What do you make of the "Liberal Media" BS?

Any intelligent person knows there is no liberal media! (unless it's AAR and Bill Moyers's NOW.) Why do conservatives keep harping on this false point? Is it their usual BS, if they say it enough it becomes true, or is it the more frighting reason, they really believe it? :scared:

Can you imagine what the news media would be like if they had their way? My guess is a combo of Fox News and Nazi propaganda!

The media does what its corporate masters want. Their coporate masters wantever makes them money. Certainly right now the media seems extremely conservative, because corpoarations are making ass-tacular ammounts of money off the Bush Administration.

Saw the quote in your sig, thought you might be a fan of his.

If so, what'd you think of it?

It's the NEWS media that's conservative

Fox Channel shows "So I married a little person" and "Trading Spouses" but the Fox News talks over speeches in the Democratic convention because it doesn't want to be partisian.

every minute, that source is 'liberal'

also it's a way to train listeners to discount anything they might hear against the repubs and RW as 'liberal propaganda'

RW talk show hosts claim all the media praised the democrats all the time during the convention......they didn't watch CNN etc??????

From what I understand, their logic works like this: the crime, corruption and general degeneration of society are caused by free-swinging ideals of "liberuls". Society has become so "liberal"; it must be the media's fault.

the bait and switch. For example, take Faux News and their "Fair and Balanced" news. We all know that is a crock, but they believe that as long as the public hears it, they will believe it, a bait and switch.

The same holds true for spinning the "Liberal Media". In this case, the bait and switch is that it is actually a dominated conservative news media.

That they just don't know what else to say. My dad has been harping on "librul media" for at least 16 years that I can remember. It is like a birdsong, daftly repeated because it is genetically engrained to do so. Cookooo-Coookkooo Librul Media Librul Media.

Just blame all your troubles and woe on some cooked up "librul media," drink your kool-aid, and curl up into a fetal position in the corner with Rush Limpballs in your headphones.

Anything that doesn't toe the Far Right line is labeled as Liberal by the RW media.

Conservatives that don't always toe the RW line (John McCain) are labeled as moderates.

Moderates like Bill Clinton & Al Gore are labeled as evil, tree hugging, pinko, latte-drinking, dope-smoking libruls with loose morals.

True liberals are labeled as wackos, looney tunes, lunatic fringe types.

That way, if a so-called moderate agrees with the Far Right, they can say, "see, even John McCain supports this"

They do the same thing with the media. CNN is Right Wing, but not always as Far Right as Fox (though, that may be changing... but Carville has more spine than Colmes; and Aaron Brown & Lou Dobbs will occasionally criticize Bush) The RW media labels CNN and the rest as "Librul media"... so, when CNN (or CBS, NBC, ABC) do a piece that criticizes Democrats or praises Republicans, the average person is now trained to think, "wow, even Librul CNN thinks this is bad, it must be bad."

"....the real news story of recent years is not whether this newspaper, or that news anchor, is biased but rather to what extent the entire news industry is organized to communicate conservative views and push our politics to the right—regardless of how “liberal” any given reporter may be."

if you want to bother, the intro to his book is here, on PDF

it's not earthshaking, but an interesting read; well-written, as is most of his stuff

http://www.whatliberalmedia.com/intro.pdf

has some good TPs for when you come across the inevitable ignoramus who has no clue, and starts spouting the ususal mindless horsebadortie about the liberal media pukes ruining our fair land

I may have to pick up the book when I find time to read more than DU and the morning newspaper...

I read "What Liberal Media?" several months ago. It was an excellent, thoroughly researched (and footnoted) annihilation of this right-wing myth.

Also, read his 1992 book titled (something like) ".....The Rise of the Punditocracy." It is a profoundly informative and disturbing expose of how journalism has been subverted by know-nothing, self-appointed pundits parading as experts.

I read that right after Robert Parry's Fooling America, which covered very similar ground

In their black and white way of looking at the world, if it's not pitch black, then it's white. And believe me, you can never slant the news hard enough to suit them and have it bear any resemblance to actual news.

That's why it's a fool's errand for CNN to be chasing after the right-wing audience as a practical consideration. And of course ethically CNN and the like are just scummy betrayers of journalism and America itself.

The reason people tend to think the news media is too liberal or too
conservative is because of Lerk's patented Theory of Relative Extremism, to
wit:

The further one travels to any extreme, the more anything else in the
spectrum APPEARS to shift to the other extreme, even if it doesn't move at
all. Even things which strike a perfect balance, when viewed from an
extreme, appears to be unbalanced in the opposite direction.

In fact, if one is an extremist, the only way the media will appear fair is
if they completely agree with the extremist view, which of course, means
they've become completely UNfair to the rest of the spectrum, but the
extremist in question will interpret it as TRUTH when in fact it is only
presented one extreme facet of the truth.

For example, if one hates Bush/Kerry, and the news presents a report that
is neither favorable nor unfavorable to Bush/Kerry, then BOTH extremes
sides will view that report as slanted to the opposite camp because it
doesnt denounce/laud the leader ENOUGH to satisfy the extremist view held by
the observer on either end.

Conservatives have the luxury of hearing a steady diet of hard right-wing talk shows packaged as a source of news/facts all day long. Nothing but the far-right's spin of the issues. This becomes their baseline for objectivity. Later in the evening, these people will watch the news where any degree of objectivity will be perceived as liberal because it does not give only a far-right perspective of the subject.

Its the means by which the far-right establishment can constantly LIE and SPIN, and still be believed by their sheeple adherents. Rush, Faux, Savage, et al just have to convince them that anything the sheeple hear ELSEWHERE that contradicts the propaganda they spew is simply the product of the 'liberal media', and hence, the sheeple can simply disregard it as 'biased' and 'untrue' without having to actually THINK about who is REALLY lying/spinning.

It's total ad-hominem BS, but the sheeple aren't known for their capacity for logic/critical thinking. That's also why so many of them are RELIGIOUS. It requires the exact same wanton disregard of logic and fact.

Nice name too. Welcome to DU. :toast: