Posted on 04/19/2003 3:40:30 PM PDT by HAL9000
John Burns' articles have been hostile to Saddam all along. People here on FR don't like it hear it, but the New York Times coverage of Iraq has been only slightly anti-war (not counting editorials, which IMHO should not count). Washington Post coverage has been almost equally balanced between articles we would like and articles we would dislike (sadly, not quite as balanced now that Michael Kelly is gone). Of course, one might object that a US newspaper should have some loyalty to its own country. Plus, isn't there something wrong with being neutral between the US/UK as opposed to Saddam's rapeocracy? But that is to say that a little bias in the right direction would be a good thing.
If you want to look for bias at the Times, check out their gay rights coverage. However, on most other issues, there is no comparison between US newspaper coverage and that in foreign countries, which except for a few obviously right of center papers often refused to publish much of anything hostile to Saddam. People who read papers in a country like Brazil have never heard that Saddam gassed his own people, except perhaps in an article reporting on a plausible sounding denial.
Compared to the universities, America's liberal newspapers are tremendously committed to including viewpoints with which the majority (within that institution's leadership disagrees. (This is a generalization which has exceptions--I was in San Francisco last year and found the Chronicle to be amazingly and consistently anti-Israel.) Knowing that structural reasons make it likely that both the press and the universities will continue to be dominated by liberals, we should be pushing for the same kind of committment to diverse viewpoints found in the New York Times (and even more found in the Washington Post) is also reflected, for example, uptown at Columbia.
There is a tendency here to see a article we dislike, say something by Bob Woodward or Richard Cohen or Paul Krugman, and act like they are the entirety of their papers. They are not. Maybe I'm damning with faint praise, but I have been reading a lot of the foreign and US press on the Internet since 9/11, and am proud to say that ours is the world's best. Conservatives shouldn't be complaining ALL the time or people will stop listening.
oh...I thought this article had something to do with Mister Bill, the Shrew, and Janet Waco.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.