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Posted on 01/21/2003 12:38:37 PM PST by conservativecorner
Liberal Media Bias Denial, example one. Lesley Stahl stumped by Cal Thomas. On FNC's After Hours with Cal Thomas on Saturday night, CBS News veteran Lesley Stahl, now with 60 Minutes, claimed that “today you have broadcast journalists who are avowedly conservative” and that the voices being heard on the networks “are far more likely to be on the right and avowedly so.” But when Thomas wondered if she could “name a conservative journalist at CBS News?”, Stahl could not.
Stahl insisted that CBS reporters steadfastly “cleanse our stories” of any opinion.
During the taped interview featured on the January 18 edition of Thomas's 11pm EST Saturday FNC show, Thomas tried to get beyond the argument over whether there is liberal bias and get Stahl to address why the networks don't accommodate the views of the many they dissuade from watching because they do see a bias. MRC analyst Patrick Gregory transcribed the exchange.
Thomas: “I want to ask you a question, and I don’t want to debate the issue; I want to get to a central point here. Many conservatives and religious people in this country feel that much of the media, especially the broadcast media, is biased or at least insensitive to their points of view. Now whenever this issue comes up with a major subject of some kind, you see journalists appear and say 'What me biased? We’re not biased.’ But the point I want to make is that there is an economic issue here. If millions of people feel this way, and give their allegiance to certain networks and newspapers that at least respect their viewpoints, isn’t it incumbent upon the broadcast journalists to at least take those concerns seriously and to address them in a way that will bring in a larger audience?”
Stahl: “Well, I’m going to do what a lot of people used to do to me on Face the Nation, that drove me nuts. [laughing] Drove me nuts.”
Thomas: “You’re going to answer another question I didn’t ask.”
Stahl reacted with the journalistic attitude Thomas had just caricatured: “I’m going to attack the premise of the question, because I think today you have broadcast journalists who are avowedly conservative, very much so on your own network here at Fox and many other places. And in fact I gave a talk the other night and was asked how come all the other broadcast [holds up fingers to mimic quote marks] 'media’ are so 'right-wing?’ And where are the left-wing voices, if you wanna talk about the media. So I’m going to attack your premise and say that I think the voices that are being heard in broadcast media today, are far more -- the ones who are being heard, are far more likely to be on the right and avowedly so, and therefore, more -- almost stridently so, than what you’re talking about.”
Thomas pounced: “Can you name a conservative journalist at CBS News?”
Stahl was flummoxed and denied that anyone at CBS is biased in any way: “Well I don’t know of anybody’s political bias at CBS News. I really think we try very hard to get any opinion that we have out of our stories. And most of our stories are balanced, and there are standards that say they need to be balanced. So if you have one side, you try to get the other side. And I’m not saying we don’t have opinions, but I’m saying we try to cleanse our stories of them.”
I think they need a new brand of soap
.
And where is Stahl speaking that she's asked “how come all the other broadcast 'media’ are so 'right-wing?'” The CBS News cafeteria? Then again, if the questioner referred to “all the other broadcast media,” then even the questioner realized what Stahl is in denial about -- that CBS News is biased in a non-right wing direction.
That statement is true, it is what and whose's opinion they cleanse.
Oh lessie, what about Mr. Blather?
"Cleanse," as in "brainwash".
You've got to understand that those on the left feel "above" the rest of us, theirs is a crusade to "educate" the masses to an enlightened point of view. To admit to bias would be for them, tantamount to admitting they are WRONG.
IT'S SIMPLY NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!
whoops, that's what people always ask me.
She may have something there, because more and more people are refusing to listen to the BS on the mainstream networks...
That's why a recent survey concluded that something like 80% of broadcast media vote Democrat.
I have heard other leftist media types go so far as to say that there is not a "left" in America. They are trying to make us think that leftist thought and socialism are mainstream America. Sometimes I believe they are very nearly right.
A better question might be "Who decides what stories do NOT go on the air and what are the criteria?"
All media are more biased in what they don't report than what they do, although there are plenty of daily examples of spin in the way stories are weighted, what's mentioned first, the focus of the lead, etc.
An example cited by Bernard Goldberg, author of "Bias" on today's Fox & Friends seems appropriate. Using the current "peace" demonstrations as an example he mentioned that the mainstream media deliberately steer clear of showing images of the Left Wing kooks that come out in force, keeping the cameras trained on the more serious folks.
But if there were a similar demonstration by conservatives you could be sure any nutcases present would get up-front attention on newscasts. Just think of any network's reporting of NRA news. Balanced? My patootie!
As ususal, liberals think they can have it both ways. Their house of cards (blatant hypocrisy)is about to collapse, and it's going to be fun watching.
Of all occupations, Goldberg noted, journalists claim that they alone are capable of not having their opinions cloud their judgements. He concluded that through their choices of stories they cover and those they ignore, reporters make their bias felt.
But they know... they know.
Cowards and pissants!
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