So-Called Liberal Media

[filkertom]

Can anyone read this post by Mrs. Atrios and claim with a straight face that the press is biased in favor of liberals?

Comments

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I try so very hard to be as fair and balanced as others claim to be, and then there are people like her.

Well anyway: take a look at the comments, most of which suggest that she spend her Sunday morning without TV or newspapers, enjoying a nice brunch and appreciating the good things in life. Not bad advice, on either side of the aisle.

[billroper]

Yes.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Shoulda seen that one coming. Would you like your silver platter back? :)

[billroper]

Timing. Timing is everything. :)

(I had just posted that and found your article...)

[billroper]

BTW, I tried to return your call, but the phone was busy...

[sdelmonte]

A co-worker who used to live in Berlin thought it was very funny when I called the NY Times a liberal newspaper. She's seen really left-wing newspapers in Germany.

That said, the editorial page of the Times is fairly liberal on things like the environment, social issues and the like. In the eyes of the Right, that clearly taints the rest of the newspaper. And to be fair, the right-wing editorials of the Wall Street Journal have long tained the rest of that paper for me, even though tis news coverage is often as good as the Times'.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

IT's the news coverage that's the problem. The wordings of things in the main news stories, the opinions expressed by the reporters who are supposed to stick to facts and not express opinion. Their wordings make it sound as if what they write is, in fact, the conventional wisdom, e.g., "In Boston Magazine, Jon Keller speaks of John Kerry's difficulty in 'convincing southern Nascar dads and Wal-Mart moms of the populist empathy of a windsurfing New England multimillionaire.' National Review's Jay Nordlinger writes that 'President Bush is engaged in a little populist campaigning himself today - he's going to Indiana and Michigan, for a bus tour.'" Bluntly, most people don't pick up on the fact that this is opinion writing rather than reporting.