Don't want a nation controlled by the media. (sing along if you know the words)
- Green Day; American Idiot -
Yep, I know it was supposed to be an anti-Bush song but it's looking more like a jab at the democratic leaning media every day. First there was Rathergate that we shot to hell. Now I drop by Jeff's place, Beautiful Atrocities and notice he's not got the ABC eye. He's also got a nice post including Drudge's recovered ABC memo.
Here's the line that everyone is, or at least should be, talking about:
We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we hold both sides equally accountable.
- Don't want a nation controlled by the media. -
Now that this memo has come out in addition to CBS's Rathergate what news can we trust? Who can we turn to for honest reporting? Will NBC get slam dunked as well? Are they just as bad or not? If I were an NBC executive I'd be pulling my hair out about now. I'd be doing my best to distance myself from the other big boys. I'd probably even be willing to put out a memo stating to report Bush more favorably than Kerry just to show greater distance from the other "big News" agencies. That would make the democrats happy. Take one look at MSNBC and you know that this will not happen. Have you noticed how biased their debate polling has been? They'd lose 75% of their target audience. It's not going to happen.
So why do they do it? Why do they try to pass themselves off as the unbiased media when they are anything but? I'm sure I'll get some flack for this one but Matt Drudge is coming off more independent than just about all of the majors. CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC and FOXNews are all biased to varying degrees. Newspapers are usually not much better. From The Washington Post to The Washington Times you will have different leanings for every issue. Why not just label yourself what you really are? We all know what we're looking at? Are they just in denial?
I'm not disappointed with the fact that all news agencies are biased. They've been that way since the dawn of time. They can't help it, human beings have political leanings and it comes out in their writing. The thing that torques me is the fact that they will go screaming to their news deaths before they will admit that no, they are not "fair and balanced" after all. Most of us are smart enough to figure it out on our own but they really suck in the "American Idiots".