• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!
  • Welcome to our archives. No new posts are allowed here.

Daily Liberal Media Bias Examples

Status
Not open for further replies.

aquapub

DP Veteran
Joined
Apr 16, 2005
Messages
7,317
Reaction score
344
Location
America (A.K.A., a red state)
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Conservative
Tuesday, 9-6-05



1. CBS Commentator Charges Bush Doesn't Give "a Damn" About Blacks
CBS News Sunday Morning "contributor" Nancy Giles, in the only commentary aired on the show on Sunday, delivered a blistering diatribe in which she charged that "if the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water" and insisted that "the real war is not in Iraq, but right here in America. It's the War on Poverty, and it's a war that's been ignored and lost." She complained that "we've repeatedly given tax cuts to the wealthiest and left our most vulnerable American citizens to basically fend for themselves." Giles scolded Bush for finding photo-ops with some "black folks to hug" while he skipped "the messy parts of New Orleans." She castigated Bush for how he "has put himself at risk by visiting the troops in Iraq, but didn't venture anywhere near the Superdome or the convention center, where thousands of victims, mostly black and poor, needed to see that he gave a damn."



2. Race-Baiting by Blitzer & Brown; Race Raised by Williams & Koppel
CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday afternoon repeatedly prodded reluctant Congressional Black Caucus member Elijah Cummings to blame racism for delays in rescuing hurricane victims in New Orleans. When Cummings demurred from such a blanket accusation, Blitzer wouldn't give up: "There are some critics who are saying, and I don't know if you're among those, but people have said to me, had this happened in a predominantly white community, the federal government would have responded much more quickly. Do you believe that?" Later, on CNN's NewsNight, Aaron Brown took up the same agenda with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, lecturing her: "Now, look, here's the question, okay? And then we'll end this. Do you think the reason that they're not there or the food is not there or the cruise ships aren't there or all this stuff that you believe should be there, isn't this a matter of race and/or class?" ABC's Ted Koppel charged on Nightline that "the slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina has led to questions about race, poverty and a seemingly indifferent government."



3. Moran Hits Bush on "Resources" for Iraq Over Hurricane Victims
ABC's Terry Moran on Friday afternoon put politics at the forefront in hurricane disaster coverage when, on a storm-ravaged Biloxi street, he confronted President Bush about how "one of the things you hear here is people saying 'there's a lot of resources being devoted to Iraq. Now this country needs them.' And they're frustrated about that. What do you say to the people who say there's too much money being spent on Iraq and it's time to bring it home?" ABC News led its 1:22pm EDT special with anchor Dan Harris insisting that spending on Iraq is "a common complaint -- what we're hearing from many people about the resources being spent in Iraq." Friday's World News Tonight featured Moran's question.



4. Totenberg Blames Tax Cuts for Flood Disaster in New Orleans
Sounding like a parody of a liberal, but in all seriousness, NPR and ABC reporter Nina Totenberg charged on Inside Washington, at the end of a discussion about how National Guard equipment deployed to Iraq is supposedly impairing rescue efforts, that "for years, we have cut our taxes, cut our taxes and let the infrastructure throughout the country go and this is just the first of a number of other crumbling things that are going to happen to us." An astounded Charles Krauthammer pleaded: "You must be kidding here." But Totenberg reaffirmed: "I'm not kidding."



5. Damon on Kanye West's Anti-Bush Outburst: "I Let Out a Cheer"
Monday's Access Hollywood teased with a clip of rapper Kanye West's blast on Friday's Concert for Hurricane Relief broadcast on several NBC channels, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," followed by a clip of actor Matt Damon: "I let out a cheer." The program also featured a clip of this ludicrous claim from West on the fund-raising show: "We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us." A few minutes later on Access Hollywood, co-host Nancy O'Dell touted how "it was Kanye West's anti-Bush remarks that caught the attention of Matt Damon and Susan Sarandon in Italy" at the Venice Film Festival. Viewers then heard this from actress Susan Sarandon: "I don't think that's an original thought, but it's probably true." Immediately after Sarandon, Access Hollywood played a longer soundbite from Damon who claimed the White House press corps is too nice to Bush and thus "not one of them's an honest journalist."



6. Network Reporters Assess Rehnquist Through a Liberal Prism
The death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist on Saturday night didn't get as much media attention as such a passing normally would, but I did notice that network reviews of his career approached his views negatively from the left. Instead of saying he championed the rights of crime victims, religious expression and of treating all equally without regard to race, CBS reporter Jim Stewart fretted that "under Rehnquist, criminals found it hard to get multiple appeals in federal court. The line between church and state became more porous. Affirmative action became more difficult to implement." CNN's Jeffrey Toobin trumpeted the survival of liberal policies: "Against the Chief Justice's wishes, the Constitution still protects a woman's right to choose abortion and a homosexual's right to have private consensual sex. Affirmative action survives. States may no longer execute the mentally retarded." ABC's Manuel Medrano relayed how "Rehnquist critics charged he was hostile to the rights of women and minorities, and accused him of harassing black voters."


