The Washington Times
"Inside Politics," by Greg Pierce (excerpt)
January 22, 2003

Bias? What bias?
CBS newswoman Lesley Stahl, interviewed by Cal Thomas on his Fox News Channel program "After Hours," not only scoffed at the concept of liberal bias at the broadcast networks, but said 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."

That's when Mr. Thomas pounced, the Media Research Center reports at www.mediaresearch.org. "Can you name a conservative journalist at CBS News?" he asked, a question that stumped Mrs. Stahl.

"Well, I don't know of anybody's political bias at CBS News," she said, appearing flummoxed....

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The Washington Times
"Inside Politics," by Greg Pierce (excerpt)
January 21, 2003

Media whitewash
"Though Saturday's anti-war with Iraq 'peace' march in Washington, D.C., was organized by a far-left group, had a bunch of zany leftist outfits as sponsors, featured some far-out rhetoric from the stage which belied the notion that the organizers simply want a peaceful solution, and ended with a march to the Washington Navy Yard to demand access to U.S. 'weapons of mass destruction,' as if the U.S. and Iraqi possession of them is equivalent, major media outlets, both print and broadcast, ignored such realities which might have reduced empathy for the cause," the Media Research Center reports.

"Instead, the networks painted participants as sympathetically as possible...."

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The Rush Limbaugh Show
January 9, 2003 (excerpt)

"Well they found an accountant who had made large contributions to the Democratic National Committee and liberal Democratic congressman Jerrold Nadler. This is what we’re talking about. They go out and find a Bush-basher, he’s a Bush-basher first, folks, that’s the point. He’s a Bush-basher first, not an accountant first. They found a Bush-basher first, and then it helped that he’s accountant, and then they go get his quote. And then they don’t understand why people say they’re the liberal media. And you know I’ll bet this doesn’t even strike them. Because the liberal media is not a conspiracy, they don’t have a meeting everyday all of them get together so okay, how can we dominate the airwaves today. They just hang around with each other, they just know who each other are, and they just think they are the only ones who are right, they are the only ones who exist, everybody else that’s not them is not them is just sort of an aberration. And so they hang around with each other and go get their pals and the fact that this guy contributed to the Democratic National Committee and Jerry Nadler, so? Democratic National Committee is who ought to win, what’s wrong with that? It’s a plus. They way CBS looks at it, it’s a plus. And the fact that he gave to Jerrold Nadler, that’s a big plus, too. Because after all, didn’t Nadler get his stomach stapled, he’s on a diet, he’s improving himself, so that’s a good thing, too. So he’s contributed to the right people. What do you mean liberal bias?"

The Boston Globe 
Media Notes
"Watching the Watchdogs: A Review of 2002,"
by Mark Jurkowitz (excerpt)
January 8, 2003

If you're anything like me, you're a list junkie. I instantly gravitate to any compilation of "the 10 top-grossing movies," the "50 best athletes of the century," or the "five most admired people in the world."

In the media universe - often toiling below the radar screen - a corps of researchers exists, constantly dissecting and cataloging how news is delivered and consumed. What follows are some of what those researchers learned about the year that just ended. It's in list form, of course....

The top target of a conservative media watchdog in 2002. (Source: The rightist Media Research Center and its "Notable Quotable Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." The center's "Blame America First" award went to Walter Cronkite, the former CBS anchor, who on "Larry King Live" described the current global situation as "a revolution. . . . We are suffering from a revolution of the poor and have-nots against the rich and haves, and that's us."

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The Washington Times
"Inside Politics," by Greg Pierce (excerpt)
January 7, 2003

Mislabeling Edwards

"Time magazine and [Fox News Channel] both described Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a 'moderate,' though he earned the same liberal vote rating as Senators Barbara Boxer, Chris Dodd, Barbara Mikulski, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton," Brent Baker writes at the Media Research Center's Web site.

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National Review Online, January 7, 2003
The Corner (excerpt)
The Subtlety of Howell Raines, Tom Daschle & Co. [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Tim Graham at the Media Research Center sends me this from last night's Donahue:
Mario Cuomo: "You have Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh tells one side of the story. He exaggerates. He hyperbolizes. He is a master entertainer. There's no question about that. He's very bright. He's probably a very good fellow, too. He does not discuss the issues. He does not debate the issues. He doesn't want to give you a full view of the issues. He won't even entertain a debate. He doesn't want any kind of a debate. And he pleases a lot of people because he says what they want to hear. So does Bob Grant here in New York. So does the Murdoch papers, the New York Post. We don't have counterparts on the liberal side of the agenda. 
Donahue: "Why is that, Governor?" 
Cuomo: "Because we believe in subtlety. We believe in telling the whole truth. We don't want to exaggerate. Look, they write their message with crayons. We use fine-point quills."

