Michael P. O'Connor

I’m surprized you didn’t post that link about a story going around about a “study” that most media is liberal. I personally think that you’re more bound to be conservative as you age and/or are wealthy. Considering all non-Internet/independant media is run by multi-billionnaires with agenda, the media is really controlled by more conservatives than liberals. However, news is a business (never forget that), so they show what people want to see. The so called liberal media really buried the Monica scandal and posted nothing but anti-war stories leading up to Iraq. They’re showing what people want to see, thats how they get paid. It’s the journalists (some of them anyway) that are more liberal. You can’t say that news is biased because it’s reported by people. You can’t be unbiased, you have a leaning on every single issue, you just need to find people that are close to the center, like most Americans. I do see an interesting trend that I hope will continue. More bad things are being reported by the media about our politicians (Watergate, Monica, Plame). Instead of sugar-coating and using “spin” (spin = lies, call a spade a spade), I’d rather hear all the bad things about politicians, that way if I’m fine with that jerk, I’ll at least know about that jerk.

Apparently you never watched Fox News. How is “12 found alive” a liberal story? Wasn’t it a screw-up from the company wanting to cover their butts? Also, how do you explain liberal media during the clinton/monica thing? What about the anti-war protests for iraq (before the war)?

Ah, well, there are no filters, since everyone is biased, but at least real journalists try to seem to be in the center. Sure, there are some hot issues like iraq and abortion, etc, that make people act more one side or another, but thats life. However, people like rush limbaugh, al franken, and the various blogs are explicitly leaning to one side or the other and distort information. Journalists don’t try to do that as much as radio/tv people and especially blogs. Just look at your blog =] I had a list somewhere of all the “liberal media”, but I’ll try to find it later on.

I see what you’re saying, though the 12 miners screw-up was because a company released a statement and the media ran with it, they couldn’t really get the facts and don’t forget that there’s a lot of pressure not only to report the news, but the report sensational news. As far as rapes and shootings after Katrina, it happened, I have friends down there and in south texas. Maybe not as much as was reported, but it happened. Did you know that before the hurricane, Baton Rouge had a 33% crime rate? What do you think happened when there was no law there, everyone got along? Stuff happened. I agree with you on the facts, but there’s scrutiny and high pressure to compete. It’s up to the public to distinguish real news with lies and propaganda. Unfortunately, few are educated enough to tell the difference. I’m able to tell some BS from another simply because I came from a third world country that was under a dictatorship for decades. This country is progressing nicely along the same path, they just need to make sure that the change is gradual so nobody notices, then it’ll work, and as long as you portray dissent as treason, you won’t have to worry.