Courtesy, MRC
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thursday 9-8-05




1. Olbermann Compares Bush Supporters to Lincoln's Opponents
On Wednesday night's Countdown, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, one night after he scathingly attacked President Bush's handling of hurricane relief, made what seemed to be a bizarre comparison between those who approve of Bush's handling of disaster relief and those who voted against Lincoln's re-election in 1864. Olbermann relayed his belief that the current political climate was a "re-creation" of the "mindset of the national politics of the year 1864," when 45 percent of American voters voted for Democratic candidate George McClellan, "whose campaign platform consisted entirely of promising to immediately end the war, let the South secede, and let slavery continue there." Considering the recent criticisms made by some that President Bush was insensitive to hurricane victims trapped in New Orleans because most were black, Olbermann's choice of McClellan, a man who ran on a pro-slavery platform, suspiciously looks like an accusation that Bush's supporters similarly are insensitive to the black population, or, at least, are supporting a man who is just as obviously undeserving of support as was McClellan.



2. Unlike Media, Public Holds Local Officials, Not Bush, Responsible
ABC's Charlie Gibson announced at the top of Wednesday's Good Morning America that a new Gallup poll found that 42 percent assessed Bush's response to the hurricane as bad or terrible versus 35 percent who called it good or great. Later in the day, CNN's Bill Schneider repeated that finding, but on The Situation Room Schneider relayed some telling numbers that Gibson skipped which show how the public does not agree with the news media. As to who is responsible for the problems in New Orleans, Schneider passed on the results: "The number one answer is nobody. It's an act of God. After that, 25 percent hold state and local officials responsible for the problems, 18 percent say federal agencies. Only 13 percent say President Bush is most responsible for the problems."



3. Gibson Presses Sen. Clinton to Raise Taxes, Frets She Won't Agree
Six days after ABC's Diane Sawyer pressed President Bush about raising taxes, her colleague, Charles Gibson, also exploited the hurricane disaster to raise the subject of a tax hike with Senator Hillary Clinton. Following his Wednesday interview on Good Morning America with Clinton, Gibson related how "just before we went on the air" he "asked her given the fact that it's going to cost so much for recovery and with what we're spending in Iraq whether we're not going to have to raise taxes." Gibson fretted: "You can't get a politician to say definitively we're going to have to raise taxes. And so, she didn't." Last Thursday, Sawyer related how after her White House session with Bush, "I also asked him about this idea that the whole economy could be torqued by this in such a way. And I said, 'will you call for tax increases, in fact, if that's required?'"



4. CBS's Smith Worries "Church Families" Will "Proselytize" Victims
In an otherwise apolitical interview in the final half hour of Tuesday's Early Show with Rick Warren, the Southern Baptist pastor and best-selling author of The Purpose-Driven Life, Harry Smith worried that some Hurricane Katrina victims taken into the homes of church parishioners might be forced to attend church in order to get a decent meal.



Also, here are some historical examples, some stuff about Bernie Goldberg's book called, "Bias" from my research project:

 John Martin of ABC News reported on a rally in October 1989 in support of the homeless. “They came here from all over the country, the rich, the famous, the ordinary, the down-and-out. They staged the biggest rally in behalf of the homeless since the Reagan Revolution forced severe cutbacks in government housing programs.”

 In December 1989 Tom Brokaw said, “Reagan, as commander in chief, was the military’s best friend. He gave the Pentagon almost everything it wanted.” Then they started showing pictures of homeless people and Brokaw said, “Social programs? They suffered under Reagan. But he refused to see the cause and effect.”

 In November of 1990, Garrick Utley was with NBC News. He said, “In the 1980s, the Reagan years, the amount of government money spent to build low-income housing was cut drastically. Then, the homeless began to appear on streets and in doorsteps.

Goldberg writes about 1999 column by editor and former Carter employee, Philip Terzian, in which he details the results of a Village Voice study. The study found that in 1988 the New York Times ran fifty stories on homelessness, including five on page one. But a decade later, in 1998, the New York Times ran only ten stories, and none on page one. Similarly, the Media Research Center found that in 1990, while George Bush was in office, there were seventy-one homelessness stories, but in 1995, when Bill Clinton was president, that number went down to just nine. And he adds that the shift in coverage was clearly not due to homelessness abruptly vanishing all over the country in two years under Bill Clinton.

Goldberg cites a May 22, 1989 New York Times story by Gina Colata as being the first groundbreaking moment in which the mainstream media was willing to acknowledge the overwhelming connection between homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse. And he went on to explain how incapable traditional liberal models of intervention- like housing programs- were of fixing or even treating addicts.

He also refers to a former homeless man, Lee Stringer, who wrote in his book Grand Central Winter that, “When the homeless ceased to be portrayed as blameless victims, people ceased to care. The image became one of people who might just have some complicity in their circumstances, and that changed the mood greatly.”

Later in the book, Goldberg writes about a now famous survey conducted by the Freedom Forum and the Roper Center-two highly reputable, independent groups. The survey of 139 Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents found that Washington journalists are far more liberal and far more Democratic than the average American voter.

 89% of journalists said they voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, compared with just 43% of non-journalist voters.
 7% of journalists voted for George Bush, while 37% of the voters did.
 2% of the news people voted for Ross Perot while 19% of the electorate did.
 50% of journalists said they were Democrats, while 4% said they were Republicans.
 61% of journalists said they were “liberal” or “moderate to liberal,” while only 9% said they were “conservative” or ”moderate to conservative.”
 59% of journalists said the Republican Contract with America was “an election-year ploy,” while only 3% said it was “serious.”
To thoroughly contrast this with the average American, Goldberg shows the results of a 1985 nationwide poll taken by the Los Angeles Times.
 23% of the public said they were liberal, while 55% of journalists said they were.
 49% of the public was for abortion rights, while 82% of journalists were.
 74% of the public was for prayer in schools, while 25% of journalists were.
 75% of the public was for the death penalty, while 47% of journalists were.
 50% of the public was for stricter gun controls, while 78% of journalists were.

