Bias in the Mainstream Media - They've Picked Their Side

I think few people would argue that the mainstream media (TV, most newspapers, etc.) has a liberal slant, but I think that most people also don't realize just how bad the slant is. For example, think about how many of these headlines you've seen in the past 60 days:

- William Jefferson (D-LA) Shatters Corruption Records: Democrat Possibly The Most Corrupt Congressman Ever
- Gupta's InfoUSA Pays Pelosi's Son
- Feinstein quits committee under war-profiteer cloud
- Hillary, Eavesdropper?

My guess is you've heard or seen one of them at most, but each of these involves major figures on the liberal side of the aisle engaging in unethical behavior at minimum, and at worst committing actual crimes. Here's a quick summary of each story:

- Jefferson: This Congressman from Louisiana was caught on tape accepting bribes for hundreds of thousands of dollars, $90,000 in cash was found in his freezer, and he pressed multiple rescue vehicles into his own private chauffer service during the Katrina aftermath.
- Pelosi: Paul Pelosi, son of Nancy Pelosi (current Speaker of the House), was given a $180,000 'salary' and a senior vice president position by Vinod Gupta at InfoUSA, who is a big Clinton supporter and liberal activist. Pelosi has no experience in InfoUSA's main business activities, and also holds down another full time job as a loan officer in a different company.
- Feinstein: Dianne Feinstein, a Senator from California, abruptly left her position on the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee after a report revealed she had funneled billions of dollars to her husband's construction companies.
- Clinton: This story on Slate.com reveals how the Clintons monitored cellphone conversations to discover potential problems with Bill's...uh...fidelity deficiencies. A new book entitled 'Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton' shows this is standard practice for the Clintons.

If you've seen two or more of these stories, think about where you saw them. All of these are significant issues that should be broadcast far and wide to the American people, but the mainstream media has buried them because their liberal slant (not to mention their liberal political friends) would be damaged.

Don't misunderstand me - all of these stories are about liberal Democrats, and I'm not making the case that all Republicans are squeaky clean. One only has to look at Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, and Mark Foley to discover that. The case I am making is the coverage of such scandals and indiscretions: the media is itself extremely liberal, and has become increasingly open about it over the past few years; it wants the liberal viewpoint to come out at all costs, so they shine a beacon on anything that agrees with it and bury everything else.

Case in point: ignoring good news that reflects conservative success. Did you know that a new study shows improvements in test scores since 2002, when Bush's No Child Left Behind policy took effect? What about the biggest one-day individual tax earnings in history as a result of Bush's tax cuts and a shrinking deficit? Have you watched the Dow lately? It passed 13,000 for the first time in history in April of this year and is now on its way to 14,000, but where are the headlines?

Nothing revealed the liberal bias like 'Rather-gate'. Dan Rather and the CBS Evening News ran a story in the last presidential election cycle that claimed Bush had shirked his duties in the National Guard and lied about it, using some old memos (which were forged) as 'proof'. It probably would have worked, if it hadn't been for the 'new media', which completely blew the fraudulent story out of the water. Even after having real proof presented, Rather and CBS did not retract their story or apologize (though Rather ended up 'retiring' and CBS's ratings haven't recovered since), instead saying essentially that although the memo itself was fake, they believed the story was still true.

This open bias is why the so-called 'new media' has gathered such tremendous momentum in just a few years. Most people want the truth, whether good or bad. With the truth (i.e. ALL the facts), people can make their own decisions about things, but the mainstream media doesn't get it. Want proof? Circulations of almost all major newspapers -- havens for liberal writers -- are down while most conservative papers are up. Fox News, one of the big names in the new media, has more viewers than CNN. Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly each have literally millions of people tuning in to their programs every day, multitudes more than any liberal show has ever had.

Millions of Americans have realized that they simply can't trust the mainstream media to provide objective reporting on events and issues anymore. It's become an agenda-driven wing of the liberal movement.

There's my two cents.