Posted on 03/15/2009 10:03:55 AM PDT by Zakeet
Pseudo-conservative Kathleen Parker’s ongoing method of getting her columns published in the Washington Post – bashing conservatives – took another sleazy turn on Sunday, with Parker asserting in the Post that conservatives who accuse the media of a liberal bias are "non-journalists" who stoking "ignorance," like Rush Limbaugh (not to mention groups like the Media Research Center.)
The biggest challenge facing America's struggling newspaper industry may not be the high cost of newsprint or lost ad revenue, but ignorance stoked by drive-by punditry.Yes, Dittoheads, you heard it right.
Drive-by pundits, to spin off of Rush Limbaugh's "drive-by media," are non-journalists who have been demonizing the media for the past 20 years or so and who blame the current news crisis on bias.
That would seem to be a direct slap at MRC, who could be accused by a liberal of "demonizing the media for the past 20 years or so" (founded in 1987). Could there be a better way for Parker to bow and scrape before her syndicators at the Washington Post Company than to decry that American newspapers are the lifeblood of democracy, and they’re being unfairly maligned by ignorant and unprofessional hooligans?
Frankly, the idea that "drive-by pundits" who decry liberal bias are "non-journalists" is simply not true in many cases. Start with Bernard Goldberg, a long-time veteran of CBS. (I’m not a "non-journalist." I’m a journalist who writes about journalism. Just because the Washington Post wouldn’t hire me doesn’t mean I’m not a journalist.)
Then, there’s simply the flawed logic that a "non-journalist" can’t criticize the journalist. If a plumber came into your home to a fix a leak and instead flooded the place, could the plumber argue "non-plumbers" have too much "ignorance" to complain?
She makes a lame feint to the idea that "there is some room for media criticism" and yes, some newspapers are liberal, but the charges of conservative media critics are comical:
Constant criticism of the "elite media" is comical to most reporters, whose paychecks wouldn't cover Limbaugh's annual dry cleaning bill. The truly elite media are the people most Americans have never heard of -- the daily-grind reporters who turn out for city council and school board meetings. Or the investigative teams who chase leads for months to expose abuse or corruption.These are the champions of the industry, not the food-fighters on TV or the grenade throwers on radio. Or the bloggers (with a few exceptions), who may be excellent critics and fact-checkers, but who rely on newspapers to provide their material.
As others have noted, the Internet can't quickly enough fill the void created by lost newspapers. In time, some markets simply won't have a town crier -- and then who will go to all those meetings where news is made? What will people not know? In such a vacuum, gossip rules the mob.
That is simply a cartoon, a mudslinging campaign commercial script that could be paid for by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Clearly, the average talk-radio host doesn't make Limbaugh money, just like the average newspaper reporter doesn't make Katie Couric money. You don't dismiss the overwhelming evidence of liberal media bias by trying to distract people by talking salaries, that somehow, newspaper reporters are heroes because they helped install Obama while they made a five-figure salary.
The column is titled "Frayed Thread in a Free Society." Parker’s not a conservative. Because a conservative would argue the opposite: that liberal newspapers are a threat to a free society, not conservative media critics. Liberal newspapers are the ones who wanted to make America safe for terrorist suspects. Liberal newspapers are the ones whose coverage of Iraq screamed that they wanted America to fail. Liberal newspapers are fully behind turning America into just another European-style no-growth socialist republic.
If Parker wants to fly her liberal flag and claim that only the "ignorant" believe in consistent liberal bias, then why doesn't she actually address the evidence, instead of just throwing bombs?
Kathleen Parker should look in the mirror and see just who is the "drive-by pundit."
What passes for journalism in 99% or the papers and broadcast outlets today fails to meet even that miserable standard.
Freudian.
I thought newspapers were what you use to pack glass items when you move. I guess I never thought about reading one.
“She couldn’t recognize ‘bias’ if you tatooed it on her forehead and gave her a mirror.”
Well, I’d find it hard to recognize it in that case, too. Unless you tatooed it backwards.
thats a very old and very touched up photo of this Compost Suck up.
Hey, Kathleen, keep insulting us, the dumb conservatives.
Your bs is same as the Dixie Chick’s marketing plan. That is to insult and po between 40 to 50% of your potential customer base. Then whine when we will not buy your bs and say “Forgive us poor dumb sobs!”
Now I recognize her,...she b*** me at a truck stop in Maryland a few years ago! Couldn’t forget that mouth!
sounds like ms. parker is saying one has to be a journalist in order to comment on the state of journalism.
how quaint.
has she ever heard of the Constitution?
With apologies to Michael Corleone.
“I don’t want anything to happen to Kathleen while her mother is still alive.”
I just wish it were true. Actually it is Republicans who are most likely to read newspapers.Cities like Denver,San Fran, Boston and Seattle that do not have conservatives are the ones suffering. They have all of these high tech lib’s that buy on the net and get there new there accordingly often to. The young don’t buy papers. As long as people like us read papers they will continue to print their lies. When we stop reading them they will fold like a house for cards. Their very existence if based on getting people to read them who hate their guts. When will we learn.
Ignorant bitch. I an a lot of peiple I know still read our local newspapers and get a lot of news from the web. The newspapers that are dying are going down because they are so maliciously biased despite the fact that people now have a lot of electronic news sources to draw on. Very much of the news that appears on sites like this also appear in edited form in newspapers and a lot more never sees the light of day. With the combination of electronic media and print media it is easy to see who the butt boys for BO are. If you don’t have faith in the outlet you will stop coming to it.
LOL!
Ain’t the free market grand.
You put out a product that is trash, asails most of the traditions and institutions that I value, publish stories about professional victims as sob stories and
I have the right not to buy it.
Sorry lady , I don’t need your Bull.
@#%@#$%!!!
Is that supposed to be bad?
There is a reason Rush has a multi-million dollar contract and an audience that is growing by leaps and bounds, Kathleen. Listen and learn.
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