In addition to facts and figures, Goldberg also includes the following rhetorical questions (among others) about subtle forms of media bias:

 “Why does Bob Schieffer tell us that John Ashcroft has conservative views, but that the organizations that opposed him in the confirmation hearings were simply ‘a collection of rights groups?’”
 “Why does he [Dan Rather] feel the need, I wonder, to tell us about President Bush’s ‘Republican-right agenda?’ The man was in office less than a week and already Dan has spotted a ‘Republican-right agenda.’ Why, I wonder, did he never talk about President Clinton and his ‘Democratic-left agenda?’”
 
aquapub said:
Tuesday, 9-6-05

2. Race-Baiting by Blitzer & Brown; Race Raised by Williams & Koppel
CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday afternoon repeatedly prodded reluctant Congressional Black Caucus member Elijah Cummings to blame racism for delays in rescuing hurricane victims in New Orleans. When Cummings demurred from such a blanket accusation, Blitzer wouldn't give up: "There are some critics who are saying, and I don't know if you're among those, but people have said to me, had this happened in a predominantly white community, the federal government would have responded much more quickly. Do you believe that?" Later, on CNN's NewsNight, Aaron Brown took up the same agenda with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, lecturing her: "Now, look, here's the question, okay? And then we'll end this. Do you think the reason that they're not there or the food is not there or the cruise ships aren't there or all this stuff that you believe should be there, isn't this a matter of race and/or class?" ABC's Ted Koppel charged on Nightline that "the slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina has led to questions about race, poverty and a seemingly indifferent government."
This morning, before Jury deliberations, we were discussing Wolfy. Apparently he said something very derogitory against African Americans in general. Can't for the life of me remember it.

BTW, you guys rock with these reports!! Keep this up, good stuff!
 
1. NBC's Williams Seemingly Endorses Racism Explanation for Delay
After insisting that "I don't do opinions," on Thursday's Daily Show on Comedy Central, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams seemed to come dangerously close to endorsing the view that racism was behind the slow rescue of residents in New Orleans as he approvingly relayed how, a "refrain" he heard from "everyone watching the coverage all week," was "had this been Nantucket, had this been Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, how many choppers would have-" At that point, applause caused him to cut off his sentence as he gestured toward the audience to cite affirmation of his point.


2. CBS Turns Liberal Claims on Disaster Response Into Poll Questions
Though neither The Early Show or CBS Evening News on Thursday cited the questions, the new CBS News poll included inquiries about three liberal claims the news media have frequently treated as credible: "Was reduced federal spending on levees a factor in flooding?", "Did having troops in Iraq delay hurricane response?" and "Did the race and class of those stranded affect speed of the response?" Two of three received affirmative responses from those surveyed.


3. Moran Relays Urge to Rescind Tax Cuts & "Even" Drug Entitlement
In a story on how America can "afford" to pay for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, ABC's Terry Moran, on Thursday's World News Tonight, relayed how "Democrats" are "demanding that Mr. Bush curtail his tax cuts." Viewers then heard from a left-wing activist. But in an unusual take for the mainstream media, Moran also raised the suggestion of delaying some additional spending, though after not using the liberal term for those who want to rescind tax cuts, he attributed the idea to "conservatives" and inserted an "even" before the proposal to delay implementation of the prescription drug entitlement -- as if the concept is extreme. Moran asserted: "Conservatives are worried about the costs, too, with some House Republicans even suggesting a one-year delay in the new prescription drug benefit program."


4. U.S. News Delivers Contrasting Ideological Labels for Senators
In this week's U.S. News & World Report, Terence Samuel's profile of "fascinating" Arlen Specter, the "inscrutable" moderate chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is accompanied by a box of mini-biographies titled "Other Players in the Drama" with noticeable contrasts in ideological descriptions for Republican versus Democrat profiles.
 
9-12-05


1. Stephanopoulos Pushes Racism Claim as Reason for Slow Response
ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday gave legitimacy to the charge that racism was behind the slow rescue of hurricane victims in New Orleans. "Did government neglect turn a natural disaster into a human catastrophe and was it rooted in racism?" Stephanopoulos asked on This Week before playing a clip of Kanye West's allegation that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Stephanopoulos soon contended to Senator Barack Obama: "So many people in this country have looked at so many of the victims being African-American, the sluggish federal response and said racism has to be at play." Stephanopoulos highlighted a Pew poll that found 66 percent of blacks say white victims would have received a quicker response: "What do you say to those anguished and angry African-Americans?" After Obama complained about "passive indifference" to the plight of poor backs, Stephanopoulos wondered: "How do you explain why President Bush didn't seem to get this early on?" At no point did Stephanopoulos raise the responsibility of local leaders or failure of massive spending programs.



2. Alter Urges Bush Go Left to Fix Poverty, "Midcourse Correction"
In the cover story for this week's Newsweek, "The Other America," on how Katrina has exposed poverty in America, Jonathan Alter ridiculed President Bush's tax cut policies and then urged "a midcourse correction" for Bush to follow: "He can limit his legacy to Iraq, the war on terror and tax cuts for the rich -- or, if he seizes the moment, he could undertake a midcourse correction that might materially change the lives of millions. Katrina gives Bush an only-Nixon-could-go-to-China opportunity, if he wants it."



3. Bush "Is a Moron!...He's an Idiot...Cheney is Evil....Impeach!"
Some calm and dispassionate political analysis Saturday night on
Comedy Central's Weekends at the DL. Actress/comedian Kathy Griffin delivered not comedy but her vitriolic personal opinion as she shouted, to loud audience applause while she gesticulated with her arms: "The President is a moron! I'm saying it. I don't care. He's an idiot. Cheney is evil. I'm sick of, impeach them, get them out! I hate them! I hate them. Get them out. They got to go!" She later pleaded: "What is it going to take for you people? Get Bush out! Impeach! Out! Out! Out!" Griffin also denounced FNC's Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: "He and Hannity can suck it. I hate those two idiots! Those liars."



4. Harvey and Latifah Defend Kanye West, Portray Him as a Martyr
During the Friday night (SOS) Saving OurSelves: The BET Relief Telethon, actor/comedian Steve Harvey and singer/actress Queen Latifah came to rapper Kanye West's defense. Harvey imparted: "We love you, brother. And do keep your head up, and we understand what you were trying to say, and you have a lot of people's support in spite of all the ridicule that you're receiving, man. Do stay strong." Latifah saw West as a martyr, chiming in with how "you always going to pay to speak what's on your mind and what's on your heart. But that don't mean you shouldn't say it."
 
9-13-05


1. Confused About Poll, ABC Skips How More Blame Locals Than Bush
ABC News can't seem to figure out what percent of whites in their latest poll believe that the response to Katrina would have been faster "if the victims were wealthy and white," with World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas (20 percent), an on-screen graphic (21 percent) and ABCNews.com (24 percent) all offering a different percentage. And while Vargas highlighted Monday night how "dissatisfaction...with the government's response to the hurricane is growing and hurting President Bush's overall approval rating. It now stands at just 42 percent, the lowest it's ever been," in a WashingtonPost.com article posted at 5:30pm EDT, Richard Morin pointed out that "Bush isn't the biggest loser in the post-Katrina blame game." Indeed, though 45 percent said Bush deserved a "great deal" or "good amount" of blame for "problems" in the response, 57 percent said the same about state and local officials.



2. Mitchell Mea Culpa on Pre-War; Castro "Engaging" & Clinton "Fun"
Appearing Monday's Today to promote her book, Talking Back, NBC's Andrea Mitchell offered a mea culpa on pre-war reporting and, asked to recall her favorite interviews, called Fidel Castro "engaging" and Bill Clinton "fun." Back in 2001, Mitchell had a very amiable chat with Castro.
 
You have a lot of time on your hands. . .too much. . .If I wanted to, I could document all of the conservative bias in the news. But honestly there is no bias on any side of the political table. This is all imagined and as many examples of liberal bias you can find you could probably find about as many conservative news bias.

I've been saying it for awhile but the evil all powerful "media" which makes up all the networks and news all around and reports on all this news and only exists to make money for themselves and boost ratings. It could go either way really, depending on the mood of the country.
 
Last edited:
1. Hearing Framed from Left; Williams Touts Specter's "Independence"
Some noteworthy quotes from Tuesday's broadcast network evening newscast coverage of the Senate's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. ABC's Linda Douglass saw civil rights through a liberal prism as, over a picture of Roberts with Ronald Reagan, she relayed how "Democrats hammered him about things he wrote as a young government lawyer 25 years ago, when the Reagan administration was fighting against expanding civil rights laws." Conservatives would contend Reagan was just trying to ensure equal treatment of all races. Douglass also highlighted questions about the improper influence of Roberts' religious beliefs, as if anyone with them is disqualified: "Democrats made clear they suspect Roberts, a devout Catholic, will lower the wall between church and state. One Senator quoted John Kennedy." Over on CBS, Gloria Borger negatively framed Roberts' views on another topic: "The only woman on the panel grilled Roberts on his old legal memos, which appear to disparage women and their complaints about unequal pay." Borger repeatedly used the term "abortion rights" and Bob Schieffer hoped: "When he says today that Roe v. Wade is a 'settled legal precedent,' as he calls it, does that mean he supports abortion rights?"

2. CNN's Brown Confronts MRC's Bozell on Criticism of Injecting Race
On Tuesday's NewsNight, CNN anchor Aaron Brown set up an interview with MRC President L. Brent Bozell by complaining that "we were called a 'race-baiter' by a conservative media Web site. Needless to say, we don't agree, which made our conversation with the piece's author, Brent Bozell, that much more interesting tonight." Brown pleaded to Bozell: "Why do you call me, little old innocent me, you know, why do you call me a 'race-baiter' for asking the question [clip from an earlier show]: 'Do you think black America is sitting there thinking, "If these were middle class white people, there'd be cruise ships in New Orleans, not the Superdome"?"

3. CNN's O'Brien: No Denial Bush Slow When "Black People Were on TV"
CNN on Wednesday morning continued it effort to interject race into the hurricane Katrina disaster, with American Morning co-host Soledad O'Brien ridiculing President Bush's promise that the "storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort." She presumed some level of credibility to the charge that racism delayed the response as she lectured: "No one's claiming the storm discriminated, and certainly no one has anything but praise for the Coast Guard, who were among the first to pluck people out of their roofs, where they were clinging for dear life. Isn't the question really, and the question that's not necessarily being answered, but isn't the question really, was the administration slow to respond when pictures of mostly black people were on TV, and over days, were clearly in dire straights? Has there been a direct answer to that question?" Why should such an uncorroborated allegation get a serious response?

4. Tim Russert Makes Democrat Tim Kaine's Day in Virginia Debate
The Washington Post reported Wednesday on the Virginia gubernatorial debate between Republican Jerry Kilgore and Democrat Tim Kaine, noting how Kilgore "faltered under a series of questions by moderator Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press." University of Virgina political science professor Larry Sabato asserted that Russert was "much tougher on Kilgore than on Kaine."
 
Sorry to inform you that MRC is hardly a non-partisan source.
 
That is some great stuff. Liberals never get it. Everything that comes from thrie mouths was spoon fed by the left winged media.
 
9-15-05


1. PBS Analysts Ridicule Eminent Domain Concerns of Conservatives
During PBS's coverage Wednesday of the Senate hearing with Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, analysts ridiculed the concern of some conservative Senators over the Supreme Court's recent eminent domain ruling and mocked the role of naive talk radio hosts. During a break at about 4:45pm EDT, Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant was befuddled by "the vigorous nature of this opposition to a rather mundane eminent domain case from New London, Connecticut, this Kelo thing. I mean, as you know, this issue has been around for decades, especially connected with urban renewal." New York Times columnist David Brooks pointed out that "talk radio exploded on this issue, and it was a big popular issue." That prompted NewsHour reporter Ray Suarez, host of the roundtable, to take a slap at talk radio: "Well, when eminent domain was remaking the face of cities across America, there really was no talk radio, and that may be a big change in the United States." Also, in his Tuesday column, Oliphant proposed that while Roberts may know the law, "there is almost no evidence of his understanding of justice."



2. ABC's Douglass Feels the Pain of Democrats Frustrated by Roberts
ABC's Linda Douglass felt the Democrats' pain as she conveyed their frustrations with how Supreme Court nominee John Roberts answered their questions. World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas set up the Wednesday story by stressing how "some" Senators complained that Roberts "wasn't doing much answering." Douglass related how "Senators were visibly frustrated as they tried to pin Roberts down on some of the country's most emotional issues." She noted how, "without mentioning Terri Schiavo by name, Democrats demanded to know if families have the right to remove a loved one from life support." She played a clip from Senator Dianne Feinstein and then multiple exchanges between Roberts and Senator Joe Biden, ending with Biden's lecture: "It's kind of interesting this kabuki dance we have in these hearings here, as if the public doesn't have a right to know what you think about fundamental issues facing them." Douglass then did move on to how "some Republicans pressed him on abortion, pushing him to say a fetus is a person with rights."



3. "Upside of Katrina" for Clift: No More Tax Cuts or Spending Cuts
"If there's an upside to Katrina," Newsweek's Eleanor Clift trumpeted last Friday in her weekly online "Capitol Letter" column, "it's that the Republican agenda of tax cuts, Social Security privatization and slashing government programs is over. It may be too much to predict an upsurge of progressive government, but the environment and issues of poverty, race and class are back on the nation's radar screen." Of course, the Bush administration never proposed "privatizing" Social Security and spending on domestic programs has soared during the Bush years. Clift reveled in Bush's distress and applauded media activism: "The media has turned a corner as well, with reporters on the scene in New Orleans liberated to say the emperor has no clothes."



I welcome anyone to look up anything I have posted on these matters. It takes all of two seconds to pull up Newsweek online. Facts are facts, partisan or not.
 
Last edited:
[Moderator Mode]

As per forum rules...

8. Copyrighted Material - All material posted from copyrighted material MUST contain a link to the original work. Please do not post entire articles. Proper format is to paraphrase the contents of an article and/or post relevant excerpts and then link to the rest. Best bet is to always reference the original source. Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

[/Moderator Mode]
 
9-16-05



1. To ABC's Surprise, Katrina Victims Praise Bush and Blame Nagin
ABC News producers probably didn't hear what they expected when they sent Dean Reynolds to the Houston Astrodome's parking lot to get reaction to President Bush's speech from black evacuees from New Orleans. Instead of denouncing Bush and blaming him for their plight, they praised Bush and blamed local officials. Reynolds asked Connie London: "Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?" She rejected the premise: "No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state government should have been there before the federal government was called in." She pointed out: "They had RTA buses, Greyhound buses, school buses, that was just sitting there going under water when they could have been evacuating people." Not one of the six people interviewed on camera had a bad word for Bush -- despite Reynolds' best efforts. Reynolds goaded: "Was there anything that you found hard to believe that he said, that you thought, well, that's nice rhetoric, but, you know, the proof is in the pudding?" Brenda Marshall answered, "No, I didn't," prompting Reynolds to marvel to anchor Ted Koppel: "Very little skepticism here."



2. Analysts Note Bush's FDR-Like Big Spending, Mull Tax Hike Need
Following Bush's Thursday night speech from New Orleans, network analysts noted how the massive spending proposals contradict Bush's conservative image and they speculated about the necessity of a tax hike. On CNN, Time's Jay Carney suggested it "is going to be very interesting to watch to see whether or not the President loses support from fiscal conservative Republicans" and Larry King asked David Gergen: "Do you buy the concept that maybe we need tax increases?" Gergen naturally agreed. MSNBC's Chris Matthews saw it as "a speech which was more redolent of an address by Lyndon B. Johnson or Franklin Delano Roosevelt than a conservative President." Tucker Carlson observed that Bush's "line that 'racism causes poverty,' and that federal spending is the solution to that" is "not conservative" and "to hear a purportedly conservative President say that is unreal." Carlson correctly added: "This guy is a bigger spender than Bill Clinton." Over on ABC, Ted Koppel echoed Matthews: "Not since FDR and the New Deal have I heard an American President promise quite as much....Doesn't sound like a conservative Republican." Koppel soon asked if Bush's programs can "be done without raising taxes?"



