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."

[Tamzee]

They just don't see anything wrong with abusing their power in the media for their political ends... if they recognize the major ethical disconnect, they don't care because there are no consequences to MAKE them care and they are scummy enough not to feel personal shame.

[GOPJ]

No, the press is NOT always in scandal mode. Tell me what liberal would make the front page of any paper if he was found abusing pain medication? If Kennedy had a problem with pain pills would it make the front page? Never. And this lying member of the press knows it. When Clinton was accused of rape it wasn't as big as Rush thinking a black quarterback got a media break because he was black. Two standards. A self-serving big fat pass for themselves, and a no pass "go directly to jail card" for conservatives.

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

[GOPJ]

No, the press is NOT always in scandal mode. Tell me what liberal would make the front page of any paper if he was found abusing pain medication? If Kennedy had a problem with pain pills would it make the front page? Never. And this lying member of the press knows it. When Clinton was accused of rape it wasn't as big as Rush thinking a black quarterback got a media break because he was black. Two standards. A self-serving big fat pass for themselves, and a no pass "go directly to jail card" for conservatives.

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