The MSM, As Liberal as Ever

The liberal, leftist bias of the mainstream media (MSM) such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC is well known by now. Bernie Goldberg has written about it in his book Bias. In Goldberg's telling, the press doesn't consist of bad people, necessarily, but they are victims of group think. Because everyone around them is also liberal, the notion that ideas outside the liberal group think milieu they swim in could be true horrifies them. Rush Limbaugh yesterday espoused a similar idea when he noted that many CEOs were profoundly liberal, yet ran their lives and their businesses like a conservative. The disconnect had puzzled him for years. Then he realized that Freud had propounded late in life that the main driver of man was a need to be respected by those he considered important to him. Thus, if his wife, or members of his board of directors, or members his country club are liberal, chances are he will also espouse liberal views.

All that is very interesting, and explains why a Warren Buffet might come out and make statements that clearly go against his own interests. But more and more, people are expressing a view to me that I have felt myself. Namely, that despite the failures of this regime on so many levels, whether it be economic, foreign policy, the budget, or the numerous acts of lawlessness committed by this regime, it seems as if Obama might well win a second term. It looks for all the world that Romney/Ryan is going to lose, and I can't figure out why? In spite of running a tepid campaign, most people should be aware that a second term for Obama would leave this country so weakened, in the throws of a depression so profound that we might never recover from it. But at least half the country appears ready to bring it on. What is wrong with these people?  Could it be that the MSM has been covering up some of those failures, and making the actions of the regime seem better than they are?

The answer may lie in an article at the Patriot Update by Jan Morgan entitled Mainstream Media AGENDA driven...not TRUTH driven A quote from Ms. Morgan:

The mainstream media has a documented history of liberal slant which is understandable since a majority of their correspondents are liberals and vote democratic. In one poll, Washington correspondents declared that they voted Democratic 93 percent to 7 percent, while the nation is split about 50-50.

This statistic, in addition to the obvious bias in their coverage convinced me that many reporters for CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN write with a liberal filter. Tim Groseclose writes in his book, “Left Turn”, that this liberal slant is also have an impact on voting habits of Americans who listen depend on these media outlets for their news. Groseclose says, “Using objective, social-scientific methods, the filtering prevents us from seeing the world as it actually is. Instead, we see only a distorted version of it. It is as if we see the world through a glass—a glass that magnifies the facts that liberals want us to see and shrinks the facts that conservatives want us to see.” He adds: “That bias makes us more liberal, which makes us less able to detect the bias, which allows the media to get away with more bias, which makes us even more liberal.”

A recent example can be found in the riots taking place in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere around the middle east, in which the precipitating factor is a supposed video that apparently has been seen by about 10 people. The video was so shrouded in mystery, that the media for the first day had no idea what video the regime was referring to. Supposedly the perpetually outraged Muslims became inflamed because of this video, and like little children threw a tantrum that resulted in the death of our Libyan Ambassador and three others.

Now, anyone with the most meager of critical thinking skills will note that this all started on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, and that the date might, just might have something to do with Muslims rioting. Yet, despite more and more evidence coming out that the entire affair was preplanned, and that the killing of our Ambassador was one of the goals, the MSM continues to utter the meme that the rioting is all about a video.

In the 1950s and the 1960s, and even in the 1970s, the MSM would have gotten away with telling a lie, and repeating that lie until most of the people believed it to be the truth. With the invention of the Internet (thank you AlGore) people have more places to get their news. Some of these places do indeed express views that are hard to corroborate. But if one is careful, one can find news outlets that shape a more realistic outlook on world events. It is entirely possible that the elections will be a November Referendum on the Liberal Media (read the whole article, by Lee Cary over at the American Thinker) as much as it is a referendum on this regime. Update: I recommend reading Musings After Midnight bythe Welshman of the Liberty Sphere. Its a highly readable statement of where we are today.