3. Scarborough and Williams Fret About Bush's Damage-Free Backdrop
Just past 10pm EDT Thursday night after President Bush's address, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough asked NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams if, after "reporting from a major American city where young children died of dehydration out on sidewalks," he found it an "ironic choice" by President Bush to deliver his speech "from Jackson Square, an area largely untouched by Katrina's devastation?" Williams revealed that "some of us in the media were chattering about the choice of backdrops" and suggested you don't "want perhaps total devastation, but maybe a mid-range desolation behind the President."



4. Visit by "Big Oil" Bush to Oil Refinery Agitates Olbermann
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann obsessed Thursday night with President Bush's visit to an oil refinery in Mississippi. "He goes to greet the President of the company and the workers at the Chevron oil refinery," Olbermann remarked on Countdown, adding his disbelief: "With all of the controversy over big oil and this administration, four and a half years, he does this today." Of course, refinery capacity is a major factor in the price of gas, so it's hardly a surprising stop. Suggesting Bush's public relations advisors are off their game, Olbermann complained that "today they sent him to the Chevron refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, as if reminding everybody of his oil connections and the government's oil connections was not among the worst things he could do right now. Where did the political sharpshooters in this administration go?" At the end of his hour, Olbermann insisted that Bush's visit "will undoubtedly strike many as strange" given the "controversial perceived ties to big oil already under fire."



5. Gibson Again Urges Tax Increase, FNC First Suggests Spending Cuts
ABC's recurring solution: Raise taxes. On Wednesday's Good Morning America, co-host Charles Gibson, who last week pressed Senator Hillary Clinton about how, given the costs of Katrina and Iraq, we're "going to have to raise taxes?", hit White House counselor Dan Bartlett with the same argument: "Are you going to maintain that we can pay for this, we can pay for the war in Iraq, and we can pay for the rising healthcare costs in this country without raising taxes?" (The week before Gibson asked Clinton about raising taxes, his co-host, Diane Sawyer, had suggested a tax hike to President Bush.) Over on FNC's Fox and Friends, E.D. Hill treated a tax hike as an undesirable last resort. She told Bartlett that "I don't think Americans want to pay '70s era taxes," so "where are we gonna cut the money to fund this?" But, she recognized, "Congress spending less money is like a really warm day in International Falls, Minnesota. What about taxes? Would the President be willing to increase taxes to pay for this rebuilding?"
 
tfarino said:
That is some great stuff. Liberals never get it. Everything that comes from thrie mouths was spoon fed by the left winged media.

I am not so sure that all the bias can be based on the Liberal-Consevative axis. We all scream "bias" when the press reports something that we disagree with. And that's right or left. Here's one example.

"Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, suggested moving U.N. headquarters New York to an international city "outside the sovereignty of any state" and said some have mentioned Jerusalem as one possibility."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0916-03.htm

Now this is from what I consider a pretty liberal web site. What do I mean by "biased"? Tahe a good look at the sentence. The fact that Chavez had has dealings with Cuba is brought up in ALL the US media and that weather it is relevant to the article or not.

The phrase "a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro" is irrelavent to the subject but it is interjected here to re-enforce the idea that Chavez is bad. a communist, evil and an enemy of America. It is a clever technique and one that works. If you look carefully you will see that this type of writung is a constant in moredern US journalism and media reporting. THAT my friends is what is called brain washing. This is just one example. The careful reader can find many each day in the so-called liberal press. It may be liberal but what it is for sure is ultra-nationalistc. Conservatives like the Chicago Tribune or Fox's O'Reilly are doing the same thing. It subtly keeps you from forming you own independent opinion because you are constantly bombarded by and influenced by the "hidden persuaders". The American media knows that 99.9% of Americans get their news only from domestic sources so they are able to get away with this. This was the same techniques used both by the Soviets and the Nazis as well as Mussollini and Franco. Comon to any dictatorship.

If you are interested in how your thought can be controlled by the media you might want to look at a book called "The Hidden Persuaders" by Vance Packard as well as "Language in Thought an Action" by Samuel I Hayakawa. I am not taking sides here one way or another just pointing out the obvious. For those who have time you might find this world newspaper site enlightening.

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

I am not here to win converts to any cause. my only desire is to give (or rather return) young Americans the right to think for themselves and make decisions based on their own thought and not on party lines of any kind. Remeber the first purpose of the media is to sell copy and make money. They do it by telling you what you think you want to hear.
 
Inuyasha said:
I am not here to win converts to any cause. my only desire is to give (or rather return) young Americans the right to think for themselves and make decisions based on their own thought and not on party lines of any kind. Remeber the first purpose of the media is to sell copy and make money. They do it by telling you what you think you want to hear.
Great points on the whole post..

As pertaining to this part, this is why stories like the Scott Peterson trial and the missing girl in Aruba were pushed so hard...America was FORCED to care because the media clung to it until a bigger story showed up...
 
