The End Of Free & Independent Media

For several years our media (both print and telecast) have increasingly cast aside any pretense of being free and independent. They have allowed their personal bias to shine through in every aspect of their "coverage".

When you think back through our recent history it is evident. They did all they could to destroy the Republican brand with the GOP'S own missteps and outright lies. During this same period they have done everything in their power to ignore or cover any missteps by the Democrats.

Upon election of Bush they set out to destroy him and the GOP through a constant barrage of ridicule. The late night talk shows and special programs designed for this purpose, such as "Li'l Bush" were bent on this destruction. Newscasts are consistent in their tilted coverage. At the end of the campaign SNL even added an extra night to drive home their derision.

They hold the two parties to a different set of standards. They will bash the GOP and conservatism for something that they would give a pass to if it were the Democrats and liberals.

MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER (MRC) President Brent Bozell summarized the Obama campaign news media travesty this way: "Everyone should be forced to admit that the publicists formerly known as the 'news' media have worked themselves to the bone this year to elect Barack Obama." The MRC has carefully documented news media bias for over 20 years now, and offers a wealth of information and commentary at its website. The quotes and statistics cited below come from that source.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE recognize what is going on. A survey by the liberal Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that "by a margin of 70%-9%, Americans say most journalists want to see Obama, not John McCain win on Nov. 4." Even 62% of Democrats recognized the media favoritism for Obama. Another Pew poll found that only 30% of the public believes all or most of what CNN reports, with 24% for NBC and 22% for CBS. A Rasmussen poll found that by a margin of 10-1, the public believes that reporters were trying to hurt Sarah Palin politically through their coverage.

These views are well grounded in reality. A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that since the conventions news reports about Obama were two-thirds positive and one-third negative. For McCain it was just the opposite. The Center also found that late night comics targeted 7 times as many jokes at the Obama ticket as compared to the McCain ticket. Even the liberal Project for Excellence in Journalism found that during the fall campaign, unfavorable stories about McCain outweighed favorable ones by more than 3 to 1. But the MRC found that the networks produced 7 times as many positive reports about Obama as negative ones.

CNN, Special Correspondent Frank Sesno labeled Rep. Rahm Emanuel, announced as President-elect Obama's chief of staff, as "center to center-right." But the American Conservative Union gave Emanuel's voting record a score of 13% conservative in 2003, 4% in 2006, and 0% in 2007. The liberal Americans for Democratic Action, by contrast, gave Emanuel's record a score of 95% liberal in 2003, a perfect 100% liberal in 2004 and 2005, 90% in 2006, and 95% in 2007.

The model for a free and independent press is, in fact, the much maligned (by liberal left extremists) Fox News. If you examine its broadcasts closely, you will find that its policy is to include 50% liberals and 50% conservatives. Along with Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly (whom many conservatives consider too moderate), Fox News features liberals Geraldo Rivera and Alan Colmes, and Democrat Greta van Sustern. Regular contributors include liberal Democrats Juan Williams, Mara Liasson of National Public Radio, and Morton Kondracke, Democrat pollsters and strategists Bob Beckel, Pat Caddell, and Dick Morris, and liberal academics. Check out the guests who are interviewed on all of their shows. They are evenly balanced liberal and conservative.

By contrast, if you look at the liberal controlled mainstream media, you rarely see any conservatives at all. Their ruling mantra is obviously to broadcast or print the liberal left party line, and to exclude conservatives and their views, which they openly deride instead. So all the yelling and screaming we hear about Fox News, dear conservatives, are really objections against having you included to any significant degree. It is a demand that you be muzzled as socially unacceptable.



Here is some early tough reporting on Barack Obama from Joe Klein of Time magazine,

"Obama's personal appeal is made manifest when he steps down from the podium and is swarmed by well-wishers of all ages and hues…. Obama seemed the political equivalent of a rainbow -- a sudden, preternatural event inspiring awe and ecstasy…. He transcends the racial divide so effortlessly that it seems reasonable to expect that he can bridge all the other divisions -- and answer all the impossible questions -- plaguing American public life."

NBC reporter Lee Cowan admits, "It's almost hard to remain objective because it's infectious, the energy, I think. It sort of goes against your core to say that as a reporter, but the crowds have gotten so much bigger, his energy has gotten stronger."

Then there is MSNBC co-anchor Chris Mathews, who is as objective about Obama as Juliet was about Romeo, saying, "He's come from a white family and a black family, and he's married to a black woman, and they're cool people. They are really cool. They are Jack and Jackie Kennedy when you see them together. They are cool. And they're great looking, and they're cool and they're young."

Mathews later went on to describe how Obama sent a "tingling" sensation up his leg.

While on the subject of MSNBC, Keith Olberman, a man described by many to be in need of intense therapy for his neurosis, is on a nightly rant against anything other than the Democrats party line. As part of a group of letter writers that set out to overwhelm MSNBC's email during the GOP convention, I found solace that both Olberman and Mathews were removed from reporting. It was just as well, because they were unable to report. Olberman in his obsession, had derided the GOP for paying tribute to the 9-11 victims, and 'apologised' to viewers for airing it.

Associated Press writer Charles Babington offered this tough political reporting on the Obama campaign last May, "Presidential campaigns have destroyed many bright and capable politicians. But there's ample evidence that Obama is something special, a man who makes difficult tasks look easy, who seems to touch millions of diverse people with a message of hope that somehow doesn't sound Pollyannish."

When John McCain visited Iraq in March to check on how his ultimately victorious surge strategy was working, he got all of 10 seconds of coverage on the CBS Evening News, and two minutes on the ABC evening news broadcast. But when Obama went to the Middle East in July for the first time ever, the anchors from each of the three major networks went along with him, and gave their broadcasts from overseas with the Obama campaign. MRC's monthly newsletter The Watchdog accurately summarized this coverage with the headline, "Liberal Media Are Nearly Worshipping Obama."

Mark Phillips of CBS News reported on Obama's Berlin speech during that trip:

"There is a bit of a morning-after feeling here in Berlin after what they're calling the 'Obama show.' But if the intent of this trip was to raise Barack Obama's foreign profile, it could hardly have been raised any higher…. The stage could not have been bigger. The 200,000-plus crowd confirmed his rock star status, and his more cooperative sounding rhetoric was what the crowd wanted to hear."

Phillips did not mention that the crowd and the rock star status may have had something to do with the actual rock concert and free beer offered before Obama spoke.

Yet, when McCain later went on an out of country trip, Robin Roberts of ABC News reported, "Why is Senator McCain abroad when Americans are focused on the economy here at home and losing jobs, more and more jobs."



We are no longer dealing with media bias here. It has gone well beyond that, to outright partisanship and political activism. The so-called mainstream media, ABC, CBS, NBC, Time, Newsweek, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, are no longer journalistic enterprises. They are political activist groups posing as journalistic enterprises. The American people consequently no longer enjoy the benefits of a free and independent press. They suffer with a party-controlled press.

The one area the Democrats have failed is talk radio. They tried to offer an alternative with their 'Air-America'. Like MSNBC, nobody listened and they failed. Frustrated by this, and not satisfied by controlling all other forms of the media, they have decided to impose the "Fairness Doctrine". Of course it will only be imposed on talk radio. No mention to impose it on print or televised news outlets.

The Democrats thuggish attempts to stifle any dissent will wake the American public's curiosity. The public will see the left's unAmerican agenda and methods of censorship.

The internet will be a battlefield over the next four years. Many people of reason will set about to repay the left in kind for it's efforts. We will play up any missteps of the left or any attempts to mirror the European/Soviet model of governance.