Bias, a CBS Insider Exposes How the Medi a Distort

“How about Foghorn Leghorn??”

“
Your tacky licence plate won't get you
Into heaven anymore....

”

“New Internet Site Turns Critical Eyes and Ears to the Right

By JIM RUTENBERG NY Times

ASHINGTON, May 2 — David Brock, the former right-wing journalist turned liberal, describes himself as once having been a rather large cog in the machinery of the conservative media.

Now Mr. Brock is starting a new endeavor built to combat the very sector of journalism that spawned him, with support from the same sorts of people (Democrats) about whom he once wrote so critically.

With more than $2 million in donations from wealthy liberals, Mr. Brock will start a new Internet site this week that he says will monitor the conservative media and correct erroneous assertions in real time.

The site, called Media Matters, was devised as part of a larger media apparatus being built by liberals to combat what they say is the overwhelming influence of conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.

Mr. Brock's project was developed with help from the newly formed Center for American Progress, the policy group headed by John D. Podesta, the former Clinton chief of staff. And Mr. Brock said he hoped it could help provide fodder for fledgling liberal radio talk shows being started across the country, including those of the comedians Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo.

For Mr. Brock, 41, the project is yet another considerable step in his public evolution from conservative muckraker to liberal activist. That evolution began after Mr. Brock began publicly apologizing in the late 1990's for reporting that brutally criticized Anita F. Hill and a report that Arkansas state troopers had helped Bill Clinton procure paramours when he was the governor of Arkansas, the veracity of which he is no longer sure.

Mr. Brock has also said that he knowingly lied in an article he wrote for The American Spectator in 1992 that raised doubts about the credibility of Ms. Hill. The article formed the basis for a later book about Ms. Hill, whose charges of harassment almost derailed Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court.

Mr. Brock said he hoped his new project could be as influential as the Media Research Center, a conservative media monitoring group run by L. Brent Bozell III that frequently calls attention to what it calls examples of liberal bias in the news media. Its findings often become subjects for conservative radio and cable talk shows.

Mr. Brock argued that such monitoring groups have helped build the conservative media's influence, in part by making mainstream journalists toe a more conservative line by convincing them that they are liberally biased.

"The right wing in this country has dominated the debate over liberal bias," Mr. Brock said during an interview Friday. "By dominating that debate, my belief is they've moved the media itself to the right and therefore they've moved American politics to the right."

He added, "I wanted to create an institution to combat what they're doing."

Since his conversion to the left, Mr. Brock has argued that he was representative of many in conservative journalism, an assertion some of his former colleagues angrily deny. Still, Mr. Brock said the central thrust of his group would be to closely monitor conservative commentators and journalists and, when they make erroneous or misleading claims, to point them out and set the record straight on the Media Matters Web site (www.mediamatters.org).

continued...”

“Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Liar.”

“That ought to be interesting. More delution of the truth. Just more bickering for us to listen to.”

“FUEGO”

“anybody here ever read the Asimov's series EMPIRE? Several books all about the psychology of the masses. including a rating of spin words to incite the masses. I believe Robert A. Heinlein also writes about the psychology of spin in Methuselah's Children. And these are just science fiction books. What could be found in political science media classes would be right there with advertising.”

“So this guy is taking the place of Scoobie (now that he's been starved out)?”

“Campaign Double Standards: Kerry "Missteps" Get Lavish Media Attention, While Bush Falsehoods Ignored

WASHINGTON - May 20 - Recent media coverage of Democratic presidential contender John Kerry has often focused on alleged gaffes or misstatements, ranging from convoluted explanations of his Senate voting record to whether or not he owns a sports utility vehicle. But while these relatively trivial aspects of John Kerry's record have come under intense and prolonged media scrutiny, journalists have shown a reluctance to highlight much more significant falsehoods or "gaffes" by Kerry's main rival, George W. Bush.

Time magazine's May 10 story, "What Kerry Meant to Say," is a typical example of recent Kerry coverage. After noting Kerry's opportunities to score points against a White House besieged by questions about Iraq, the September 11 commission and the Supreme Court, reporter Karen Tumulty asks, "'But what did the challenger find himself talking about for three days?' The answer is whether or not Kerry threw away his medals or his ribbons in the early 1970s."

Tumulty attributes this story line to a personal flaw in Kerry: The campaign has been largely about the "traps that the Bush campaign is adept at setting for Kerry, and the personality trait that makes Kerry walk right into them." In fact, of course, it's up to the media to decide what questions to ask candidates and which issues to run stories about. And again and again, the press corps has latched onto stories of dubious importance in order to portray Kerry as faltering or changing course.