Maint stream media should mean bias in the dictionary because its bias on all fronts get over it
 
9-19-05


1. Stephanopoulos and Russert Cue Up Talking Points to Bill Clinton
Other than a few gentle challenges from George Stephanopoulos, such as "why shouldn't Democrats vote for John Roberts in the same proportions Republicans voted for Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg?," Stephanopoulos, and NBC's Tim Russert even more so, tossed up talking points more than questions to Bill Clinton in taped interviews shown on Sunday. When Clinton advocated a tax hike, Stephanopoulos fretted with him: "The President is not going to move. What do Democrats do?" Stephanopoulos cued up Clinton to talk about his new pet project: "Take us out ten years. It's 2015. What do you want the Clinton Initiative to have achieved? And will it be the center of your public life?" He also repeated back: "So we're losing in Afghanistan, at risk of losing in Iraq. What do we do right now? What should the new strategy be?" Russert was even easier on Clinton, pitching up such talking point cues as "Do you think the war in Iraq has hurt the U.S. image in the world?," "Do you think global warming influences, effects, creates hurricanes or the severity of them?" and on paying for the Iraq war and Katrina, "How can we afford that? What is it going to do to the deficit? And what should we do about tax cuts and spending cuts?"



2. Evacuee Reaction on ABC to Bush: "Mixed" vs "Loved Every Word"
Update to the Friday CyberAlert item on how after President Bush's Thursday night national address, hurricane evacuees from New Orleans gathered by ABC News in the Houston Astrodome parking lot, contradicted the media line as they praised Bush and blamed local officials for their plight. On Friday's Good Morning America, Jessica Yellin avoided the pro-Bush consensus of those shown on ABC the night before and characterized the reaction of evacuees as "mixed," a description she managed to support by running a clip from a woman in a different location. But George Stephanopoulos didn't try to deny what occurred. At the start of the roundtable on Sunday's This Week, with Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts and George Will, Stephanopoulos observed about Bush's speech: "I was watching on ABC on Thursday night. Some of the victims we collected in Houston loved it. They loved every single word."



3. NPR's Totenberg Urges a "Katrina Tax," Says "I Want More Taxes"
On the Inside Washington TV talk show aired on three Washington, DC stations over the weekend, NPR reporter Nina Totenberg suggested that President Bush's Thursday night speech "would have been a great opportunity to say, 'look, I'm for tax cuts, but we need a Katrina tax, we need to really pay, to do this and to pay for it.'" Host Gordon Peterson repeated her point: "You want more taxes." Totenberg chuckled as she reiterated: "I want more taxes, yes." Two weeks ago, Totenberg blamed tax cuts for the levee breakage: "For years, we have cut our taxes, cut our taxes and let the infrastructure throughout the country go and this is just the first of a number of other crumbling things that are going to happen to us."



4. Ted Turner: Tanks Don't Stop Terrorism, "Giving People Hope" Does
CNN founder Ted Turner rued on Friday's Late Show with David Letterman that "we paid $400 billion to find a nut in a fox hole" and declared that the Iraqi people "were better off without us." He also charged that "we violated international law by going to war without a clear mandate from the security council." Though the 9/11 terrorists were hardly poor, Turner contended: "You don't stop terrorism with tanks, you stop it with giving people hope so they won't want to blow themselves up." To that end, he proposed giving the UN $62 billion a year to alleviate poverty. As for the UN's oil-for-food scandal, "there was money siphoned off at Enron and a lot of American corporations during the last few years, but we didn't close down American business as result of it." But Enron is no longer around.
 
9-20-05



1. NBC Finds Oklahomans to Nudge Bush to Raise Taxes and Leave Iraq
NBC gave time Monday night to criticism of President Bush from the right as David Gregory, in noting how the libertarian Cato Institute reported that spending is up one-third under Bush, relayed how "conservatives are getting fed up, openly complaining about the return of big government under George W. Bush." Gregory proceeded to relate Senator John McCain's recommendation that the prescription drug entitlement be cancelled as well as former Senator John Edwards' call for tax cuts to be repealed. But in a second story, Mike Taibbi traveled to Oklahoma where he highlighted those who want the U.S. to leave Iraq and raise taxes. Taibbi summarized: "At the Oklahoma City state fair, some said forget about Iraq, we've got to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf coast, whatever the cost." A man then declared: "If it takes more taxes, I'd be willing to throw in some more." A second man argued: "We really need to spend more time working at home on issues here." Taibbi then challenged the GOP to follow that path: "Tulsa Republican Congressman John Sullivan has heard comments like those, and says the country is watching to see how his party performs."



2. To Blitzer's Amazement, Turner Defends Jong, Treatment of People
Monday afternoon on CNN, to Wolf Blitzer's astonishment, Ted Turner, just back from a visit to North Korea, declared his belief in the sincerity of North Korea and how the U.S. can trust the regime's new deal to not build nuclear weapons. Turner rejected the "despotic" characterization of Kim Jong Il, insisting that "he didn't look too much different than most other people," or that he treats his people brutally since Turner saw the people "were thin," but "they were riding bicycles." When Turner declared North Korea is not a "threat" to the U.S., Blitzer suggested their missiles could reach the U.S., prompting environmentalist Turner to dismissively retort: "Well, what, the Aleutian Islands? There's nothing up there but a few sea lions."
 
9-21-05



1. CBS: Air-Conditioned Bush Should "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee"
CBS on Tuesday night delivered a sarcastic look at President Bush's visit to the Gulf coast. After reciting a list of problems people are having in New Orleans, reporter Sharyn Alfonsi jumped to a soundbite of Bush in Mississippi, declaring: "Every time I come back here, I see progress." Alfonsi gratuitously pointed out that Bush was "speaking inside an air-conditioned tent" and noted how "he toured a Folgers plant in Louisiana" but, she stressed, "small business owners say this kind of progress is the exception." Then, over video of a row of damaged and abandoned store fronts in New Orleans, she countered: "This is the reality." Alfonsi made it personal, holding Bush responsible for the frustrations of a French Quarter restaurant owner: "After five visits in three weeks, they want the President to wake up and smell the coffee." (That cute line ran over video of Bush, in a sweat-soaked shirt, shaking hands at the coffee plant.) Restaurant owner Arly Questa demanded: "Hang out, no air-conditioning, eat some MRE's every day, and then you might really understand what it's been like down here in New Orleans."



2. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer Blame Hurricanes on Global Warming
You knew it was coming. The Hurricane Katrina inspired global warming stories. Well at the top of Wednesday's Today show Matt Lauer invoked one of the media's favorite boogeymen: "Then why are there so many hurricanes this year and is global warming to blame? We'll take a closer look at that."



3. CBS Gives Court TV's Crier Forum to Denounce the "Extreme Right"
CBS's Harry Smith, on last Friday's Early Show, gave Court TV anchor Catherine Crier, a former ABC News reporter, a platform to expand on the theme of her new book, as summarized by Smith: "A concerted effort by ultra-conservatives to influence the federal judicial system. The book is called Contempt: How the Right is Wronging American Justice." Smith never challenged Crier's thesis and instead prompted her to expound upon how the religious right is supposedly misguided in assuming the founders were Christians, approaching her with such questions as: "Delineate what do you think those folks that we're talking about, say, from Justice Sunday, what do you think they want most that you think is detrimental to the country?" When she wasn't forward enough for Smith, he pressed her to hit harder: "And the danger is to you?"
 
so let's go over what we've established here: some people on television hold liberal opinions.
And, of course, we've COMPLETELY ignored that a large portion of the media is controlled by MURDOCH AND SINCLAIR, both STAUNCH conservatives.
Oh, and also, where were all of you who are so upset by media bias when there was a so called "documentary" about John Kerry called "Stolen Honor", which was just a show smearing him right before the election? Where was this outrage about this bias then? Where is the outrage that there has been NO mention of the fact that the man Bush appointed as head of aquisitions was not only universally viewed as unqualified (this is the man that is head of actually SPENDING your tax dollars), and is now going to jail for being a scam artist? Hmmm?
This whole idea is ridiculous.
 
galenrox said:
so let's go over what we've established here: some people on television hold liberal opinions.
And, of course, we've COMPLETELY ignored that a large portion of the media is controlled by MURDOCH AND SINCLAIR, both STAUNCH conservatives.
Oh, and also, where were all of you who are so upset by media bias when there was a so called "documentary" about John Kerry called "Stolen Honor", which was just a show smearing him right before the election? Where was this outrage about this bias then? Where is the outrage that there has been NO mention of the fact that the man Bush appointed as head of aquisitions was not only universally viewed as unqualified (this is the man that is head of actually SPENDING your tax dollars), and is now going to jail for being a scam artist? Hmmm?
This whole idea is ridiculous.
All this poster does is copy and paste stuff from MRC.org. Not a un-biased site by any means. I thought there were rules about copying and pasting without giving the source?
 
scottyz said:
All this poster does is copy and paste stuff from MRC.org. Not a un-biased site by any means. I thought there were rules about copying and pasting without giving the source?
yeah, Cnredd took care of that, at least I hope it's taken care of
 
9-22-05



1. CBS News Trumpets Carter's Criticism of Bush Administration
In a Wednesday CBS Evening News story on shortcomings in FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina, reporter Randall Pinkston cited "frustrations that reached as far away as the state of Maine, where officials received ice that was supposed to go to the Gulf Coast." Pinkston touted how "former President Jimmy Carter, who created FEMA, criticized the Bush administration's decision to strip the agency's independence." Viewers then saw a clip of Jimmy Carter from a Tuesday night forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta: "This obviously lowered FEMA's status so that they would have to go through four or five levels of bureaucracy even to reach the President, whereas FEMA used to deal directly with the President." Of course, that decision -- good or bad -- had bi-partisan support in Congress.



2. CBS and NBC Blame Global Warming for Stronger Hurricanes
Some reporters are using a couple of big hurricanes as a hook to blame global warming, as if there were some policy which if enacted would have prevented them. On Tuesday night, without identifying the Union of Concerned Scientists as a far-left group, CBS's Bill Whitaker relayed how a spokesman for the group charged that damage to Louisiana's barrier islands is being "made worse...by global warming, as ice caps melt and oceans rise." Robert Bazell, on Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, acknowledged that "scientists say that one season, even like this one, cannot indicate anything about climate change." Yet he went on to showcase a fearmongering soundbite from a Stanford scientist: "At the moment, we've only warmed up one [degree]. What happens when we warm up three or five, which is projected in the next several decades to the end of the century?" Bazell ominously concluded: "Warming that many experts say results partly from humans releasing greenhouse gases possibly creating even more violent storms in the future."



3. CNN's Jack Cafferty on Tom DeLay: "Has He Been Indicted Yet?"
Cafferty's cheap shot at House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. After Jack Cafferty read some viewer e-mails, on Wednesday's The Situation Room on CNN, about ideas on how to pay for Katrina, anchor Wolf Blitzer noted DeLay's silly claim that "there's no pork" and "everything is essential" in the federal budget. That prompted Cafferty to ask: "Has he been indicted yet?" That broke up Blitzer who chucked through his wrap-up of the segment: "Well, we'll leave that alone. Jack Cafferty, thank you very much."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom