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| "I was the perfect candidate, but the media kept asking me all of those freaking questions!" |
On Sunday, Mr. Romney’s running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, got right to the point.
“It goes without saying that there is definitely media bias,” Mr. Ryan told “Fox News Sunday.” “I think most people in the mainstream media are left of center and, therefore, they want a very left-of-center president versus a conservative president like Mitt Romney.”
And ostensibly tendentious coverage was cited last Wednesday in a letter addressed to the “Biased News Media” and sponsored by the Media Research Center, which defines its mission as “holding the liberal media accountable for shamelessly advancing a left-wing agenda.” The letter said in part: “This election year, so much of the broadcast networks, their cable counterparts and the major establishment print media are out of control with a deliberate and unmistakable leftist agenda.”
It was signed by conservative royalty, including Brent Bozell, Gary Bauer, Ed Meese, Tony Perkins, Rush Limbaugh and Richard Viguerie. It included a list of chronic offenses and concluded, “It is time the American people turn you who are offending off, once and for all. You have betrayed their trust.”
The mainstream media are frequently indicted suspects when the rink tilts against conservative causes. But it seems worth pulling apart that notion, especially in a landscape where ownership of the megaphone is increasingly up for grabs.
The reporter, David Carr, goes on to point out exactly how muhc of this so-called "liberal media" is in fact anything but.
Even if legacy media still maintained some kind of death grip on American consciousness, it would be hard to claim that the biggest players in those industries are peddling liberal theology.
Think about it. What is the No. 1 newspaper in America by circulation? Why, that would be The Wall Street Journal, a bastion of conservative values on its editorial pages and hardly a suspect when it comes to lefty news coverage. (Though it’s worth pointing out that the paper has published some very tough coverage of Mr. Romney.)
What about radio? Three of the top five radio broadcasters — Mr. Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the recently departed Michael Savage — have outdrawn NPR’s morning and evening programs by a wide margin. In cable television, Fox News continues to pummel the competition.
Many Republicans see bias lurking in every live shot, but the growing hegemony of conservative voices makes manufacturing a partisan conspiracy a practical impossibility.
Not only THAT but even the self described liberal media are often owned by corporations which benefit mightily when Republicans are in power. (For instance MSNBC is owned by corporate powerhouse General Electric.) We are told that the corporations do not involve themselves in editorial decisions, but I think we all know that there has to be some pressure applied from on high once in a while. (The sudden demise of Keith Olbermann's career springs to mind as a prime example.)
No Mitt the Twit and the Republican party will undoubtedly do their best to make the flame out of this gaffe riddled campaign somebody else's fault, but in fact I think that behind the scenes they will have to admit to themselves that their candidate was a joke.
And a bad joke at that. One that nobody laughed along with, but that EVERYBODY openly mocked.
And the fact that he was chosen, so soon after the debacle that was Sarah Palin, also means that the bad joke is spreading, and now threatens to diminish what is left of the Grand Old Party's badly damaged reputation. Soon NOBODY will take them seriously as a legitimate political party.
Well I don't know about anybody else, but THAT certainly cracks me up!
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