Replies: 4 Comments

Posted by: Aaron On Wednesday, April 20th

That wasn't any evidence at all. I saw no mention of "conservative" or "liberal." The mainstream media exists for the bottom line - theirs, and those corporations who own and/or control them. The credibility issue comes up due to their lack of reporting and journalism skills - partially due to (guess what?) the fact that the Bush administration has been paying "journalists" to tout republican policies. What's this? Demonstrated media bias towards the right? This must be Crazy Town!

Credibility in this case has nothing to do with left or right. It's more about being lazy. You're just trying to stamp that idea onto the article you linked to. Besides, if that's the best you can do to prove me wrong, you really do have absolutely no evidence to support your claim.

Like I said.

Posted by: BS Buster On Tuesday, April 19th

"The truth is that conservatives really have no evidence, aside from their own crudely drawn conspiracy theories, that the "mainstream" media is particularly biased towards the left."

That just goes to show that Aaron hasn't been paying attention. Heck, even leftmedia stalwarts like Nicholas Kristoff have been forced to admit that the mainstream media has almost no credibility, though he's too close to the problem to admit it is due to bias. See: http://tinyurl.com/b7w77

Posted by: Aaron On Tuesday, April 19th

I've been admonished by somebody on this site before in regards to my posting evidence of a point from 2001. Well, the "proof" you link to, a Heritage Foundation study, is 12 years old. One of its main points - the diversity of media ownership etc. - is no longer valid as a result of the massive corporate consolidation that has taken place since then. And hey, guess what? Clear Channel is a MAJOR republican campaign contributor. In regards to the 'mainstream' media being liberal... didn't Disney/ABC attempt to bury F 9/11 because of its left-leaning political nature?

The truth is that conservatives really have no evidence, aside from their own crudely drawn conspiracy theories, that the "mainstream" media is particularly biased towards the left. The Brian Anderson article makes some broad statements about liberals disliking conservative talk radio, and then some more about bringing back the fairness doctrine - claiming that liberals want to use the fairness doctrine to stop free speech. It's a good slight of hand argument, because there's actually no evidence to support that theory. None cited, at all. Conservative readers will just take that point for granted (Which is a major problem with many conservative readers - any "the liberals are out to get us" theory is taken for granted.)

Furthermore, conservatives want their own media to have it both ways: They'll talk about it, proudly, as the conservative answer to the liberal media... then turn around and tout their "impartiality".. Fox's fairness and balance, their "we report, you decide."

The one thing that Air America does that is very honorable is that it comes out and says "we are liberal. We are not trying to be fair, we are voicing our liberal opinions." Then on the other hand, Fox News masquerades as an impartial observer, as a bastion of journalism.

I personally like the idea of Air America, but I agree that the execution is lacking. Anderson's article makes a very interesting point about its lack of market share: The specialized stations for ethnic minorities already have a large liberal audience. AA is also not as entertaining as it wishes it were, and they only have themselves to blame for that.

Posted by: American Dream On Monday, April 18th

Poor, poor Al Franken. The highlight of his career was playing Stuart Smalley.