Posted on 04/10/2010 6:26:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
While many Americans believe the national press is biased toward the left, a more damning charge is now being debated: Are U.S. media outlets actually corrupt? Those who believe they are point to the cheerleading of Barack Obama's presidential campaign and to the recent reportage on the Tea Party movement.
As you may know, the Tea Party people have been branded in some media quarters as a bunch of racist, far-right loons. TV commentators on MSNBC and CNN have actually called the Tea Party folks dirty names on the air -- all in an attempt to diminish the growing influence of the movement.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the gutter. Regular Americans have apparently opted to decide for themselves about the Tea Party, and the polling is interesting. Despite all the rhetorical madness on TV, a new Gallup poll says 28 percent of Americans support the movement, 26 percent oppose it and 38 percent have not yet formed an opinion about support or opposition. Thus, there is a persuadable factor in play, and that is what the liberal media fear the most.
This time last year, there was no Tea Party. Now, it is perhaps the most vibrant political force in the country. If millions more Americans sign on, liberalism will take a huge hit. By the way, Gallup also reports that the Tea Party movement breaks down this way: 49 percent Republican, 43 percent Independent and 8 percent Democratic. The issue that binds the Tea Party folks together is fear of big government.
When the Founding Fathers granted the press privileges beyond those of everyday citizens, they did so with some trepidation. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, opposites in political thinking, both loathed the early press in America because it often operated irresponsibly; that is, it was not unusual for money to change hands in the production of a news story.
But Jefferson, Adams and their peers understood that the people needed information in order to make informed decisions at the voting booth. Therefore, the greater good was served by allowing a free press in the hope that the honest journalists would outnumber the dishonest ones.
Today, we have a problem in America. Entire news operations are devoting themselves not to reporting events honestly, but to promoting a certain ideology or party. The Fox News Channel, where I work, has been accused of this. But a study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that FNC's coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign was tough on both candidates, while most other news networks blatantly favored Obama.
Now we have a systematic media campaign to demean the Tea Party movement. At first, organizations like The New York Times ignored the movement. Then they mocked it. Neither worked. As the rallies grew larger, the liberal press got meaner. There was little reporting being done -- it was all about bashing.
This isn't bias; it's corruption. News organizations are supposed to be watchdogs, not attack dogs. The Tea Party should be scrutinized like every other political movement. But that's not what's going on here. A large part of the national media is out to destroy these folks. And that's flat-out wrong.
Is the Pop Catholic?
“Is the American Press Corrupt?”
Do strippers take off their clothes?
Does it get very warm in Death Valley?
Is moonshine high-octane liquor?
Are Democrats psychotic?
Is the current crop of “journalists” a group of goose-stepping, visceral, hateful, partisan leftists?
IMHO
“Its frightening.”
They we’re able to get a marxist muslim America-hating illegal alien into the White House.
It’s beyond scary. We’re at a point of no return. The Communists are unchecked by their sycophants in the press and as AlGORON said....’there’s no controlling legal authority’. The Commies know this and it’s full speed ahead.
Law?...What Law?
Political round-ups, death squads, and gulags just around the corner.
This is not one of those rare times. Fox is under concerted attack by the Left and O'Reilly's anti-MSM crusade is in full gear because his own (and his employer's) ox is being gored big time.
Any time the Bloviator feels something is bad for his assorted lucrative businesses he swings into action and becomes a bold, fresh piece of humanity.
He never can summon up the energy to go after Obama's jugular....nor can he ever find the strength to spit out the word "socialist" or "socialism" to describe the Obama regime.
(See my tag line)
Leni
this is an old reprint from DUH! mag.....
Obviously, this piece is some sort of spoof or something. Perhaps The Onion?
I just read the headline, but my first response is.......DUHHH!!!!!!!
Well, at least we’ve got no nouns thanks to our leftist friends....
To wit...
Egads, I’ve got to take a bodacious, smelly Obama.
And that lie is so big and stupid, it’s a “Dan Rather”.
I can’t stand BOR but he hits the nail on the head here.
The press is not corrupt, it is self serving. Leftists promote leftist causes. Their free press action might be bought but such is not illegal and thus not corrupt.
The cost of the behavior is killing the media. They are literally dying for the cause
Anderson Cooper gay????...WOW, if he gets a “live audience”, imagine how regular family viewers will react to the weirdo’s he’s liable to attract.
Yes
It's like the media is holding a gun to its own head, threatening to shoot if we don't buy the lie.
That's beyond corrupt. Needs a diagnosis and medication of some kind.
Talk about hypocricy! Geeze! Take a good look in the mirror.
75 percent of the problems this country faces would not exist except for the corrupt media
I agree. The founding fathers gave "the press" protection so that the press could be a control on a corrupt government. There was bias even in the begining, but there were enough alternative voices that it sort of balanced out.
As the number of competing newspapers declined and the remaining ones having a socialist bias, along with all three major television networks meant that only one point of view was being presented in a positive way.
Voters were not making informed decision, they were being influenced by the way the media presented any subject.
In my view they have won a Pyrric victory. They have lost the trust of their readers (and viewers) and it is not clear if the changes in our society they have encouraged will remain.
Thomas Wolfe said you can not go home again, and it is also true we will never be the nation we were a hundred years ago. My hope is we can get control over the federal government and put limits on it's power.
BOR missed the recent poll where more Americans support the political views of the Tea Parties than they do of Obama (48 - 44%?)
Also in Adams' and Jefferson's day, there were newspapers which supported each of them, so there was bias, but they both had bias against them and bias for them.
Now the major newspapers in every city are unified in their undisguised love affair with the left and with Obama.
O'Reilly knocks himself out to be "fair," so much so that he's sometimes stupid, but it looks like he's starting to get it here. He always says he's looking out for "the folks."
Well, Bill, the Tea Parties ARE "the folks."
To be precise, I think the MSM is totally in the tank for the social welfare state. Reading their articles and editorials, one is struck with and endless series of anecdotal stories about the nobility "losers in life's lottery", and an endless attempt to paint those who work and save as greedy and cruel.
Much of this is certainly driven by the educational backgrounds of journalists, themselves, but I think many of them would actually be surprised and insulted if one accused them of being in the tank for the Democrats. They just see the expansion of the welfare state as such a Holy Crusade that anyone who voices the slightest opposition to it is a heretic who must be burned at the stake. Thus a fascist like Obama slips right by them without any critical inquiry, because he said the right things about expanding public welfare and McCain and especially Palin dared to insult the Holy Mother Church of the Welfare State.
“The press is not corrupt, it is self serving.”
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I respectfully disagree. Many/most of these people, lie, hold back pertinent information, twist the truth..... get money from a political person for good coverage) I bet if you check where he gave most of the money you will find his allies. If that is not corruption (leading others to believe lies) I don’t know what is.
Well YEAH, They homogenized the news in order to push their agenda.
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