Posted on 09/20/2008 5:22:48 AM PDT by vietvet67
Atlantic Monthly runs an article on John McCain. A photographer, Jill Greenberg, takes pictures of McCain for the piece. She deliberately takes awful photographs, using her skill as a professional to make the senator look as offensive as possible. Charlie Gibson, given the chance to help Americans to get to know the most interesting political figure in decades, uses that opportunity to score cheap political points to demean her instead. These are two perfect examples of the Leftist bias of the media.
But what is it, really, that offends us so much about this bias? There is nothing wrong with having an opinion or incorporating that into coverage of events. We should not apologize for the bias of Christian television stations or Rush Limbaugh. American journalism has historically been biased, but there is a profound difference between the expressed beliefs of opinionated Americans and the creepy bias of the Leftist media. Once, when newspapers were the main source of news in America, many newspapers had partisan names like the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette or the Pottsville Republican. That was fine.
What bothers us about bias in the mainstream media is that the Left lies about its bias. It pretends to be an objective collegial body of neutral professionals. It conceals its opinions and pretends instead to be an honest umpire of the facts. It tries to trick us.
That was what was so very wrong about the Jill Greenberg photo sessions with Senator McCain. Ms. Greenberg pretended to be a genuine professional who would have used the camera in the same way for McCain or Obama. Instead, she used her position as an unbiased professional to fool McCain into trusting her. Then she betrayed that trust.
It is when the Leftist media pretends to be accurate, balanced, and objective that we feel outraged. Clinton taught us how politicians look right into the camera and lie, but we saw that in the Leftist media long ago. Pubic opinion polls routinely show that Americans believe that the media is too liberal. These polls show that Republicans and Independents trust the media much less than Democrats. Even Obama supporters believe that the media is out to get Sarah Palin. How, then, can an honest person look at the American people and say with a straight face that the media is not slanted to the Left? An honest person cannot, but this is precisely what Leftists do all the time: They pretend that conservative complaints about the tilt of network news, national newspapers, and weekly magazines are nutty, even when the Left knows that the bias is real.
The Left does not want to argue honestly or to win fights fairly. Leftists believe that the end justifies the means. If that means pretending to be neutral when in fact you have a distinct political agenda, that is fine (as long as you win.) The Left does not believe in honest umpires. Leftists view those umpires of our society as simply players in the grand game of ideological war.
News anchors and reporters are presented to America as objective referees of information. Healthy societies need good umpires. We expect public school teachers, psychologists, heads of nonprofit organizations, professors, and other types of referees to not have a common political agenda. We expect these societal referees to put their biases aside, to forget their party label, and to look at us as individuals. We do not expect them to abuse our trust.
Leftism, however, has politicized every aspect of human existence. The media is just one slice of our life in which ideological partisans pretend to be good umpires. Public education has become a tool for instilling "correct" value systems. The legal profession, led by the American Bar Association and purely political judges, now has policy goals, rather than process goals like justice. We no longer have systems regulated by the integrity of umpires -- reporters, teachers, judges, etc. -- because the Left has consciously striven to turn all umpires into advocates.
This is because the Left is, at its core, utterly totalitarian. It is pure theory divorced from practice and immune to the lessons of experience. It is ideology hostile to all real ideas (if you doubt this, try telling a Leftist that men and women are basically different -- just as an idea.) It is intense religious faith without the transcendent moral constraints of faith in God. A priest, a minister, and a rabbi all have definite opinions about how to live a good life, but all find their methods constrained by divine principles. Judeo-Christian morality does not believe that the end justifies the means. The zealous clergy of Leftism are constrained only by the gullibility of their audience. An NFL referee looks at a play closely to see how what happened on the field fits into the rulebook. The referees of Leftism have a rule book in which the single rule is to advance their ideology. A judge at the state fair looks at cherry pies or show pigs for defined qualities, but an activist judge in an apellate court enthralled with Leftism looks at ideology and desired outcomes.
The corruption of our referees weakens every part of our society. It is much bigger than the Leftist media, although this corruption of honor has given us the Leftist media. Everything now is political, or it soon will be, if the Left has its way. Although we need many victories for Judeo-Christian civilization to survive, perhaps the biggest victory is to bring back people we can trust. Would it bother us so much if ninety percent of the media was Democrat, if those Democrats behaved impartially? Would the Leftist media be a problem if the Left acknowledged that bias?
Leftists contend fairly when they contend openly. Once there were honorable Leftists, but when the ideology of the Left is tried and fails, as it always does, then these honorable people either change their opinions or make arguments which do not persuade -- or they stopped being honorable people trying to convince us that their ideology is good and, instead, they become the Left's crooked umpires.
