Dear Network Anchors: Your bias shows in every newscast

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/042504/opi_guest.shtml ^ | April 25, 2004 | Mike Bellah

[bornintexas]

"The first requirement for being a media elite is to believe that the "Little People" are stupid."

I think that is their biggest mistake. They KNOW that we are on to them and now they make no pretense of being biased. They talk down to us in their condensending way and make fun of/or demeanize anything conservative. I agree with your analysis of it being their downfall and it's already starting. Just look at their ratings.

I can think of nothing finer, tho, to have participated in their downfall.

[Maria S]

I am really encouraging everyone to get a copy of “Hillary’s Secret War…The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists” by Richard Poe. Among other things, it details how so many of us have turned to the internet…and talk radio.

I mentioned, on another thread, that hellinahandcart’s 911 discussion thread is mentioned (page 227). Other freepers mentioned in the book: Fred 25m usin35, truthkeeper, Cicero, NTNgod, artios, Hillary’s Lovely Legs, homegrown, Tennessee_Bob, The Game Hen, Areafiftyone, BurkeanCyclist, BigWaveBetty, Catspaw, Frogmom, Freefly, Liberal Classic, TheFactor, and Wingnutsn Bolts. Probably a bunch more…I just haven’t gotten to them yet!

Get a copy of this book, Folks…lots of good info just in case Hillary DOES run for president!

[Tamzee]

The only thing different from 20 years aog is sites like FR.

Bingo... the left media bias became appallingly apparent once we found their own primary sources of information (Rush, Internet, Fox) where we could fill in what mainstream media left out or distorted. We found the accurate mirror of society ourselves and then could see the liberal media for the warped carnival mirror it was.

And the more they warp the image to suit their own agenda the more Americans walk away from them in droves.

[Maria S]

"Fred 25m usin35"


Sorry! That should have been "Fred25" and "isom35".

[lowbridge]

Of course, there were controversial issues even then (the abortion debate, for instance), but we still felt represented.

No we didnt.

It seemed to us that you strove for objectivity.

No it didnt.

Even though we knew you favored the more liberal side of the issue, you covered both perspectives.

No they didnt

We appreciated that and respected you for it.

No we didnt.

[Rome2000]

It was pretty pathetic looking at these sorry SOB's anchors on the networks the day Saddam was caught.

[CFC__VRWC]

Then came 9/11, a tragedy that seemed to bring us together again. In the days following that horrible attack, we were not Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives; we were just Americans. We all resolved to comfort the survivors and punish the perpetrators. We watched you again in the war in Afghanistan. Though you still presented a liberal slant, you strove for fairness, and, more importantly, you seemed to celebrate the success of America, even if it came under a conservative administration.

Which newscasts was this guy watching? Even before the dust from the WTC had settled on 9/11/01, the networks were all but calling President Bush a coward because he didn't go immediatlely rushing back to Washington, even though we still had no clue as to what other targets the terrorists had selected. Peter, Dan and Tom were carping nonstop about how Bush had "failed his first test of leadership." It was only after it became abundantly clear that the American people were absolutely NOT GOING TO TOLERATE the normal petty ideological media sniping at the President that the networks backed off the Bush-bashing and pretended to support him for a short while.

Once President Bush made the decision to invade Afghanistan, all we heard from the media was nothing but carping and bitching and negativity. We heard all about how the mighty Taliban was going to humiliate our armed forces, how the mujahadeen had routed the Soviet Union and we couldn't possibly do better. This was the first time we heard the mention of the media's most prized word for a military action initiated by a Republican administration, quagmire. Once we rolled up Afghanistan like a cheap carpet and sent the Taliban fleeing into the hills, the media promptly switched to pimping al-Jazeera-style accounts of "atrocities" commited by our troops, and started telling us all about how we hadn't accomplished anything, how the Taliban hadn't been routed but had merely engaged in a "strategic retreat."

I could go on and on, but I'd be here for days. Simply put, the mainstream media has been against this administration and against this nation since the first WTC tower was hit.

