CJR's liberal slant

The Washington Times ^ | August 15, 2004 | Masthead Editorial

[neverdem]

The Columbia Journalism Review styles itself as "America's premier media monitor." It considers itself an objective observer of journalistic trends and bias, but it has achieved a well-deserved reputation for a blatantly left-of-center focus. So, it should hardly be surprising that its recent analysis of political spin, which, admittedly, pervades the 2004 presidential campaign, proved to be a poorly disguised hit-piece on the Bush White House. The article, "Tsunami," which appears in the July-August issue, was written by Bryan Keefer, an assistant managing editor of CJR's Campaign Desk and co-editor of Spinsanity.org. Declaring that "[t]he campaign '04 information war is fast, deep and fraught with lies," Mr. Keefer asserts: "President Bush, Senator Kerry and their operatives are deliberately using a cynical combination of calculated deception, speed and volume to exploit the press' reluctance to call a lie a lie."

To be sure, many campaign claims are heavily nuanced — as they have been for years. In an era when " 'facts' are coming from every conceivable angle and around the clock," Mr. Keefer criticizes the press for "too often treat[ing] the truth as something the reader or viewer should be able to discern from competing bits of spin." Then, Mr. Keefer reveals his real agenda. "Bush has taken advantage of this like no other president before him," he asserts, contemptuously adding that "this is how he governs." And if the reader didn't get the point the first time, six paragraphs later he again lashes out, declaring that "Bush's presidency has been historic" in delivering "a brand of spin that tiptoes to the edge of out-and-out lying without making obviously false claims." Of course, coming so soon after eight years of President Clinton, whose parsing of "the meaning of 'is' " will remain the standard of "tiptoe[ing] to the edge...

[risk]

Columbia Professor Calls for "a Million Mogadishus"

By RON HOWELL
In Apr. 2002, at a pro-Palestinian rally at Columbia, De Genova said: "The heritage of the victims of the Holocaust belongs to the Palestinian people. The state of Israel has no claim to the heritage of the Holocaust."

Newsday, Mar. 27, 2003



"At an anti-war 'teach-in' this week, a Columbia University professor called for the defeat of American forces in Iraq and said he would like to see 'a million Mogadishus' - a reference to the Somali city where American soldiers were ambushed, with 18 killed, in 1993.