Confronting liberal bias as it occurs (CNN Gets Zinged)

Media Research Center via E-Mail | December 26, 2001

[PJ-Comix]

Confronting liberal bias as it occurs. Last week when CNN's Aaron Brown set up an interview segment by tagging Shelby Steele as "a conservative," but simply describing Richard Cohen as "a columnist," Steele called him on it, forcing Brown to concede that Cohen is a liberal.

MRC analyst Ken Shepherd caught the incident which occurred on the December 18 NewsNight. Brown set up the segment on the 10pm EST show: "There was that remarkable meeting a few weeks back in the prison in Mazar-e Sharif of two young men -- and to some, two different cultures. Two different American cultures. CIA officer Mike Spann, a former Marine, a child of small-town Alabama, whose family said he always wanted to serve his country. And in that prison, before he was killed, he met John Walker, a 20-year-old from Marin County, California, fighting with the Taliban, whose parents sent him to an alternative school, supported his conversion to Islam, and allowed him to travel across the world to pursue his new religion. Some conservatives jumped on Walker, saying he is a product of cultural liberalism -- the California kind -- helping to turn an impressionable kid against his own country.

"Joining us from Salinas, California, one of those conservatives, Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution. Mr. Steele wrote a provocative article the other day in the Wall Street Journal -- a column in the Journal. And here in New York, a columnist who thinks Mr. Steele is making an awfully broad generalization: Richard Cohen of the Washington Post. It's nice to have both of you here. Mr. Steele."

Steele protested: "First of all, let me interrupt you just a minute."

Brown: "Okay."

Steele queried: "Is Richard Cohen a liberal?"

Brown: "Yeah, Richard Cohen's a liberal. I think he would say that, wouldn't he?"

Steele: "Just wanted to make sure we were both-"

Cohen reluctantly admitted: "On this issue."

Brown: "On this issue. Okay. Everyone is now branded, I guess." Steele reasonably suggested: "Okay, great. If I'm going to be, everybody's going to be."

Brown proceeded to recall an earlier assessment by a conservative which many reporters did not appreciate: "Let me try and get, let me try and get a little control back. A few years back, Newt Gingrich blamed liberalism for Susan Smith's decision to kill her own children in South Carolina. And I think when some people hear the argument you're making they're thinking about that and that seemed a bit of a stretch then. Are they, are these different issues or is this the same thing?"

Steele has provided an excellent model for the new year for how conservative guests on TV shows can correct liberal bias on the fly. -- Brent Baker, trapped with unlabeled liberals in Taxachusetts

[PJ-Comix]

I'm glad to see that Shelby Steele called the CNN interviewer to account for the labeling of him as a "conservative" while not giving a political label to Cohen who is a liberal. This is a common tactic on most media news---Label a conservative as such but decline to label a liberal as a liberal. What this does is instill in the viewer's (or reader's) mind that the conservative has a political agenda while the unlabeled liberal is an unbiased source without a poltical agenda. I only hope that more conservatives do as Shelby Steele has done and call any interviewers to account on this poltical labeling technique.

This report came to me via e-Mail but it will soon appear on the MRC.ORG website.

[backhoe]

The unspoken biases of "objective reporters" drives me nuts. Another thing I detest is how so few of them will admit to their political positions, despite blatant evidence that nearly all lean left.

Here are sources for Media bias:

-Media Research-free e-letter--

-Reed Irvine's Accuracy in Media--

-the Ben Franklin Foundation--

-Citizen's Coalition for Responsible Media--

[PJ-Comix]

The unspoken biases of "objective reporters" drives me nuts. Another thing I detest is how so few of them will admit to their political positions, despite blatant evidence that nearly all lean left.

As I stated before I am more than willing to take the Katie Couric Challenge. Mute the sound on the TV set, blot out the identity of the interviewee, and I can determine with 100% accuracy whether the guest is a liberal or a conservative simply by looking at the expression on Katie's face. Here is the formula:

Liberal Guest=Looks of adulation beaming from Katie's adoring eyes.

Conservative Guest=Angry glares emanating from Katie's scowling face.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Anamensis]

"Okay, great. If I'm going to be (branded), everybody's going to be."

Good for him! This is exactly the kind of sneakiness we have to root out and expose. In one of my grad school courses, we had to read some cultural anthropologists bullsh** drivel about how science is merely another worldview, a Western construct. The article read, "whereas the scientist claims to explain the world as it 'really' is, the anthropologist studies the various ways in which..." and I made sure to point out to the prof the bias of this style. The scientist "claims" but the anthropologist "studies." And of course, the scare quotes around "really." (After all, there IS no objective reality, see? Although when you use that against them to say that their collectivist world-view is, then, no better than a capitalist one, they get very prune-faced.)

[randog]

That goes a long way towards explaining why my cousin got her degree in anthropology at UC Berkeley and promptly went to work at a pet store. As we say in the engineering field, "Reality wins out in the end".

[bert]

CCRM is a Free Republic Network affiliate working to reduce media bias.

For a comprehensive overview of Freeper thoughts on Liberal Media bias, check out our website by clicking on graphic, or HERE: We call it Fairpress.org.

This thread is evidence that liberal bias is still with us. Come join our in the battle against the Liberal Media.

[randita]

What this does is instill in the viewer's (or reader's) mind that the conservative has a political agenda while the unlabeled liberal is an unbiased source without a poltical agenda.

Exactly. And it also leads an uninformed viewer to conclude that CNN actually gives conservatives lots of airtime, thus blunting the charges that CNN is biased to the left.

At least Shelby Steele is a true conservative. What fries me is when they have people like Tucker Carlson or Billy Kristol on and paint them as extreme right-wingers. They are moderates at best.

[PGalt]

Good post & points. The subtleties of the anti-freedom forces have to be exposed at the most fundamental levels...LANGUAGE...more specifically the LIE. Otherwise freedom lovers are left to fighting them at a later date when the stakes are much higher...witness BILL CLINTON or USAMA BIN LADEN or any other CRIMINAL throughout history. The CRIMINALS that hijacked the plane that TODD BEEMER was on...were lying to the passengers about their true intent. CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR BEGINS WITH CRIMINAL THINKING. It begins with a LIE. When OUR press ENABLE or become part of the CRIMINAL element through the subtlety exposed by Shelby Steele, they become co-conspirators.

[prambo]

Katie Couric is human offal. Her mere presence is an insult to anyone with more than one functioning neuron.

prambo

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[Anamensis]

Excellent! Here's a slogan:

VOTE with your REMOTE! Fox Rocks!

[bassmaner]

The unmitigated bias of mainstream media "news" is galling, but, unfortunately, the Left has set the paradigm and it is more subtle because it affects even the way we on the Right talk and think. Perhaps a slight revision of your comment is in order to illustrate this unfortunate fact:

I'm glad to see that Shelby Steele called the CNN interviewer to account for the labeling of him as a "conservative" while not giving a political label to Cohen who is a liberal leftist. This is a common tactic on most media news---Label a conservative as such but decline to label a liberal leftist as a liberal leftist. What this does is instill in the viewer's (or reader's) mind that the conservative has a political agenda while the unlabeled liberal leftist is an unbiased source without a poltical agenda. I only hope that more conservatives do as Shelby Steele has done and call any interviewers to account on this poltical labeling technique.

My point is that the Left has hijacked the term "liberal" to describe their totally un-liberal socialist agenda. America was founded as a "liberal" country in the true sense of the word. Madison, Jefferson, et al. were "liberals".

Let's make a point to avoid using the term "liberal", until we have restored its traditional meaning of individual freedom and liberty: the precepts upon which this country was founded and what made it great.

[tubebender]

Great Post. A couple more of confrontations like this and it may catch on. Is Shelby Steele the Historian or do I have him confused with some one else ?

[sinclair]

You're thinking of Shelby Foote. He is the noted historian.

[Marauder]

VOTE with your REMOTE!

Absolutely. I didn't see this episode because I don't watch CNN, NBC, ABC, or CBS, except for local news broadcasts at 6:00 and 10:00.

For national news, it's Fox all the way ... but for pure fiction, I'll take the westerns channel, not liberal-biased media.

[In mourning for six years]

I couldn't agree more with your leftist/liberal equation. There is nothing liberal about any of these people. Did anyone happen to catch CNN Headline News last night? They had this headline: "BARS and Nobles: Bush daughters receive books for Christmas." My, what clever little elves must write headlines for the network of trash (and just one more example why CNN and CNN Headline News never, NEVER make it to my tv at home.

[silmaril]

This isn't Aaron Brown's first transgression. A couple of months ago, he made a reference to "crackers" on a late-night CNN show. The statement was in reference to different types of terrorists -- Muslims versus "crackers" with bombs (a la McVeigh). I was surprised to hear him say this and, eager to hoist CNN on its PC petard, I sought out the section of its websites where the transcripts are posted. After several days, no transcript of this show was posted. I e-mailed CNN and got a canned reply; I e-mailed back and got no reply. The transcript is still not posted, and probably never will be.

The point is that Aaron Brown is, at heart, just another elite white leftist -- and from time to time, it slips out.

[L.N. Smithee]

dLabel a conservative as such but decline to label a liberal as a liberal. What this does is instill in the viewer's (or reader's) mind that the conservative has a political agenda while the unlabeled liberal is an unbiased source without a poltical agenda. I only hope that more conservatives do as Shelby Steele has done and call any interviewers to account on this poltical labeling technique.

This is one of the first things that Bernard Goldberg addresses in "Bias."

Aaron Brown has risen very quickly for no discernible reason. I remember not too long ago he was one of the anchors on ABC World News Now, the overnight headline show that fills in the gap between Politically Incorrect and Good Morning America. It's a loose, informal show, the anchors jibe with each other, and they have their own goofy theme song that makes fun of the corporate stiffs. I didn't know what a lefty he was until he started filling in for whoever would normally would fill in for whoever would normally fill in for Ted Koppel, and he would pull stuff like he almost did with Steele.

[steve50]

We can't forget the term "conservative" has changed meaning in the last 30 years or so also. We used to stand for limited goverment and states rights.