Partisan Media and the Radical Left
Lest you think I’m going to be giving the Democratic base a break while I bite the Republicans, this bit of fun has been going around various left-wing blogs. Liberal bloggers have collectively lambasted Obama for appearing on Fox News without a confrontation and undoing all their work to “delegitimize the network”.
Delegitimize the network. YA RLY.
Let’s look at this lofty goal. Why try to delegitimize a major news outlet? They cite a constant conservative bias in reporting and “repeatedly broadcasting some of the most specious of rumors about Obama”. According to the article, one DailyKos blogger even said “By going on Fox News, Obama made the right-wing press legitimate. Simply put, I cannot vote or support anyone who participates in this medium.”
So the issue is a partisan bias. Shall we look at the left-wing press then? As I recall, McCain’s most successful fundraising day to that point came the day after the New York Times broadcasted its own pretty specious rumor about him. The New York Times has not endorsed a Republican candidate since Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s - a pretty solid pattern. In fact, with the exception of radio, the Left has a far more pervasive grip on all sorts of media than does the Right. But when was the last time you heard of a group of conservatives conspiring together to delegitimize the New York Times?
Or is it the case that the Left has a right to media and the Right doesn’t? For all the bemoaning of the left about civil liberties lost under the Bush administration, this amounts to nothing less than grassroots speech control. Whether it comes from above or below, the effect is the same, and just as wrong. This stunt is patently ridiculous, blatantly hypocritical, and thankfully completely infeasible.
So to these bloggers: News is politics. The media is just as private as you and me and thus has just as much right to be partisan as you and me. Bias and partisanship are thus inevitable until the demand for unbiased news exceeds apathy or blindness to bias. But if you’re going to be part of that demand, if you’re going to criticize media bias, be fair and balanced yourself: take the plank first out of your own eyes.
SHARE{ DiggRedditNewsVineStumbleUponSlashdotFacebookTechnoratidel.icio.usMa.gnoliaLive }
2 Responses
May 28 at 2:47 pm
Now wait a minute. Are you targeting the left as a whole, Obama, or the Liberal bloggers?
May 28 at 4:27 pm
Mostly these Liberal bloggers. I don’t imagine most of the Democratic electorate cares that Obama appeared on Fox News, and I certainly don’t fault Obama for doing it.