MSNBC Political Director Chuck Todd and his First Read [1]
co-writers on Friday whined both about complaints against the
"knee-jerk liberal media bias" and conservatives who are uncomfortable
with Barack Obama's address to school children next week. National Review Online's [2]
Mark Hemingway noted Todd's post in which the MSNBC personality
complained, "The ability of the conservative media machine to generate
a controversy for this White House is amazing."
The posting, which was co-written by Mark Murray, Domenico
Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg, lamented right-wing opposition to the
speech: "In fact, this is an example of a story that percolates
where it becomes harder and harder for some to claim there's some
knee-jerk liberal media bias."
Bizarrely, Todd closed by citing Van Jones, Obama's Green Czar and
a 9/11 Truther: "The ability of some conservatives to create media
firestorms is still much greater than liberals these days. How
effective is the conservative media machine? Just ask Van Jones." As Byron York [3]
demonstrated in the Washington Examiner, this probably not the best
example for someone decrying the notion of liberal media bias:
From a Nexis search a few moments ago:
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.
If you were to receive all your news from any one of these outlets, or even all of them together, and you heard about some sort of controversy involving President Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, your response would be, "Huh?" If you heard that that adviser, Van Jones, had apologized for a number of remarks and positions in the recent past, your response would be, "What?"
As I noted in an earlier BiasAlert post [4], both the network nightly news programs and the morning shows have so far ignored Mr. Jones.
[UPDATE: Friday night, CBS aired a full story on Jones. See: "ABC & NBC Continue Van Jones Blackout, Instead Tout Obama's 'Transparency' and Rue Attacks on Him [5]."]
- Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.