National Review Online, January 6, 2003
The Corner (excerpt)
Helen Thomas Should Not Have a White House Press Pass, Con't [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A news analyst at the Media Research Center sends me this, from today's White House press briefing: 
Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers columnist: "[In your] earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the President deplored the taking of innocent lives. Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world? And I have a follow-up."
[Ari Fleischer: "Well, Helen, I referred specifically to a horrible terrorist attack in Tel Aviv that killed scores and wounded hundreds. And the President, as he said in a statement yesterday deplores in the strongest terms the taking of those lives and the wounding of those people: innocents in Israel."]
Thomas: "The follow-up is, why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?"
[Fleischer: "Helen, the question is how to protect Americans and our allies and friends."]
Thomas, interrupting: "They're not attacking. Have they laid a glove on you or on the United States, the Iraqs [sic] in eleven years?"
[Fleischer: "I guess you've forgotten about the Americans who were killed in the first Gulf War as a result of Saddam Hussein's aggression then."]
Thomas: "Is this your revenge? Eleven years of revenge?"
[Fleischer: "Now, Helen, I think you know very well that the President's position is that he wants to avert war and that the President has asked the United Nations to go into Iraq to help for the purpose of averting war."]
Thomas: "Would the President attack innocent Iraqi lives?"
[Fleischer: "The President wants to make certain that he can defend our country, defend our interests, defend the region, and make certain that American lives are not lost."]
Thomas: "Does he think they are a threat to us?"
[Fleischer: "There is no question that the President thinks that Iraq is a threat to the United States."]
Thomas: "The Iraqi people?"
[Fleischer: "The Iraqi people are represented by their government, if there was regime change-"]
Thomas: "So they will be vulnerable-"
[Fleischer: "Actually, the President has made it very clear that he has no dispute with the people of Iraq. That's why the American policy remains a policy of regime change. There's no question the people of Iraq-"]
Thomas: "That's a decision for them to make, isn't it? It's their country?"
[Fleischer: "Uh, Helen, if you think that the people of Iraq are in a position to dictate who their dictator is, I don't think that's been what history has shown. Ron [Fournier of AP]?"]
Thomas: "I think many countries don't have, people don't have the decision. Including us."

Chattanooga Times/Chattanooga Free Press
PERSPECTIVE 
"More proof of liberal media bias," By Steve Barrett 
January 5, 2003

The Media Research Center has released its 15th annual "awards" for bad reporting and liberal bias in the media. Here are a few of this year's "honorees":

* Charles Gibson won the General Phil "Cheap Shot" Donahue Award for hinting that President George W. Bush had specific knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks before they happened....

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The Washington Times
Inside Politics, by Greg Pierce (excerpt)
January 2, 2003
The winner is...

PBS television personality (and erstwhile LBJ aide) Bill Moyers has won first place in the Media Research Center's 15th annual awards for the Year's Worst Reporting.

Mr. Moyers' winning quote came from the Nov. 8 broadcast of his PBS show "Now," expressing his views on the 2002 midterm elections. The full quote is available and RealTime video is available at www.mrc.org, but here's an excerpt:

"The entire federal government — the Congress, the executive, the courts — is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate. That agenda includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to surrender control over their own lives. It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich.
"Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you like the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what's coming. And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture.
"Republicans outraised Democrats by $184 million and they came up with the big prize: monopoly control of the American government and the power of the state to turn their radical ideology into the law of the land."

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National Review Online
"The Professionals; Press Bias is as Alive as Ever," by Kathryn Jean Lopez (excerpt) 
January 2, 2003

Media bias is so prevalent that save for a few brave souls, most conservatives are weary of even pointing it out anymore in fear of sounding kneejerkingly predictable. But how do you get around winners like this?

(N.B. This is not from a Saturday Night Live skit.) Barbara Walters narrating a 20/20 interview with Fidel Castro:

For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth. The literacy rate is 96 percent.

Thanks, Ms. Walters. And Mussolini made the trains run on time, right?

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