Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Anti-military media bias. Copy and save.

A June 28, 2005 Washington Times editorial begins:

When will the network media and other "mainstream" outlets finally stop pretending to be balanced?

The editorial continues:

Last week, for instance, the Big Three -- ABC, NBC and CBS -- had a wonderful time covering White House adviser Karl Rove's remarks at a conservative gathering in New York. As the Media Research Center reported, the day after Mr. Rove gave his talk, ABC's World News Tonight was on the story. CBS and NBC, both on their respective morning and evening shows, joined in a day later.

However, the same three networks didn't bother to mention Sen. Dick Durbin's Senate floor comments from June 14. It wasn't until Mr. Durbin apologized June 21 -- seven days later -- for equating American soldiers to Nazis and other barbaric regimes that ABC's and NBC's evening news programs first aired the original comments. CBS didn't do so until Friday, and then only on its morning program.

Major newspapers weren't much better. While The Washington Post gave front-page coverage to Mr. Rove's comments the day after he said them, it took three days to give an inside story to Mr. Durbin's. The New York Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times performed even worse.

The suppression of Mr. Durbin's remarks might come as a surprise since lately the media has been all too eager to publish every outlandish criticism of the American military. But the exception also proves the rule: His indefensible comparison strengthens the critics' point that the left's anti-military bias has reached absurd levels. To publish it would only undermine the media's contention that its own anti-militarism is balanced and refined.

You can read the entire editorial here. It's a copy and save for the next time a well-meaning friend asks, "What anti-military bias?"

Let's end this post by attempting to answer the editorial's question: "When will the network media and other "mainstream" outlets finally stop pretending to be balanced?

My best guess is about the same time the National Council of ChurchesUSA and the National Education Association hold a joint news conference to announce they've been preaching and teaching leftist ideology for decades.

What's yours?

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

There has been some great work done to show the spread and count of the "Rovian" speach versus "Durban the Turban" controversy.

Amazing.