What Liberal Media?

It’s nothing new, the conventional wisdom that the media has a liberal bias, and it’s also not new that the media is so afraid of being seen as having a liberal bias that they will go to all lengths to dispel the assumption, often to disastrous results, not the least result of which is a shockingly misinformed public. But some Lefties are reaching a breaking point…

Crooks and Liars is tired of the bullshit refrain about a liberal bias in the media and suggests:

I think it is time we act and let the TV Gods know that we are feed up with not being represented in the media bias arena.

Contact information is provided so we can all help inform the media that we’ve had it with being under- and misrepresented.

Meanwhile, Atrios notes:

What [reporters] seem to fail to understand is that they spent the last dozen or so years accomodating and encouraging a bunch of people whose goal it is to effectively wipe them out. Reap, sow, yada yada. As many others have pointed out, while criticism from the left (which they ignore) is about making them better, the right is pretty much out to destroy any media in this country that doesn't exist for the sole purpose of encouraging tax cuts, demonizing gay people, and generally supporting the agenda of Dear Leader.

And Skippy says:

we think that most of the liberals' complaints with today's mtm is not that it's slanted conservatively, but rather that the screeching heads happily let people tell outright untruths and get away with it, in the name of "balance" and "objectivity."

we believe (and we believe that most lefties believe) that it is not partisan or biased to insist on facts, cites, sources and truth. so if one party can't make their points factually, it's not unfair to call them on it.

instead, blitzer and the gang just let two representatives from either side hurl spin at each other, and call that "journamalism."

we would love to see the screeching heads insist on proof, from both sides, of their respective positions.

I think one of the biggest issues liberals face at the moment, as a result of the media’s insistence on balancing facts with conservative spin, is that we have all come to be seen as conspiracy theorists. It’s increasingly difficult to prove to someone the veracity of, say, the fact that the US military was desecrating the Qur’an was known long before it reached the pages of Newsweek.

Back in February, I wrote about this concern in a post called Truth: The Great Liberal Conspiracy:

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Conspiracies are, by their definition, covert, and so perhaps by their surrender to the administration’s wishes of unquestioning compliance, the media have made many of the Bush gang’s machinations conspiracies. They have also made themselves useful tools in a far-reaching propaganda campaign; the reluctance to comment on the accuracy of any of the administration’s claims shows no less a disdain for the truth than those who made the fallacious claims in the first place. Propaganda works best, after all, when it comes under the guise of objectivity, and commandeering the perceived objectivity of the media through intimidation was an integral part of the administration’s strategy. Quietly and slowly relinquishing that objectivity was demonstrative of the media’s acquiescence to fulfilling the role of covert propagandists, and instigated both the general mistrust of any media source and the phenomenon of relegating truth-seekers to the realm of conspiracy theorists.

There was a time when pointing out blatantly obvious political maneuvering would not have warranted charges of being a conspiracy theorist. We used to have a healthy mistrust of our government; we assumed that the flaws of humankind weren’t checked at the doorways of the White House and the Pentagon. When the shit hit the fan, we assumed that the people involved might do less than ethical things in the pursuit of self-preservation. Now to suggest such a thing is to be deemed a paranoiac. It is as though we have been asked, and, inexplicably, collectively agreed, to rid ourselves of common sense and our very understanding of human nature.

Such willful ignorance, such readiness to suppress our instincts and abilities for critical thought, such easy compliance with the suggestions that we should obediently believe what we the administration tells us about themselves and denounce those who don’t as traitors…these are not the healthy attributes of a genuine democracy, and they are not indicators of freedom.

If I am a conspiracy theorist, if my sources are perceived as unreliable, it is the fault of a cowed and impotent media and a manipulative, deceitful administration who care little for what’s right if it impinges upon what they want—an administration who couldn’t be happier that someone like me is seen as little more than a wacky conspiracy theorist with unconfirmable information.

This is a but a symptom of a larger disease. Left indefinitely untreated, it will eventually mean the death of the American Democracy.

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Head on over to Crooks and Liars and get the info to tell the media to put an end to this crap.