Media Bias Debate
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Jan. 16 that President Donald Trump broke the law when he withheld aid from Ukraine. The union for that “independent, nonpartisan” agency naturally supports Democrats. Just don’t expect the media to tell you about it.
New York Times media reporter Michael Grynbaum's story dealt mostly with media griping about restrictions on the impending impeachment trial coverage. But the lead paragraph rehashed last week’s spat between Sen. Martha McSally, Arizona Republican, and CNN reporter Manu Raju. The print story oddly included two photos of McSally: a CNN screengrab of her “lashing out...,” and one from Fox News. But attacks on journalists are treated differently when it’s heroic liberal congresswoman Nancy Pelosi making them, especially against a right-leaning reporter.
On Tuesday's Amanpour & Co., PBS's Michel Martin interviewed Lee McIntyre -- author of the book Post-Truth -- with the two discussing perceptions that lying is more accepted from political figures than in the past because of the election of Donald Trump as President. Without any pushback from Martin, McIntyre argued in favor of journalists censoring the views of those they disagree with, including global warming skeptics.
It’s no question MSNBC has been begging for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. So, how does MSNBC legal analyst Jill Wine-Banks handle the issue of impeachment? By giving money to a Democratic Party House member who would later vote for impeachment.
On Tuesday, NBC’s Today show finally began taking the subject of media bias seriously – at least when it comes to British tabloid coverage of their favorite royal couple, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Lacking the slightest amount of self-awareness, hosts complained that the royals “weren’t covered fairly in the press” and subjected to a negative media “narrative” in the U.K.
A new Media Research Center analysis found that the three major network evening newscasts only gave President Donald Trump’s booming economy and U.S. trade nine minutes of coverage since the House Democrats’ impeachment push began on September 24, 2019.
NBC News reporter and political director Chuck Todd recently railed against “misinformation” and singled out President Trump and “the right” for having an “incentive structure” to spread it. Todd, who according to NBC, “is responsible for all aspects of the network’s political coverage,” also stated that Republicans criticize the media for “sport” and “the loudest chanters of fake news” are “the ones who, under a lie detector, would probably take our word over any word they’ve heard from the other side on whether something was poisonous or not.”
During a sit-down interview with NBC political director Chuck Todd on Sunday’s Meet the Press, President Trump’s national security adviser, Ambassador Robert O’Brien embarrassed his host by repeatedly schooling him on how much of threat Iranian General Soleimani was. On top of that, he called out the liberal media for taking a pro-Iran stance with their refusal to cover the regime’s massacre of civilian protesters.
“Don’t believe Iranian propaganda about the mourning for [General Qasem] Soleimani.” That’s the message or plea from Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad published by The Washington Post on Monday. Unfortunately, as NewsBusters reporting on the liberal media’s reaction to Soleimani’s demise shows, they were not heeding her warning and were willingly becoming mouthpieces for the murderous regime.
Paul Rosenberg devoted 3,000 words in the left-wing Salon to refuting the indisputable liberal bias of the press: “Not fake news: Major study finds no 'liberal bias' in media -- but there are other problems -- Yes, the media is liberal -- but there's no 'gatekeeping bias.' If anything, journalists have become too cautious.” That "Not fake news..." bit in the headline is ironic, given that the counter-example Rosenberg highlights is actual “fake news,” not content analysis, as my colleague Tim Graham pointed out. Still Rosenberg was obliged to make some concessions to the conservative case.
NBC News continues to bury its credibility by promoting MSNBC liberal anchor Stephanie Ruhle to be their new senior business correspondent.
CNN’s Jake Tapper doesn’t often shy away from calling attention to anti-Semitism, even when it comes from those on his side of the political spectrum. He called out the systemic anti-Semitism at the United Nations and broke through the media blackout when the rest refused to cover the Louis Farrakhan controversy. Monday became another one of those instances when he invited New York Times staff editor Bari Weiss and Vox senior politics reporter Jane Coaston to discuss the double standard in the attention given to anti-Semitic attacks based on the attacker.