After Kerry pledged on NBC's Meet the Press to release medical records from his service in Vietnam, ABC World News Tonight (4/21/04) reported that Kerry's service "has become the subject of controversy" because some of his critics were raising doubts about his first Purple Heart. When the medical records did little to bolster their case, the press corps switched to another GOP spin point: Kerry didn't get the records out fast enough. ABC's report included a soundbite from Republican National Committee Chair Ed Gillespie: "When President Bush committed to release all his military records on the same program, he kept his word. John Kerry should do the same." The fact that Bush took five days after his Meet the Press appearance to get his full records out while Kerry took three did not deter media outlets from doing stories on this nonexistent issue.

While the press corps applies microscopic scrutiny to Kerry's statements, looking for evidence of misstatements or "flip-flops," Bush gets little criticism for making blatantly false assertions. Last July (7/14/03), Bush revised the history of the run-up to the Iraq war, claiming that Saddam Hussein refused to allow weapons inspectors into Iraq in late 2002: "Did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." Of course, Iraq did allow U.N. weapons inspectors into the country in November 2002; they were withdrawn when war was imminent in March 2003.

Few reporters ever mentioned this substantive falsehood. NPR reporter Mara Liasson (7/17/03) called it "revisionist history," while the Washington Post (7/15/03) timidly noted: "The president's assertion that the war began because Iraq did not admit inspectors appeared to contradict the events leading up to war this spring." But most major news sources chose not to bring up Bush's false statement-- the New York Times was silent on the issue, as were the nightly newscasts of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS.

Bush's record is full of similar untrue statements: His claim that Enron's Ken Lay supported Bush's opponent in his 1994 gubernatorial race, when Lay actually contributed three times as much to Bush (ABC World News Tonight, 1/10/02); his insistence that the White House was not responsible for the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the U.S.S. Lincoln (New York Times, 10/29/03); his statement that in 2002 the economy "was pulling out of a recession that began before I took office" (when it actually started in March 2001-- Slate, 12/30/02); his assertion in a 2000 debate that in his tax cut plan, "by far the vast majority of the help goes to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder," when the bottom 50 percent really got roughly 10 percent of the benefits (Extra!, 1-2/01); his boast that "I've been to war" (Associated Press, 1/27/02)-- to list just a few.

In 2000, journalists seemed to be tailoring their coverage to a well-defined theme: "The story line is Bush isn't smart enough and Gore isn't straight enough," explained pundit Cokie Roberts (Washington Post, 10/15/00). The coverage so far in 2004 suggests that Kerry is now getting the Gore treatment (Daily Howler, 5/4/04).

But for Bush, the story line has changed; now reporters consider resolution to be Bush's defining trait. A day after a Bush press conference, New York Times reporter David Sanger (4/14/04) wrote that Bush's "singlemindedness" is the "hallmark of his presidency," seen by admirers as "his greatest strength" and by his critics as "a dangerous, never-change-course stubbornness." Washington Post columnist David Broder agreed, writing (4/15/04) that while Bush "will not be deflected from his chosen course by criticism or evidence of public doubts about the wisdom of his policies," that could be a good thing, since "this idealism forms an image of resolute leadership."

The idea of a leader who friends and foes alike say never changes his mind bears little resemblance to the actual George W. Bush, who has taken diametrically opposed stands on the need for a Homeland Security Department (Time, 4/26/04), an independent September 11 commission (Baltimore Sun, 3/31/04) and a patients' bill of rights (Political Animal, 3/21/04; Washington Post, 4/5/04). His flip-flop on "nation-building" was so pronounced that Comedy Central's Daily Show (4/30/03) once staged a debate on the subject with taped statements from Bush taking both sides. But if it doesn't match reality, the media image of a resolute Bush does conform remarkably well to Karl Rove's 2004 campaign slogan: "Steady Leadership in a Time of Change."

###”

“One Problem with this piece:

The fact that Bush took five days after his Meet the Press appearance to get his full records out while Kerry took three did not deter media outlets from doing stories on this nonexistent issue.

SINCE WHEN has Bush released "full records" of any sort? Military records, health records, official papers from his governorship... anything? It's all been sifted and sanitized.”

“Here's another bit of obvious media bias.”

“How Fair & Balanced Can You Possibly GET??”

“It's complete BS. Somebody has to have the balls to do a comprehensive scathing report on Doofy, and soon.”

