Former George W. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer gave a great interview to The Hill’s Joe Concha posted Sunday in which he slammed the liberal media for their bias “particularly on social issues” and proving daily how they’re too disconnected from their audiences.
On media bias itself, Fleischer said “there’s no question about it” as the media have “an inherent bias toward conflict.”
“But once they’re done with the juicy conflict, they have an ideological bias. Particularly on social issues, which makes it a lot easier to be a Democrat dealing with the press than a Republican,” he added.
Admitting that he keeps a folder filled with examples of media bias, Fleischer illustrated a recent Washington Post article about Attorney General Jeff Sessions as an example. Here’s an excerpt he read:
“The Trump administration — and Sessions in particular — has taken a hard-line stance on immigration, alarming activists who say U.S. officials are testing legal boundaries and implementing policies contrary to American values.”
He noted that it “doesn’t say ‘illegal immigration’” and “conflates it to immigration” in addition to citing four people against Sessions and not a single one supportive of the administration.
Thus, he ruled (as explained by Concha):
He said this is how the bias against Republicans works.
“And it's because newsrooms consist of too many like-minded people. Nobody who read this story thought; 'Why are we putting four people against him? Isn’t there one person who supports Sessions? Isn't there two? Aren’t there four?’
“Then why are we complaining it was illegal and legal? Republicans are for legal immigration.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter and Don Lemon may worship Dan Rather as a beacon of truth and knowledge, but Fleischer sees Rather for what he is: a far-left journalist who has problems with telling the truth.
An issue close to conservatives is the Mexico City policy on abortion funding overseas, so Fleischer brought up the fact that Rather spun it during a Democratic administration versus a Republican one while a CBS anchor:
“Here's how Dan Rather covered it,” Fleischer says. “'Today with the stroke of a pen, President Clinton delivered on his campaign promise to undo regulations of the Reagan-Bush years.' Eight years later, Dan Rather: ‘This was President Bush’s first day in the office, and he did something to quickly please the right flank in his party.'
“So with Republicans, its partisanship, its conservatism, it’s right-wing,” Fleischer said. “With Democrats, it’s honoring a promise.”
Perhaps most astutely, Fleischer noticed how the media have learned nothing from their failure to foresee the 2016 election’s outcome and are unwilling to move on from confirming “opinions or approaches of like-minded colleagues.”
Concha concluded the article on the interview with Fleischer quotes about the need for the media to “break from that bubble” in the Washington D.C. area (and, by the opinions of many other people, New York City as well):
“They don’t change their ways; they make and repeat the same mistakes that are mostly derived from bias,” Fleischer said. “And they talk to each other and reinforce their worst habits.
“I think they’ve been too far separated from the readers,” he said. “They’re too much surrounded by their colleagues. And it’s hard for anybody, given human nature, to break from that bubble.”
“You’re here to report for the people who aren’t here,” Fleischer said. “They’re here to rub shoulders or to validate opinions or approaches with likeminded colleagues. They’re there to deliver the news to people that are hundreds of thousands of miles away and can’t possibly be there.
“Almost all of them think almost entirely different from you.”
