"This is a newspaper, right? It's 90% bullsh*t. But it's entertaining. So I read it. It entertains me. You won't let me read it, so you entertain me."
Richard| 7.1.10 @ 11:07AM
The Lefty media love to expose every personal detail of conservatives. Why doesn't some ambitious conservative expose the private lives of these "journalists". It would be fun.
Padoux| 7.1.10 @ 12:21PM
At age 64 I recall the old days when there was almost NO conservative views in the media or press. One had to go to PBS on Sunday afternoons, to see Buckley. Now the liberals are aghast that conservatives now have outlets on the radio (hail Rush), on cable TV, and the internet. Their bias of late is being revealed in all its' pettiness, snobbery, arrogance, and ivy league snideness with on the air comments, and candid off the mike remarks. I have a cousin who was a journalist and he possesses the same superior snide attitude towards his conservative family as does the main stream press. It's in the genes of journalists I guess.
Louis Jenkins| 7.1.10 @ 12:32PM
The left wing newsmedia no longer contains a shred of the truth. (Obviously.) Yes, they do print the current news, but with their views, not with a neutral view.
"Is it any wonder then, that the media has been losing its hold on the American public?" I am beginning to wonder when it had a hold of the public. They're laughable.
Joe| 7.1.10 @ 12:37PM
The fourth estate has become the fifth column.
GW| 7.1.10 @ 2:24PM
Thanks Lisa for telling us the media has a liberal bias. I look forward to the next installment where I can read the sky is blue.
Northern Rebel| 7.1.10 @ 4:49PM
Smokehouse:
Kudos, for your reference to a great American patriot, Senator Joe McCarthy!
The fact is he has proven to have been overwhelmingly correct, post-mortem.
One of Ann Coulter's books chronicles the circumstances that McCarthy lived within.
Have you no shame, Socialist democrats?
RCV| 7.1.10 @ 5:10PM
Joe was a pathetic alcoholic who gave anti-communism a bad name, and actually set back any attempts to root out real communists in the government. As William Bennett wrote:
"The cause of anti-communism, which united millions of Americans and which gained the support of Democrats, Republicans and independents, was undermined by Sen. Joe McCarthy … McCarthy addressed a real problem: disloyal elements within the U.S. government. But his approach to this real problem was to cause untold grief to the country he claimed to love … Worst of all, McCarthy besmirched the honorable cause of anti-communism. He discredited legitimate efforts to counter Soviet subversion of American institutions."
Republican Senator Ralph Flanders probably said it best:, "Were the Junior Senator from Wisconsin in the pay of the Communists he could not have done a better job for them."
Let's also not forget how McCarthy worked tirelessly to commute the death sentences given to Waffen SS officers for massacaring American POWs at Malmedy - Joe claimed they were "tortured" by the Army so their confessions should have been thrown out.
He was a sorry excuse for a man.
RCV is a dick| 7.1.10 @ 8:43PM
Chew on this you progressive scum!
Maybe learn something for a change !
http://www.apl.org/history/mccarthy/biography.html