Posted on 12/02/2002 2:14:47 PM PST by 1bigdictator
NPR's Liasson & Williams Back Gore on Right-Wing Media Control
There’s “some truth” to Al Gore’s conspiracy theory about media outlets getting their marching orders from Republican Party Chairman Marc Racicot, Juan Williams argued on Fox News Sunday. Mara Liasson agreed, explaining that what Gore was simply “expressing is deep frustration on the part of Democrats who are now truly out of power in Washington and they don’t have the kind of editorial voice representing them in the media...they can’t get their events covered, they feel that they can’t get their message out.”
This from Williams and Liasson, an analyst and a reporter respectively for National Public Radio, the leading broadcast media voice of liberal aspirations.
After suggesting Gore’s theory rests on “the edge of looniness,” columnist Charles Krauthammer pointed out the obvious: “Liberals have had a monopoly for about 30 years and all of a sudden one or two opposition forces arise -- Washington Times, Fox News, Weekly Standard -- and all of a sudden it’s a great conspiracy. This is absurd.”
Near the end of the panel segment on the December 1 Fox News Sunday, host Tony Snow read aloud some of what Gore told the New York Observer in an interview published earlier in the week.
Gore claimed: “Fox News Network, the Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh -- there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media.”
Plus: “Something will start at the Republican National Committee, inside the building, and it will explode the next day on the right-wing talk show network and on Fox News and in the newspapers which play this game, the Washington Times and others.”
(For Gore's interview with the New York Observer's Josh Benson: http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/frontpage1.asp)
Snow went first to NPR White House reporter Mara Liasson and she tried to justify Gore’s latest lashing out: “I think that what Al Gore is expressing is deep frustration on the part of Democrats who are now truly out of power in Washington and they don’t have the kind of editorial voice representing them in the media. There’s no doubt that the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Times or the New York Post or the commentary on Fox, is conservative and I think that they’re extremely frustrated, they can’t get their events covered, they feel that they can’t get their message out -- now having a message in the first place is another question -- but I think that’s a real kind of cry of frustration from Al Gore and other Democratic leaders have said the same thing.”
Charles Krauthammer countered: “A 'cry for help?’ I’m a psychiatrist, I don’t usually practice on camera, but this is the edge of looniness. This idea that there’s a vast conspiracy. It sits in a building, it emanates, it has these tentacles, is really at the edge. He could use a little help.”
Juan Williams, who until recently hosted a talk show for NPR, nonetheless agreed with Gore’s theory: “Well it seems to me that there’s some truth to it. It seems to me that there’s some truth to the idea, I know conservatives say 'oh you know look at the New York Times is this liberal organ especially under Howell Raines the new editor, they’re going after the Masters and all the rest,’ but you know what, it seems to me that there is more of a direct and sort of out there statement coming from Rush Limbaugh, and the Washington Times, and people who are willing to say look, we are outright proud to be conservative and here’s what we stand for and we don’t think there’s any need to make an apology.”
Krauthammer snickered: “Liberals have had a monopoly for about 30 years and all of a sudden one or two opposition forces arise -- Washington Times, Fox News, Weekly Standard -- and all of a sudden it’s a great conspiracy. This is absurd.”
But Liasson stood by Gore’s basic complaint about a media biased to the right: “I don’t think it’s a great conspiracy, but the fact is I think Juan is right. There are more voices of opinion in terms of talk radio shows, editorial pages and they’re not liberal.”
Fred Barnes got in the last word as time ran out: “They’re such a minority though. I’d like to think that conservatives had a bigger voice, but they’re such a small minority compared to this vast media we have out there, mostly liberal, mostly friendly to liberals and the Democratic Party, that Al Gore is just wrong.”
Bottom line: How many liberals would trade the liberal slant of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News and PBS, as well as the New York Times and Washington Post, for one cable news network, a Washington, DC newspaper out-sold seven-to-one in its home market and one national radio personality?
(Excerpt) Read more at mrc.org ...
The problem with the liberal media is THEY DEFINE "LIBERAL" AS MODERATE - which means you could never come to the conclusion that there is a liberal media. Donahue is a perfect example of it. When Donahue interviewed Andy Rooney, Rooney basically said "Come on Phil, you don't think there is a liberal bias in the media?" and Phil's reply had something to do with pro-abortion being a moderate stance...blah, blah, blah. The battle continues.
Wait till they find out how many of those they've previously deemed *politically astute* have actually been moles undermining their efforts all along. Sure, they might have suspected a dozen or two, but they'd never guess that there are actually hundreds working against them from within.
[There, that oughta get them going. Now watch for the purges to begin....]
-archy-/-
The mainstream media would rather address a bewildered herd than an informed and contemplative public.
Juan Williams. Just another liberal talk show host who couldn't make it. Follows in the long line - Jim Hightower, Mario Cuomo, et al.
Juan Williams. Just another liberal talk show host who couldn't make it. Follows in the long line - Jim Hightower, Mario Cuomo, et al.
Let's consider the facts:
The Libs don't get the help of taxpayer funded spindoctors in the White House to write their stories and talking points anymore.
Instead of wishy-washy congress people, who are too PC to stand up for a principle with facts, the networks have been putting more articulate and resolute speakers and columist up who wipe out the liberal spin with reason.
The model for this success was a little watched but loyally followed and long-running/privately underwritten, show called Firing Line on PBS, with the unslayable Conservative William F. Buckley Jr.
The commercial success of this equation is what scares the s--t out of them - If this continues, they are sunk forever.
D'ya mean there's some other kind?
That's really hilarious! Especially coming from NPR, one of the most left-wing outlets in America. After the recent elections, all they did for days was bitch and moan about how they lost, what they did wrong, etc etc.
They must be really desperate to try this tactic.
BTW - My Jayhawks need some help, they had an awful NIT tournament.
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