Interesting Column re: Media Bias, No, Not Coulter

[HDPM]

Here's a column by a liberal that questions the NYT. Morris isn't exactly a conservative. web page (http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/59155.htm)

[Boris]

"Morris isn't exactly a conservative."

I can understand why Republicans might want to distance themselves from Dick Morris but he's not exactly a liberal either.

[Jimbo]

Hey Brad,

Compared to you Ted Kennedy is conservative!! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Jimbo

[andyfox]

Dick Morris in the N.Y. Post? Surely consevatives can come up with something a bit more reliable than either of those two. The N.Y. Post thinks is it competing with the N.Y. Times so an article about bias in the Times in the Post should be taken with a shovel-full of salt. (I stole that line from, of all people, Bill Russell, who, at a roast for Howard Cosell when Cosell was retiring, said it's going to take a lot to replace you when you're gone Howard, probably more than three shovels-full.)

Let's look at just Morris's first example, in the interest of winning John Coles carpal-tunnel race. He claims the NY Times biased a poll by asking people if the economy or "foreign policy" should be given more priority. He then compares this with Fox News's poll asking basically the same question but using "national security" instead of "foreign policy." He calls the N.Y. Times question "slant #1." I call the Fox News poll slant #1. Liars in government (both liberals and conservatives) have always labeled an issue that other disagree with a matter of "national security." The phrase is designed to scare people, not to mean anything.

Fox News reminds me of some invitations I get that say so-and so, "famous actor" or "famous activist" or "famous" whatever" will be at a certain function. When Tom Cruise or Dick Cheney appear somewhere, they don't have to call them "famous actor" or "famous politician," people know who they are. "Fair and balanced news" strikes me as a similar expression. If it were fair and balanced, people wouldn't have to be reminded of it.

But Andy,

That is exactly why Fox must remind people that their news programs are indeed fair and balanced. Most Americans are so used to the liberally biased media without some form of notification we would all still be drinking Coca Cola rather than realizing we have the choice to sample Dr. Pepper as well.

Jimbo

[andyfox]

Apparently, Americans are not swayed by the liberally biased media. No traditionally liberal Democrat has been elected President since the 1960s; it appears the Dems may well lose control of the Senate despite the economy being a disaster under a Republican president; and I think it's fair to say that Conservative politics has (have?) been on the ascendancy for the past 30+ years. I think more people read the Post than the Times too.



Anyway, maybe more people like Coca Cola than Dr. Pepper. I do. But I sure like the fact that Dr. Pepper is on the market, and I love the fact that both Fox News and The New York Post are available too.

[andyfox]

I read Brad as very far right. Not to say I don't agree with some of what he says, but I'm very far left, so I assume our viewpoints meet on the other side (pun intended).

My favorite Dick Morris story is that he claims that Clinton called him when he found out that there were traces of lifeforms found on Mars. Morris was with his girlfriend and he let her listen in. So Morris's girlfriend was the 3rd civilian on the face of the earth to learn that there was life found on Mars.

Scary administration, that one.

[andyfox]

Just heard Dick Morris on the radio talking about this column. Let me try to put this gently: he's full of crap, a pathological liar. He was Clinton's good buddy, need I say more?

He talked about the first "slant." He said the Times deliberately used a dry "word" like "foreign policy" to get a slanted result; he said when people hear "foreign policy" they think of "East Timor or something." I'd be interested in Fox News conducting a poll to see how many people think of East Timor when a pollster mentions foreign policy. I'd be willing to be Iraq or the war on terror is what they mention. How much drier than "economics" or "the economy" is "foreign policy"? Both are general terms. He then said when Fox News conducts their poll, and used more "pointed " words like "terrorism" or "national security" and compared these to the economy, the results were different. Gee, really? Why didn't Fox News compare "the unemployment problem" or "the declining stock market" with "foreign policy?" Because "fair and unbiased" means they compare apples with oranges when it suits their bias.

Oh, it was then pointed out that Morris works for Fox News. You think maybe this might be a significant thing when a guy says a Fox News Poll is much more fair than a biased N.Y. Times poll?