MediaWatch: September 1997
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: September 1997
- ABC Morning Anchor Leaves a Legacy of Cheerleading for Socialism and Feminism Joan
- NewsBites: Targeted Droughts
- Admiring Diana but Hitting Mother Teresa
- DNC Chairman Downplayed, National Security adviser Ignored by Nets
- Espy's 39 Indictments? Yawn What Sleaze Factor
- Caldwell's Gospel
- Defining Away Bias
- Janet Cooke Award: "Dumbing Down" the NEA Debate
Defining Away Bias
The August Washingtonian showcased a telling illustration of why the Washington media are baffled by the idea of liberal bias. In their world, the media are dominated by conservatives. That’s the conclusion you reach when you don’t consider Margaret Carlson, Al Hunt, Nina Totenberg or Eleanor Clift to be liberal.
Barbara Matusow, a veteran Washington writer about media affairs, summarized the magazine’s annual look at the top Washington reporters: "Of the 50 journalists on the list, only [columnists] E.J. Dionne, Bill Raspberry, and Clarence Page consistently take the liberal side. But neither Page nor Raspberry is particularly interested in ideology, and none of the three thunders from the left anywhere near as passionately as a [Charles] Krauthammer or a [Bill] Safire does from the right."
By Matusow’s reasoning if you are supposed to be balanced to do your job then you are balanced: "Four presumptive liberals -- Linda Wertheimer [of NPR], Robert Siegel [of NPR], Diane Rehm [NPR talk host], and James Fallows [Editor of U.S. News] -- work at jobs that require them to play it straight."
In fact, Washington journalists only recognize one, single liberal amongst them. "When we asked people if they could name any fire-breathing left-wingers in the Washington press corps, the only person most could think of was Lars-Erik Nelson of the New York Daily News, who brings a genuine sense of outrage to his work."
Meanwhile, on Sunday shows "fiery partisans like Bill Safire, Bill Kristol, Tony Snow, Tony Blankley, Charles Krauthammer, Bob Novak, Fred Barnes, and George Will are pitted against journalists like Evan Thomas, Al Hunt, Nina Totenberg, David Broder, Sam Donaldson, and Cokie Roberts, all of whom have centrist, mildly liberal, or ideologically unpredictable views." Matusow missed the obvious implication that journalists can supply the "mildly liberal" view but you have to go outside of journalism for a conservative.
She also refused to concede that the two most visible liberal advocates on talk shows really do justice to liberal positions: "When conventional journalists like Eleanor Clift and Margaret Carlson are forced to hold up the liberal side of the argument almost by default, they can never be as convincing as true believers like Bob Novak or Bill Kristol."
If Carlson and Clift are not liberal pontificators then Matusow is correct. There is no liberal media establishment.
