The Tilted Media
Today is apparently the last Bill Kristol column we’ll need to suffer through on The New York Times op-ed page. At least until the they decide to run a one-off piece by Kristol. But he won’t be a regular columnist anymore. Still, we have a long way to go as a country in terms of media balance.
Yesterday, for example, Meet The Press had on a roundtable. It featured moderator David Gregory, reporter Michele Norris from NPR, Thomas Friedman in the center, and Steven Hayes from The Weekly Standard. Now, sure, based on my reading Friedman probably voted for Barack Obama and probably votes for Democrats more often than not. But he’s not even remotely the equal-but-opposite equivalent of someone like Hayes. Hayes has worked his entire career in conservative movement outlets and continues to do so to this day. Hayes is the author of a conspiracy theory book about Saddam Hussein’s ties to al-Qaeda, and the authorized biography of Dick Cheney. I would hesitate to suggest that anyone on the left is actually equivalent to a guy who basically tries to mislead people for a living, but structurally speaking the reverse of a Weekly Standard writer is an American Prospect writer or a Nation writer. I’m fairly certain the General Electric corporation has it within its capacity to get in touch with Katrina Vanden Heuvel or Chris Hayes or Ezra Klein or, indeed, their own employee Rachel Maddow but it’s so rare to see an actual member of the progressive movement on television that Adam Green felt inspired to write a post specifically noting that Paul Krugman had been allowed on This Week.
At any rate, let me link back to the classic MediaMatters report on this subject.
42 Responses to “The Tilted Media”
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January 26th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Re Kristol, note that rats run down the anchor lines to the dock if the ship starts taking on water. Kristol may have eyed that $400 Million that the NY Times has to come up with in May. Carlos Slim gave the Times a loan recently but it was at credit card rates.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Some conservatives probably think that having Hayes on is a deliberate plot to make the right look bad. People said the same about having Kristol around.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Alexander Cockburn might be left enough to offset Hayes. And he’s a global warming denier for good measure. Although I doubt such a group of guests would produce anything of value.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Plus , Moody’s just lowered NY Times debt rating to junk status:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/24/nytimes-moodys-closer-markets-equity-cx_mp_0123markets35.html?partner=yahootix
Which may explain the NY TImes’ affable coverage of the financial crisis and its unquestioning lack of criticism for the $Trillion bailouts. If you need to suck a rich man’s dick, it kinda spoils the mood if you criticize him.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:41 am
As a matter of style, I’m against our use, we progressives, of the shibboleth of media bias. Whatever their accuracy, arguments re media bias always sound shrill. I think the public is gradually becoming aware of the fact that you can pick your media – right or left – but you can’t wade through it without encountering bias. Let the Republicans continue to make these silly arguments on Fox News; we don’t gain anything from them.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Krugman has been in the regular rotation on This Week for a few months now. It was fun watching him trying to hold back from strangling Sam Donaldon yesterday.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:46 am
You mention Hayes and his published Saddam/al Qaida delusions. He gets placement on a major Sunday morn gabfest despite what can be rightfully labeled as his touting of inflammatory wingnut hallicinations. What journo/writer/news celebrity on the left pushes similar inflammatory and thoroughly discredited tracts and gets a slot on MTP? Dan Rather was hounded off the airwaves for a piece that to this day contains at least a rudimentary relationship to reality regarding Bush’s Nat’l Guard episode. Ann Coulter could publish a book alleging Obama started the AIDS plague and mere weeks after the outcry died down get a spot on any news mag her agent phoned. Why is venom from the right acceptable and the same craziness from the left shunned for what it is?
January 26th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Michael Moore?
January 26th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Mark – I also found it amusing to watch Krugman lesson Donaldson with his sloppy facts.
This Week is far better than MTP these days.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I caught this show and wondered if the main concern of the booker was to balance out David Gregory’s low intelligence and skill at repeating inane talking points with the appropriate guests.
Maximize your salary while minimizing your workload.
These shows are starting to resemble bad repertory theater.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:00 am
There are two problems here. One, true progressives are rarely chosen to fill the liberal slot. Two, nutjob conservatives are too often chosen to fill the conservative slot. Sunday talk shows need to stop bringing guest on who have written for The Corner. The quality of ideas would rise immensely if they did.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:00 am
“I’m fairly certain the General Electric corporation has it within its capacity to get in touch with Katrina Vanden Heuvel or Chris Hayes or Ezra Klein or, indeed, their own employee Rachel Maddow but it’s so rare to see an actual member of the progressive movement on television that Adam Green felt inspired to write a post specifically noting that Paul Krugman had been allowed on This Week.”
