I really have to learn not to read the Flash Report while drinking coffee, least I have to buy a new monitor or keyboard.
This post from Mike Der Manoeul Jr., president of the Fresno Lincoln Club, criticizes Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the “dumbest speaker ever” due to her leadership on the new Iraq spending bill passed last Friday. Here’s the part of Mike’s post I really like:
“So a steady diet of negativity from the Eastern Print Media, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN and CNN Headline News is what qualifies the American people to have a better sense of the war effort than the President? Okay, now I get it.! Make no mistake – the average American, myself included, hasn’t a clue as to what is taking place in Iraq because they get almost 100% of their information from a media complex that reports over 80% negatively on matters pertaining to the war against terrorists. Fox News being the only real exception.”
Proving again that again, media bias is OK with conservatives as long as its conservative media bias. Jon Fleischman’s post on renowned (Jon’s word; I totally disagree) columnist Robert Novak’s visit to the OC was positively glowing. Mike seems to buy into the notion that the media isn’t telling of all the good news from Iraq. With few exceptions, the news coverage on all of the networks our boy Mike complains about, the only program that deliberably tilts to the left is Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Then again, the “liberal media” Mike complains about is only as liberal as the conservative corporations who own them.
I’d recommend Mike check out a study of 2006 TV talk shows done by Media Matters the counted every guest for political persuasion and found that conservatives dominated the airwaves. I also point to Eric Altermann’s “What Liberal Media?” that documents the free ride Republicans have been getting from the press since 2000.
If Republicans don’t like the coverage they are getting as of late, its because reporters and editors are rediscovering their backbones. But what it does do is bring to life on of their favorite boogeymen, “the Liberal Media.”
Interesting, that particular carp about “what about the good news coming out of Iraq?”
The following is an interview of Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of “Imperial Life in the Emerald City.” It’s an hour-long interview well worth your time, and Mr. Chandrasekaran answers that particular complaint:
http://www.scribemedia.org/2006/12/20/imperial-life/
Around the 34-minute mark, mentions that whenever he did venture out to do a “good news” piece, he was told he couldn’t quote sources by name because it would endanger their lives. That’s assuming he could get to the location, since he needed armed security to get there. Worse, for every bit of good news, there’d be other stories about failures that would never be reported.
Today, it’s far worse than when Mr. Chandrasekaran was there. To identify oneself as an American journalist is to mark yourself for death. It’s somewhat difficult to pass on the good word about Iraq if you can’t do it without being heavily armed.
My slow drift out of whatever counts as the “mainstream” of the GOP is due precisely this pathetic whining. Out of all the car bombings, suicide bombings, kidnappings, brutal execution-style killings, and the dispiriting stream of refugees leaving the bosom of Arab democracy, Iraq, into the ever-loving hands of Syria and Jordan…
… we’re supposed to be content with a 20 percent reduction in violence in Baghdad. Forgive me for not breaking out the wine.
DU