Dead on.
one small quibble re Charlie Gibson: the leftists were outraged when he brought up Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers during the Philadelphia Dem Primary debate. Of course, there were no atmospherics in that like looking down his nose at Sarah Palin, etc.
Very well argued, from an interesting perspective.
Well worth reading.
The Left’s lying about their bias is now so evident that I hope they keep it up. It is hastening their demise. Pinch and the rest of the gang will be doing a lot of crying over spilt latte soon.
I do not believe that. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." You can't hold that view and have honor. It is the view of a looter.
Poor Charlie had to look down his nose at Governor Palin or he would have been disinvited to every cocktail party in the Northeast corridor for the rest of his self-important life.
Every totalitarian government that I have studied has a common theme, "The ends justifies the means." I have had a small handful of democratic officials tell me this as well. In the US, we see this playing out by the leftists as noted in the excellent article above, threatening current officials with criminal punishment when their term is over, with smears, altering the facts and in some cases, murder.
Wow,
Great Read, Great Find, FRiend! That was so complete it now has it’s own folder in favs....amazingly, looks like it only left out the (now) truism that “liberalism is a mental disease”. Though it’s said in many other ways, the author wasn’t able to say it outright! Perhaps he has a Degree in journalism or sumpin’. Great find anyway, congrats.
Absolutely true. When a lib speaks about the failures of communism, socialism, or any of its other 'ism or system failures, they don't fault the belief system as being flawed or, more accurately, dangerously wrong. No, it's not the system, it's how it was implemented, with a lack of proper funding being the usual liberal culprit.
The reality is, liberalism is a forced system that in any form violates one or more of what some call the natural laws of this world. It's like making a 747 fly. You have to violate the law of gravity to get that monster off the ground and then spend a lot more energy/money to keep it flying. But, gravity won't be denied. Once the fuel/money is gone, the 747 is coming back to earth.
Liberalism is the same. You can only keep it going as long as you spend, spend, spend all the resources, but once those resources are gone, the system will crash. For example, socialized medicine is destined to fail because it takes something of great value, medical care, and makes it free. The check and balance of equitable exchange is removed, whereas capitalism is the opposite. It is in harmony with the natural laws and, as long as it is maintained, it will keep humming along and we all benefit.
This is because the Left is, at its core, utterly totalitarian....
AND HAS NO MORAL COMPASS TO GUIDE THEM. Everything goes.
There is nothing in their conscience that can stop them from the vilest attack.
But God in his infinite wisdom, balanced their arrogance and immoral behavior with great COWARDICE. Only as a pack can they spew their venom. Alone, they are so insecure. Everything scares them...GOD, FAITH, COURAGE, LOYALTY, LOVE OF COUNTRY, INDIVIDUALISM, INDEPENDENCE....
As an educator, one of the things that I have always found interesting is that most of my conservative collegues have always held close the concept of presenting ideas in the classroom in a non-biased fashion. Instead, teaching students how to think for themselves, gather information, be constructive skeptics and question, question, question.... respectfully though, even the educators themselves. This opens up healthy debate and discord which is needed for true learning and understanding to take place. As a conservative educator, I have found that by empowering students to think for themselves with a healthy sense of individualism and critical thinking skills, students are enabled to later become more successful in life, less dependent on the government and will likely become a conservative. This is why liberal educators must instill their ideology with threats of failure and ostrasization because the endstate is to create a “mindbot”, a minion of the state. I can tell you from many years of experience, I can walk into a classroom anywhere and determine the political affiliation of the educator. And as this article suggests, the media uses these same types of tactics as well.... case in point, if Obama loses it is because of the racist nature of a majority of Americans not because his ideology is flawed.
I agree what she did demonstrated that she was an unprofessional, sniveling, small minded weasle. But, am I the only one who thinks that cover actually had the opposite effect of what she was going for? I like the picture of McCain on the cover (not the pictures she adulterated from the same photo shoot). I think the pictures actually make him look vital, strong-willed, and determined. So he's got wrinkles. Actually, they're lines, and they show that McCain has weathered many storms and is ready for more. This photo shows McCain still has a lot of fight left in him. I, for one, like McCain's portrait on the cover.
Totally different. That only proves that he might be biased toward Hillary. He never would have done that if the debate didn't contain only RATS.
Great article!
Good article. This is true - the left in the 60s was always screaming, "the personal is the political," which seems to be a Communist mantra of some sort and forces every aspect of one's life to be measured against what the State - or the Great Leader - wants one to do.
Nobody thought a Stalin could ever arise here, but these media fools are setting the stage.
I agree. I thought the cover photo looked strong. Of course, liberal women are terrified of strong men, so the photographer probably thought it was a dreadful picture.
It was leftists who coined the phrase "the personal is political". Everything, to them, is the government's business. Everything.
could be.
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