ABC has lefties on its Sunday show all the time.
The problem is not The Media. The problem is General Electric.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:02 am
But I thought Carly Fiorina, McCain’s advisor, also had a good point: You have to drain the poison out of the credit markets.
I repeat what I said 4 months ago — the US Government should NOT Rescue the bankrupt banks , it should REPLACE them.
It should be a real “lender of last resort” by setting up National Banks to provide credit to real businessmen and real workers who produce real products — and let the fucking con artists on Wall Street die.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Matt’s appearance notwithstanding, C-SPAN has become a reliably conservative outlet over the past few years, particularly Brian Lamb’s show Q&A.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Obama’s suit maker and my friend’s father’s employer – Hartmarx – just filed for bankruptcy because they couldn’t get a line of credit from Bank of America. They make things. And people buy them, now especially given the President’s choice of suit. So, yeah, I would like to see more debate about the government becoming the lender of last resort, an end run around these terribly mismanaged banks.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:43 am
agree with others that Krugman on Georgie’s show was interesting. I rarely watch the Sunday shows but caught yesterday’s. I expect the evolving meme will be
Donaldson: yabba yabba goober gabba
Krugman: That’s not really right.
Will: With due respect to the famous perfesser, bloviate bloviate….
Roberts: Isn’t my hairdo especially weird this week? We need biparisan consensus
Fiorina: what’s most important is that GOP views and business views are heard
at some point Krugman’s head explodes. That’s how they get their revenge.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Hope springs eternal.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:55 am
To what extent is being featured in the MTP roundtable a career goal toward which one strives? Is such striving more prevalent amongst the conservatives? Are liberals not focused as much on attaining this sinecures?
These are not rhetorical questions; I’m genuinely uncertain on this point and whether it contributes to the imbalance.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:56 am
May I timidly suggest Matt, that the continued misrepresentation of liberal / Democratic values and arguments in the MSM is actually a good thing for the liberal blogosphere and Jon Stewart. I mean, I started ignoring these dumbasses in 2002 and have never gone back. Think of your own job security – besides I would worry that you would lose brain cells just breathing the same air as these dim-witted cretins.
Although, somebody, PLEASE put David Broder’s column out of its bipartisan misery. It’s like he is everywhere whilst saying nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 26th, 2009 at 11:59 am
“ABC has lefties on its Sunday show all the time.”
Bullshit. Krugman once a month (and hell, I can remember when Krugman was right-of-center) does not equal “lefties all the time.”
January 26th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Man, do you guys actually like Katrina Vanden Heuvel? I’m liberal and she’s such a blowhard that I enjoy watching George Will destroy her.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
The whole NYT roster is less than incisive after Krugman. I understand the Peter principle, that a distinguished reporter like Kristof or Friedman than gets to be a pontificator, but it still produces either mere reportage, as in the first case, or sheer pontification for its own sake, as in the second. (And while he’s undeniably liberal, has anyone in any medium ever once cited Bob Herbert?)
Suggested post topic: what explains Gail Collins? I gather that she was on the ed board, which I assumes means helping to craft the editorials. But she seems to have abandoned the strong opinions and liberal stance of the editorial page for attempts at cutesy-poo nonpartisan humor. Is it envy of Maureen Dowd’s sales?
January 26th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
It was fun watching him trying to hold back from strangling Sam Donaldon yesterday.
I get your point, Mark, but I found it agonizing. My wife asked me to turn it off if it was going to make me so angry, but I couldn’t turn away.
Quite a panel they had there, no? George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Carly fucking Fiorina….and Krugman. Truly the liberal media has….ah forget it.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Re Kristol, I loved this part:
“Obama’s speech was unabashedly pro-American and implicitly conservative….He spoke almost not at all about rights ”
Conservatism has now undergone a such a shift that rights are anathema, I guess.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
“Bullshit. Krugman once a month … does not equal “lefties all the time.”
KVH and Bob Reich have also been in the regular rotation.
Somehow, I think I’m more familiar than you with this topic, brewmn…
January 26th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
From the Politico:
FUUUUUUUCCCCCCCK THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!
January 26th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
This is William Kristol’s last column.
How my heart leaped when I read those words!
Oh, and thanks to Don Williams for alerting me that Kristol is an investor in the NYTimes, so that his departure should be regarded as a canny portfolio move.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
A few years back, when confronted with the preponderance of Republicans on the weekly talk shows, the media responded that “of course there are more Republicans, because they are the ones in power”.
I believe that now those explanations need to be repeatedly shoved in the face of the media.
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