“From Rupert Murdoch's NY Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06222005/gossip/25377.htm

June 22, 2005 -- DENZEL Washington (above) made some new fans when he and his family visited the Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where soldiers wounded in Iraq, especially burn victims, are hospitalized. The base has buildings known as Fisher Houses, founded by the Fisher family of New York real estate fame, where relatives of the wounded can stay for little or no charge. When Washington learned there weren't enough Fisher House facilities, he asked how much one would cost to build. "He wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot," said a source, who added: "The question I have is why do Madonna, Sean Penn and other Hollywood types make front-page news with their anti-everything America crap and this doesn't even get reported?"


ahem... http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/denzel.asp”

“The anonymous source is back and this time it's a chain e-mail.
last edited: 6/23/05 2:54:18 PM”

“Fargin liberal media letting facts get in the way of reporting! Thank goodness the Murdoch news group doesn't have that bias.”

“Snopes.com has a liberal bias.”

“Huh, too bad Violink doesn't hold CBS to the same tune he does the Post. More dumb bullchit.”

“HEADLINE:

Whiny Democrats continue to bleat, “Huh? What liberal media?”

The Democrats, lead by Molly Ivans and other op-ed talking heads, keep up their misinformation campaign trying desperately to convince the sheep among us that the emperor has no cloths.

“It’s amazing”, said Mr. John Reader, “exactly how many people refuse to read any studies on the subject but continue with their prejudicial beliefs. People will continue to point to anything they see as supporting their beliefs while doing absolutely nothing to inform themselves about the scientific evidence. It reminds me of Spontaneous Generation…. A happens a few times, so B must be true.”

The ignorant continue to prattle…




GATORS are in the College World Series Championship game!!! And the liberal media have no comment.”

“"GATORS are in the College World Series Championship game!!! And the liberal media have no comment.”

LMAO! good to see ya arc!”

“Wow! Arclite's post spans less than six inches! And NONE of the media have a word about it!

Go figure...


:)”

“"A man is never so fooled as when you lead him to believe he's got your game figured."

-- Stu Ungar”

“"Vulgas vult decepi" - the people wish to be decieved.

-- Phaedrus”

“"Such as it is, the press has become the greatest power within the Western World, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and judiciary. One would like to ask: by whom has it been elected, and to whom is it responsible?"

--Alexander Solzhenitsyn”

“"These sectors of the doctrinal system serve to divert the unwashed masses and reinforce basic social values: passivity, submissiveness to authority, the overriding virtue of greed and personal gain, lack of concern for others, fear of real or imagined enemies, etc. The goal is to keep the bewildered herd bewildered."

-- Dr. Noam Chomsky”

“Holding his own yard sale for a 60 Minutes/Wednesday piece on yard sales, Steve Hartman put out "some boring personnel manuals," including a "CBS News Standards" booklet, which he assured a potential buyer, was a book that's "never been used." The camera zoomed in on handwriting on a post-it note slapped on it: "Never used!" and below that, "$.50."

Hartman, provides short, light-hearted stories at the end of the Wednesday edition of 60 Minutes. For the April 27 program, he went to an unidentified suburban neighborhood of homes and showed himself browsing through the junk at some yard sales. He bought a golf club and an olive oil bottle.

No word from Hartman on whether he sold the CBS News Standards manual to someone who might actually read it.

”

“"News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising."

-- Rubin Frank”

“Recess Appointments: Today vs. Today

Katie Couric: "President Bush is poised to use his recess appointment power and send John Bolton to the UN without a Senate confirmation vote. How can he do that?!"

Chris Matthews: "....It will be a recess appointment only good for one Congress. He really won't have the full authority of someone like [former UN Ambassador] Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who spoke for the whole country, not just for the President."
-- Exchange on the August 1 Today.

vs.

"You seem like a pretty good candidate to be Assistant Attorney General for civil rights, but you've run into a wall in Congress.... There's a solution here, albeit a temporary solution. The President could make you what's called a recess nominee. Which he can give you the job for a year, almost a trial run. And that way Republicans can say, 'Hey, he's pretty good at this,' and then vote on you a year from now."
-- Matt Lauer interviewing Clinton nominee Bill Lann Lee on the December 12, 1997 Today.”

“"If elected, Paul Hackett would become the first lawmaker to have served in the Iraq war," ABC anchor Terry Moran trumpeted on Sunday's World News Tonight. But on Wednesday night, after the Democratic Marine reservist lost to Republican Jean Schmidt for the Southwestern Ohio U.S. House seat, World News Tonight didn't utter a word about Hackett's loss.

CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell had hyped how the contest "is shaping up as a referendum on Mr. Bush's Iraq policy," yet when, apparently, that referendum went the wrong way, CBS fell silent, not mentioning the outcome on Wednesday's Evening News.”

“Check out the 'Air America' thread.
Yet more examples of Lib bias.”