[kcar]

Tell it to the mountain. Actually, nobody I am friends with ever plans to watch them (or CNN or MSNBC) ever again. CBS has been blocked since the Reagan movie.

Back to the letter, I can see the Network chiefs saying, no, don't read that one, read this one instead:

Dear Tom/Dan/Peter: Why were the Networks so easy on the Scrub at the last press conference? Really, you're just too nice and polite.

[mcenedo]

Mike Bellah teaches English at Amarillo College.

When even college English teachers start to notice the bias, you've got to question the sanity of any intelligent human being who believes network news.

[Dark Glasses and Corncob Pipe]

Does this person really think that the mainstream media only became biased after 2000?

Groan...the guy's name is "Mike". He's a "man". Why do people like you, supposedly "conservative" and "anti-PC" insist on calling men "persons"?

Gee, that John Wayne character, now there was a real "person"!

[Peach]

Network News Anchors = Old Media.

Just as Rumsfeld called France and Germany parts of Old Europe, the Old Media does not realize just how out of step they are.

[Kirkwood]

Biased since at least 1973 (Watergate era - bad, bad Republicans!) and even before that for Cronkite.

[Batrachian]

Gee, that John Wayne character, now there was a real "person"!

And so are you!

[Common Tator]

When did Rush hit the airwaves? I expected the gov't or the owners of broadcast licenses to give him the boot right then like they did to Stern just now

Doing a radio show that gave political opinions that were not quotes in a regular newscast was made illegal in 1969. In typical double speak they called the regulation that made them illegal the "Fairness Doctrine"

Reagan appointed people to the FCC to over turn the fairness Doctrine. By 1987 the FCC had a majority of Reagan appointees who did overturn the fairness doctrine.

The Roosevelt administration passed a regulation in 1943 making it illegal for stations to do editorials. They reagan appointees overturned that rules as well.

The first communications act of 1928 and its revision in 1934 both made vugar talk on the air illegal. It would take an act of congress to overturn that.

It is interesting to note that Howard Stern has not been punished or fined a penny. It was Clear Channel who was fined for what Stearn said. Howard can say the F word as many times as he wants and he will not be charged or fined at all. But the licensee of the frequencies Howard broadcasts on, can lose their licenses to broadcast or be finded up to $27,000 for each instance.

The people who own the stations do not own the right to broadcast. They only lease it from the government promising to serve the public interest, convienence, and necessity and obey the Commications act and the Regulations adopted by the FCC.

There are Regulations making the use of the F word a violation of the Commuicantions act. This violation can be punished by fineing the station or revoking its license to broadcast. If Powel wanted to he could revoke the license of every station that has carried Stearn.

You can bet if Powell did no other station would allow him on the air for even a second.

If Howie wants to talk dirty, he needs to get the law changed so he can do it legally. Some may think bank robbery should be legal, but until it is, they will put you in jail if you rob one.

[Lakeside]

You are so right. I read this article with my mouth agape. The author must be very young or not very observant. *I* remember most of the incidents you cited. Although I was but a young teen I remember shaking with rage listening to reports from Viet Nam on the evening news. I remember the TET offensive and the travesty done to the brave men who,though taken by surprise turned a bad situation into a stunning victory. Then were lied about.

I remember what a crooked person L.B.J. was. I grew up in Texas and was ashamed to own him as one of ours. He got away with so much dirty stuff and the "unbiased" media gave him a pass(still does). Then just a few years later Nixon was drummed out of office by this same "balanced" media. At first America didn't pay much attention to the Watergate reports. That couldn't be allowed to stand so every night on nightly news the lead-off story was another rendition of the scandal until America was calling for blood. It took a few years but the media finally had America eating out of their hands.

No, the entrenched media hasn't changed a bit..except they are becoming a bit more overt about it. And then only as a result of their weakening influence because of alternate news sources. Thank you FR, Fox, and Rush,et.al.