The "
liberal media" is a
myth invented by
conservative fanatics to pin their
problems on: "Well, sure,
Tom DeLay got caught on
video fucking a dead chicken, but it's not his
fault -- it's the
Liberal Media always looking for a way to
hurt Republicans!"
Seriously, the major media are
large corporations, owned by and interlinked with even larger
conglomerates. They sell one
product --
advertising -- to a
small customer base -- other
large corporations. Now, is any
business going to go out of its way to hurt its own
bottom line? Certainly not. That's why there are so few
negative stories on the
news about major
American corporations -- negative stories hurt businesses, which may then
retaliate by pulling their
advertising from the
news outlet, which in turn hurts the
TV network where it counts -- in the
pocketbook.
Does that sound like the
action of a liberal organization? Does it even sound like something a
conservative organization would do? Actually, it's the action of a
business protecting its own best
interest, and that is an action which knows no
political affiliation.
Of course, it's more
fun to
whine that the
media soft-pedals
liberal scandals. But they've also given
minimal coverage to
Republican scandals --
Newt Gingrich's
extra-marital affair, carried on while the
GOP was demanding
Clinton's ouster from office for doing the same thing, got
short shrift from the
networks, and
George W. Bush's refusal to answer
questions about his
past has been, for the most part, respected and even praised by the
national media. Does this mean that the
media has a
conservative bias?
And yes, most
reporters consider themselves liberals (try working for some of these
slavedriver papers for
low wages and
no time off, and you'll become a
union supporter, too). And
bias certainly does
creep in. Does it happen because they're
evil Democrats and they're pushing a hidden agenda to convince
kids to smoke
crack,
worship Satan, and
vote for
Ted Kennedy? No, it happens because they're
human, and they're not
perfect. The fact is most reporters I've known (and I've known a lot, both in
broadcast and
print media) work hard to leave their biases behind them when they get to
work.