Marvin Kalb, A Real Brick (On PBS Forum Refuting Goldberg's "Bias")

Online NewsHour Forum/ withteeth blog ^ | 02/02 | PBS Forum

[withteeth]

P.B.S 's internet forum has a thread entitled "Do members of the news media report with a liberal bias?"

Actually, it is not so much a forum discussion as a place where concerned viewers can be deprogrammed and rest assured after Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News spent several weeks at #1 on the NYTimes Best Seller list. The book's author, Bernard Goldberg, was asked to participate in the discussion but apparently decided not to.

Check out the disclaimer: "Editor's note: Bias author Bernard Goldberg, through his staff, had agreed to participate in this forum in January, but, as of now, has not responded to the questions the Online NewsHour sent him."

But the show must go on so Marvin Kalb is going it alone!

Here is a sample of what PBS considers a 'forum' :

"Liz Robinson of Boulder, Colorado asks:

How could one suggest liberal bias with a straight face? What corporate media is owned by a liberal company? The myth of liberal media was invented by the radical rigid right.

Marvin Kalb responds:

Not quite the "radical rigid right." I'd say it all goes back to Spiro Agnew's first assaults on the networks in November 1969, when the Nixon administration was trying to stifle anti-Vietnam criticism -- and succeeded. Since then the notion that the media is left-leaning has gained prominence. People now accept that idea as fact. Too bad. "

Marvin, that's helpful for you to tell Liz that she shouldn't go so far as to use three 'R's in a row. She needs to know that conservatives are either "extreme" "staunch", or "hard" , and that one adjective is enough in a sentence.

Wouldn't it be timely, though, for you to re-assert here that journalists are independent and honest ? You feel the press is dishonored when there is a claim of liberal bias, but you don't seem to mind the accusation that reporters tailor their stories to suit their 'corporate' bosses.

I believe journalists are independent and honest too, but that doesn't mean they are intelligent, fully informed or that their reporting is free of bias. The issue Goldberg raises is whether main-stream reporters write news-stories which presume too much agreement between writer and reader about what is established 'conventional wisdom'.

For instance, it is not established that Pro-Life activists are Puritanical meddlers in people's personal lives. It is not established that a minority of homosexuals is equivelent to an ethnic minority. Despite conventional media wisdom, people do not accept the premise that homosexuals, racial minorities , and women should be regarded as similiarly oppressed.

Goldberg's main point is that the main-stream press does not believe they are biased: rather, they believe they are educated. Many people think they are mis-educated. Some people think that everything NPR knows is wrong.

Why, Martin, are you not insulted when the left accuses reporters of being swayed by their corporate owners? You seem to swallow that pill very easily, but you choke when Goldberg gently points out that most of our journalism school graduates were never aquainted with traditional conservative thought and philosophy.

Myself, I credit the internet for creating this brouhaha. And this crazy 24 hour news cycle just makes people ...crazy, you know.

Mr. Kalb, if the Nixon administration succeeded in stifling anti-war criticism, how again did this lead to a notion that the press slants to the left?

Next question:"Joel Riddle of Portland, Oregon asks:

What about Fox News Channel on cable, which is openly far right?

Marvin Kalb responds:

Yes, FOX is proudly conservative. And so much else in today's "media" tilts to the right. The op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal, almost every talk show on radio, from Rush to others, Weekly Standard, etc.

So when one speaks of the media as liberal, one is doing the media a disservice. For the most part, the major newspapers and networks report the news fairly straight. Then if one wants opinion, one can also get it just about anywhere. "

I see Marvin's point. It's just silly to say the media is leftist when we have Rush Limbaugh. You can't talk about the media in such broad terms, it doesn't make sense does it? Stop blaming the media. Heck, your telephone is media and you get calls from your redneck uncle sometimes. (I'm helping Marvin here. People, we've got to stop making accusations about the lying media!)

Of course, the book in question is about CBS. The argument is about the standard ABCNBCCBSPBS 'media', isn't it?

How does Marvin conclude that Fox is 'proudly' conservative? I suppose because they advertise themselves as "Fair And Balanced". How does he spot bias where there are professional journalists trying their best to report the facts?

If it's so obvious to the left that Fox is conservative, maybe they can try to imagine how we percieve the dominant, prestige media (CBS with it's daily global warming scares) as liberal.

[withteeth]

Click on the URL and have a fun read. Kalb almost seems sloshed. His answers are lazy and absurd. I will never forget how he and the Leher NewsHour's Terrence Smith ganged up on Goldberg and tried to give him some therapy on live TV.
Some 'forum'! As PBS calls it.

[stands2reason]

Bias Bump

[Mensch]

Great post and Kalb is a freaking retard bump

[withteeth]

Thanks. I don't get along with the Kalb brothers. vanity bump

[Thebaddog]

Stifled Viet Nam dissent? Is that revisionism or just stoopidism, or was that dope even awake for the sixties?

[katana]

There's an obvious misspelling in the title of this post. You need to look under the letter "P", not "B", for an apt description of Mr. Kalb.

[WaterDragon]

Very interesting, withteeth. And thanks for the link to your blog. Kalb is a horse's a$$.

You'll enjoy this Review of Bias

And its commentary on Kalb! LOL!

[poet]

The leftists have been exposed and they cannot stand it. Methinks they doth protest too much (apologies to WS)

[withteeth]

I know what you mean. But I was thinking "thick as a brick" when I typed that.

[E.G.C.]

Marvin kalb is nothing but an intellectully lazy mental midegt. That's all I have to say.

[jos65]

What a boost for Goldberg's Book.

International plugging.

[withteeth]

That is a great review, thanks. Not only about the Kalbs but Terrance Smith too. I'm going to try to find the transcript of the NewsHour show where they ganged up on the hapless Goldberg. It was a tag-team job toward the end. Here is the link to my modest weblog. Started it two weeks ago to alarm my friends. It's sort of like Karaoke but now and then original.

[withteeth]

shameless self-promoting bump.

Bernie "dammit, admit I'm telling the truth" Goldberg wrote an article in Fridays' WSJournal. I don't have the link. It was in response to Andy Rooney's off-handed honesty re: Dan Rather's 'progressive' bias and progressive senilty.