“Just did. Awesome! I remember arguing with libbies (from that site I emailed you before) before they went on the air. I kept telling them it would fail b/c they didn't "earn" their way up throught the business. That it was founded on liberal principles of taking from the rich and giving the the poor (them), and it will fail like all other similar social programs. They yelled and said "No way!" and told me I didn't know what I was talking about.

LOL!

laugh ... last”

“Sarge,

Who do you think are the front runners for both parties in 2008? You are much more knowledgeable about the Republician party that I. You think Hiliary will get the nod for the Democrats?

Evan Bayh will be making a serious run as well.”

“WK - I have no idea. In 2001 I correctly predicted Kerry would run and lose by about 3 points. Right on mark.

The parties are much more secretive this go 'round.

re: Hillary - I sure hope she gets the nomination. I will be registering Democrat and voting for her in my state election.

ps - (I liked the patronizing part. That was great!)”

“Uh, I saw the news last night and NBC had a story about the race and Hackett's loss. What the hubbub here?

He lost by a very slim margin in a very Republican district. He'll be back. That woman who won looked horrible next to Hackett and his beautiful wife and kids. That country clubbing prune in suit jacket won't be there long.

Hey Nancy, I mean Sarge, I bet you don't have the stones to tell Hackett to his face that he's a "lib". Who do you think you're impressing with this "Sarge" name anyway ( besides yourself)? You could tell him about your golden guzzler times. Show him your muscles.”

“Charlene Darwin - NBC isn't ABC and CBS who were making a big deal about Hackett.

Did you watch them?

PS - Sarge is my trail name, given to me by somebody else. Being trailtalk, where everybody uses their trailnames, it's appropriate for me to use that one. In real life, I don't use that name. Do you use "Charlene" in real life?”

“Alright, Chuckles!!!

That woman looked like a mortician did her make up.
Country clubbin' prune indeed!!!

Jon Stewart made a fool out of Bernie Goldberg on The Daily Show just a little while back.

Actually, Bernie made a fool out of himself.
He talked about his new book.
Something about 100 people who are detrimental to the U.S.
Most of them were largely ineffectual big-mouths like Barbara Streisand.

Jon pointed out how little power someone like Streisand really has and Bernie could do little more than stammer.”

“So ... what you're saying MarkO is all you have is an ad hominem, once again ... that Bernie stammers ...

typical”

“Looks like he's making a fool of Jon to me. It's on the New York Times bestseller list (#5 on Hardcover nonfiction)

How's Jon's book doing?”

“MarkO, I love Jon Stewart! He makes fun of EVERYONE and he does it so well. Did you ever see the Crossfire he was on? The one where was calling them dicks? LOL! Classic!”

“Mediocre at best Sarge. Is that the best you can do? The lads on the Beagle had far worse nicknames for me. What was it? Sopething about mating with tortoises.
You sir are lame and according to natural selection I'd say you haven't a chance in mating and passing on your genes.

Of course I knew nothing of genes back in my day. It's something the devil told me about when he was later consulting with me on how to destroy Christan society throught the teaching of my theory of evolution.

You sir are limp. "Sarge". HA!!”

“Whatever you say Charlene. If you want to discuss the issues, let me know.”

“jon stewart and NPR's all things considered are the best sources of info going.”

“wow, that was almost as funny as mallard fillmore

this post brought to you by sarcasm”

“You have to "get it" to "get it".”

“In 2001 I correctly predicted Kerry would run and lose by about 3 points. Right on mark



Hey, Criswell! It's been a bad month and I'm broke. Got a line on the fifth race at Aqueduct?”

“No, I don't follow horses. Why are you making fun of me? When will this stop?”

“I see stupid people........ev'r where”

“Sarge, let me put it to you straight. In case you haven't noticed, I have all but ceased posting on fuego threads, barring a few "less-than-serious" posts like the previous one. That is my personal choice. But, that aside, let me say this.

If you couldn't recognize that for what it was, then I have to say that you are getting a little too wrapped up in this stuff and it's affecting your objectivity. If you're toying with people and you get off on that stuff, then knock yerself out. Not for me to stop you. But, take a joke for what it is. And, if you have lost your sense of humor, then you are missing out, buddy! Take the advice with a grain of salt, but don't take my jests seriously...”

“Treebeard - Let me put this straight to you.

If you have people doing nothing but bust on you, with multiple threads, for 3 days straight, let me suggest your sense of humor might be a bit amiss as well. Cut me some slack. It's getting old Treebeard. Very old. It's to the point it's lost ALL humor value. I'm not offended. I'm not hurt. I'm BORED! It's not funny AT ALL anymore! Johnny Carson had a rule not to tell a joke on the same subject more than 3 times in a monologue. He was a brilliant man.”