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Originally Posted by miraja2
I'm at least glad to see that you seem to agree that the media was basically a neo-con propaganda machine for two years. Your point seems to be that they are really a bunch of liberals at heart who only acted like neo-cons for awhile out of fear of being labeled unpatriotic and losing their jobs. That is probably pretty accurate, but how much of a bias is that if they are all afraid of standing up for correct liberal principles when they matter most?
I agree with your point that the majority of individual members of the media are slightly center-left, but the television media as a whole (minus MSNBC and Fox) tries so hard to be "neutral" or simply "pro-America" that they end up being basically useless.
And I mean come on....it isn't exactly like they put left-wing wackos like me or GBBob on the air.
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You can play Maher and Bob can be Olberman
Slant doesn't simply mean rhetoric or making up stuff. It is about downplaying stories, burying them deep in the paper, under reporting, nitpicking, putting personal feelings in a news story, over emphasizing the negative/positive depending on the results. It can be subtle and cleverly designed.
After 9/11 it would have been suicide to be openly hostile towards Bush or his policies. We now have the luxury of 20/20 hindsight. But what if they had been right? What if they found a nuke in storage under Saddam's bed? No editor or producer was going to stick their neck out too far with the country wanting blood and Bush's approval rating at 90%. I didn't say they were dumb. But if i quote the NY Post or Fox news or the Wall Street Journal about a subject the info is automatically discredited as conservatively biased yet some will deny that the NY Times or Washington Post or CNN is liberally biased.
The ironic part is that I am far from a party line conservative. I dont give a damn about abortion, I believe in stem cell research, could care less about any subject concerning gays (hey if they are crazy enough to want to join the army or worse get married, more power to them), dont give a **** about school vouchers or school prayer, believe in the separation between church and state (but think the zealots on both side need to give it a rest, Merry Christmas shouldn't be a dirty word), think there are benefits but also some issues with free trade, think taxes should be low but wasteful govt spending especially pork cut as well, think affirmative action should be eliminated, anti union, pro business, etc. I believe gun laws need more restrictions, think universal health care is impossible in this country, think the ACLU may harbor more anti-american terrorists than Al-Quida, have no issue with the death penalty, etc.
But I also have developed a healthy distrust and general disdain for politicians of both parties (including the extraordinary human who now leads us) but it seems to me that democrats are far easier to dislike. Pelosi is total scum, Schumer is a liar, Rangel is a crook, Harry Reid is dangerous, Ted Kennedy is a waste of oxygen, Gore is a moron, Hillary is a bad human, Blogo! But I also think Newt Gingrich is full of it, McCain is mixed up, Ed Whitfield is a dirtbag, Ernie Fletcher is a crook, Jon Kly is an *******, Jeb Bush rode the short bus, have disdain for Spector etc.