Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

1
Hummus
Asking whether there is a liberal or conservative bias to the mainstream media is a little like
asking whether al Qaeda uses too much oil in their hummus. The problem with al Qaeda is
that they're trying to kill us.
The right-wing media tells us constantly that the problem with the mainstream media
is that it has a liberal bias. I don't think it does. But there are other, far more important, biases
in the main stream media than liberal or conservative ones. Most of these biases stem from
something called "the profit motive." This is why we often see a bias toward the Sensational,
involving Scandal, and, hopefully Sex or Violence, or please, please, pleeeze, both.
And there's the Easy-and-Cheap-to-Cover bias, which is why almost all political coverage
is about process and horse race and not about policy. Why have an in-depth report on
school vouchers when two pundits who've spent five minutes in the green room looking over
a couple of articles Xeroxed by an intern can just scream at each other about the issue on the
air?
There's the Get-It-First bias. Remember the 2000 election? I believe there were some
problems there associated with that one. Pack Mentality. Negativity. Soft News. The Don't-
Offend-the-Conglomerate-That-Owns-Us bias. And, of course, the ever-present bias of Hoping
There's a War to Cover.
Does the mainstream media have a liberal bias? On a couple of things, maybe. Compared
to the American public at large, probably a slightly higher percentage of journalists,
because of their enhanced power of discernment, realize they know a gay person or two, and
are, therefore, less frightened of them.
By the same token, I'll bet the media were biased during the Scopes monkey trial. But
they were professionals and gave the Noah's Ark side a fair shake.
But to believe there is a liberal political bias in the mainstream media, you'd have to
either not be paying attention or just be very susceptible to repetition. Yes, we've heard it
over and over and over again. For decades. The media elite is an arm of the Democratic National
Committee.