The battle over media bias in America

George W. Bush seems to have some sort of Crazedar. That is, he sends out some sort of subliminal signal to those on the left that drives them insane and lose all sense of perspective. This hasn't just affected politicians and activists, it's affected journalists too.

So incensed are some left-winger journalists and activists that they have gone off and formed a new media network to combat the "growing right wing media influence". It's called Central Air Media. There's a certain militancy to the whole thing. A zealotry that didn't exist before Bush. A zealotry that extends far beyond a few people trying to start an overtly liberal media network. It's made its presence felt on network news, in newspapers (particularly the New York Times), and elsewhere.

The net result is that the American media, which was long suspected of having a left-wing bias, has moved enough to the left that only a few far left apologists remain convinced that there is no left-wing bent to the mainstream American media (there are a few that have gone off the deep end so far that they are convinced there's a right-wing bias to the media now).

One obvious beneficiary of this trend has been Fox News which has, since Bush's election, become the top cable news network. Of course, that's all relative as cable news still gets a tiny amount of viewers relative to other mediums. There is an ongoing debate about whether Fox News is right-wing.  I tend to say that that depends on how far to the left you are. I've never been able to find someone on the political left to articulate exactly why they think Fox News is right-wing. The usual response is, "Everyone knows Fox is a right wing tool!" Why? How?

Yesterday on C-Span, Al Franken tried to argue that Bill O'Reilly is right-wing.  To a right-winger, Bill O'Reilly is pretty damn liberal. In reality, O'Reilly is Catholic. He's got a sprinkling from all sides. But when someone like Franken tries to lump O'Reilly in with Limbaugh he just demonstrates the intolerance some on the left have for dissenting opinions. You either march lock-step with their agenda or you're a right-wing nut.

The intolerance for dissenting opinion has resulted in a movement to establish an official "liberal" media network. As if ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time and the Washington Post aren't enough.  This new network, "Central Air" is bringing on Al Franken to co-host a liberal radio talk-show. Oops, I'm sorry, "Progressive".

As Eric Alterman, who writes for MSNBC and occasionally for Newsweek said, "Liberal journalists are journalists first, conservative journalists are conservatives first." (Yea, you're truly putting journalistic integrity above personal rantings over at MSNBC...).

The contempt that Franken, Alterman, and their ilk have for dissent is one reason why the left has lost so much of its influence in recent years. Their contempt doesn't stop for conservatives, it extends into their views of the average American. "The problem with the average American isn't that they're ignorant but rather they're indoctrinated by the right" said one liberal commentator last night.  In their eyes, the vast right wing media complex they imagine has to be fought against.

In reality, they would prefer a system in which only enlightened people such as themselves delivered the news. Liberals, after all, are enlightened enough to be fair whereas those fascist conservatives are only interested in "indoctrinating" those gullible ditto-head masses. Don't take my word for that, that's essentially what Franken and Alterman said last night. Alterman claims on his site to have been on his "best" behavior too. BTW, Altermen also has an anti-Bush book coming out too. The Crazedar is done its work on him.

Alterman's views are particularly useful for understanding the left-wing mindset which can be summed up as follows:

• Liberals are more enlightened and civilized and thus able to be "fair" in their reporting
• Most Americans have liberal views and it is only through a tiny right-wing minority that is well organized that the will of the people is thwarted year in and year out
• Conservatives are ideologues and incapable of being fair
• The mainstream media may be populated by liberals but they try to be fair. The vast right wing media is just pushing its message

Of course, Alterman wouldn't even concede that NPR has any left-wing bias at all. Is he really that far gone? But he sure is quick to talk about the big right-wing bias. Which begs the question, what vast right-wing media network?

Let's do a quick table with the left side being the "spin" and the right side the reality.

That's it pretty much. Wow. It's vast.

Yet conservatives have to deal regularly with statements such as these:

"He went along with having an openly gay congressman address the convention last night, yet bush opposes hate crimes legislation, gay marriage, and gay adoption." -ABC's Dean Reynolds on World News Tonight right after the Republican National Convention.  You see, not being for those things is akin to being a homophobe really..

"The GOP platform is again very strongly pro-life and rejects abortion rights, and the platform specifically comes out against gay unions and against legal protections baesd on sexual preferences. So is this really an open, compassionate, tolerant party?" -ABC's Charles Gibson to Lynne Cheney on ABC's Good Morning America.   Once again, if you are not for left-wing policies, it's because you're full of hate.

"Since 9/11 the word "terrorist" has come to mean someone who is radical, Islamic, and foreign. But many believe we have as much to fear from a homegrown group of anti-abortion crusaders." -ABC's Jami Floyd on 20/20 just 2 months after 9/11. Oh yea, I am sure "many" of you reading this have just as much fear of anti-abortion crusaders as Al Queda.

But it's not really the flagrant left-wing bias stuff out there. One can nit-pick that sort of thing all day if you look hard enough.  There are entire websites dedicated to it.  What Americans are increasingly becoming frustrated with, in my opinion, is being treated like ignorant cattle by the "mainstream" media.

The most obvious symptom of that contempt is the use of labels. Don't believe there's a bias in the media? Watch the shows, any shows and look for the labeling.  "Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh..." versus "Satirist Al Franken". Why not "Liberal commenator Al Franken"?

Or the "Hard Right-wing congressman Newt Gingrich" versus "Senator Ted Kennedy".  Ever heard the term "Hard left" used at all to describe any congressman or senator?  Ever hear liberal or left wing labels put in front of NOW? Or ACLU?  On the other hand, the NRA regularly gets labeled as conservative or right-wing or worse. And while the Christian-Coalition is nearly always labeled as a right-wing or conservative group, the NAACP is almost never identified as left-wing or liberal.

Labeling is just one example where you can easily see the biases. But the biases are often very tough to spot unless you're really into this stuff. For example, there are two big Washington think-tanks on political philosophies: The Heritage Foundation (conservative) and The Brookings Institute (liberal). Besides the fact that the Heritage Foundation is nearly always labeled, the selective use of guests from these foundations can be very telling. If you follow the news closely, odds are you have heard of the Brookings Institute much more the Heritage Foundation. That would be because ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and particularly NPR have guests from the Brookings Institute much more often than from the Heritage Foundation. Not only does it get much more air time but rarely is its political affiliation identified.

NPR had an almost surreal interview about 3 weeks ago regarding Gays in the military.  NPR had two guests to debate the issue about what the military policy concerning gays in the military should be.  The two guests? Two former high ranking officers from the military -- both gay and both in favor of openly allowing gays in the military. Way to go NPR. You're right Alterman, no bias there.

And of course we won't even get into the soft-influence from Hollywood which has a very far left of center perspective on the world. Franken, true to form, tried to argue that Hollywood isn't that left by pointing out Arnold Swartz nagger is right-wing. Well yea, barely. So okay, score one for the Republicans against the thousands of Clooney's, Gere's, Streisand's, etc.

Unfortunately for the media, capitalism works its magic. The mainstream media is losing its grip. Contrary to their view that the typical American is some knuckle-dragging imbecile, the average American is no fool. They can detect spin and political correctness. And they're getting fed up with it and turning to other mediums.

It will be interesting to see how Central Air Media does. I believe it will fail miserably. From a business perspective, I don't think they've done their demographics homework.  But the real "root cause" of its failure, in my opinion, is that most of the media is already to the left of mainstream America and people have had their fill. That's why sources that are more in tune with American sensibilities or to the right are doing so well. We've had enough and we're not going to take it anymore.  One wonders though, when Central Air Media bombs, will there be any introspection by the Frankens and Moores and Altermans of the world that maybe they are just a bit out of touch?