For the Right, Bad News Day or Media Bias?

Washington Post ^ | Oct. 3, 2003 | Howard Kurtz

[polyiguana]

The Los Angeles Times dropped an October surprise on Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday, running detailed interviews with six women who say the actor groped them during the last 30 years.

The New York Daily News and National Enquirer threw Rush Limbaugh for a loss with reports that he is under investigation for buying illegal painkillers, hours after Limbaugh quit as a football commentator because of racially charged comments.

And major news organizations pounded the Bush administration for a fifth day for outing a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak.

Is there a unifying thread here? "The conservatives go bonkers because it confirms everything they always believed about the press -- that it's tilted to the left and one reason they get up in the morning is to destroy major conservative figures," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. "But the public says, 'There they go again,' scandal after scandal, trying to sell newspapers."

The fact that conservatives or Republicans are on the receiving end of media-driven accusations in Washington, Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Fla., may be mere coincidence. But the reaction has been predictably partisan, with conservatives on the defensive and liberals embracing the kind of headlines they denounce when one of their number is under fire.

"The press has always been in scandal mode," said Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein press center at Harvard University. "If you've got major public figures doing something scandalous, that's a great story. That is meat and potatoes for journalism and always has been."

[Timesink]

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[Support Free Republic]

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[Timesink]

"The press has always been in scandal mode," said Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein press center at Harvard University.

Who is the employer and funding source for the esteemed, unbiased journalist Al Franken.

[per loin]

As the first poll since the Arnie smear and his apology shows, the smear failed. His numbers are up again.

[nopardons]

Oh, they GET IT, they just don't want us to know they do.

[Timesink]

Oh, they GET IT, they just don't want us to know they do.

Yup. On second thought, you're absolutely right.

[Timesink]

As the first poll since the Arnie smear and his apology shows, the smear failed. His numbers are up again.

And thousands of LA Times subscribers cancelled their subscriptions yesterday.

[swilhelm73]

A few points here...

1) The AS grope story was held by the LA Times to have the maximum possible effect. The story has been floating for rather a long time, and the chances that they finished the story just days before the election are beyond credibility.

The story itself is, obviously, newsworthy. The fact that they used their paper as one big Grey Davis attack ad is disgusting. The LA Times might as well relabel itself "The Official Mouth Piece of the Democrat Party of California".

2) Limbaugh was complaining about racialism in the press...so the press calls him a racist and leaves it at that. No bias there...nope.

3) Wilson is an admittted liar with an admitted partisan ax to grind and so far no proof of any sort...rather like his investigation in Niger.

So, when Novak comes out with an article questioning how an unqualified diplomat gets chosen for an investigative role by his wife the press ignores the question at hand and immediately claims this was a White House smear job to get at his wife...even though a little thought points that to be by far the least likely scenario.

The same press, incidientally, was rather unworried about previous intentional leaks of FBI and IRS files by the last administration.

[Nateman]

"But the public says, 'There they go again,' scandal after scandal,trying to sell newspapers."

Not this member of the public. What kind of coverage did the networks give to Impeachment, the only time you had one live in the television age?Almost nothing. During Watergate the coverage was wall to wall prempting planned programming. John Dean was a hero. Linda Tripp a backstabbing ugly bitch. That's what they screamed. Thanks to the NET not the Networks I now know Dean was the real culprit who commited serial perjury and Linda Tripp was heroic.

[nopardons]

I usually am...LOL

[Political Junkie Too]

Bad News Day or Media Bias?

That's the wrong question. The right question is:

Is this what we are to expect of the 2004 Presidential Election? Is this a foreshadowing of what's to come from the Democrats and the media for the coming election?

-PJ

[RonPaulLives]

"The press has always been in scandal mode," said Alex Jones

I thought, for a brief moment, this was a quote from that other Alex Jones .

[f.Christian]

our last shot to the whitehouse and it backfired ... boomerranged --- incoming ?

Osama // hussien lovers are doomed !

[OldFriend]

Doesn't the first sentence in the story say it ALL.

October surprise.....dirty tricks......democrats

Oh no, no bias at all.

[Tempest]

I think this is just a minor crescendo for the libs waiting to get warmed up for next November when they're going to get REALLY, REALLY, shrill.

So don't back down and don't give up! If it's a fight these jackasses want, it's a fight they'll get!

[dwills]

cogent summary of the news of the day but, like pro-bush colin quinn in his nightly show 'tough crowd', i gotta wonder why bush's surrogates aren't making these cases

[swilhelm73]

Well, I'd generally chalk it up to lack of a backbone. Of course, not being able to use media outlets like the LA Times as a mouthpiece does make dealing with this kind of thing more difficult.

The Democrats may not hold the legislature, the presidency, or the respect of the American people, but they do own the media and the robed legislators in the judicary, and sadly that may well be more important.

[jazzlite]

And, Rush's numbers will go way up, too. Just wait and see. It is his opportunity to speak to those who hate him as well as a reinvigoration for those who love him for both kinds will be listening today.

[dwills]

we have plenty of media opportunities--even fox, scarborough and the pro-administration types that the leftwing outlets bring on for counterpoint could do a much better job with these stories than they have been

i predict a cascading erosion of support for bush if folks continue to assume that all votes he needs are well-informed by talk radio and the internet that there are other perspectives on these stories

sadly, about 20 percent of bush's votes will depend upon how cool jay leno makes him seem