Iraq Going Poorly? Blame the Media!

Welcome to the mainstream media news:

Audio:

The recent debate, ignited by conservatives and mimicked by dumbfounded, rapidly blinking President Smirky, pertains to media coverage in Iraq and the reporting on the war in general. The theory here is that since the local car bomb in Falluja gets the lead story over the new road we just constructed in Baghdad, there must be some sort of liberal media bias.

This has been a long favorite conservative talking point of mine, specifically because it’s so easy to dispel. But alas, most media outlets ironically covering the story of their own perceived bias coverage are interviewing and quoting the very conservatives who say their issues aren’t being covered enough. Go ahead; I’ll pause while you re-read that.

After all, conservatives don't deal with facts, research or experts in any particular field (see: Global Warming), so I guess it's a lot easier to blame the media for the mess in Iraq than it is to look at the violent, tribal relgious and cultural sects, the lack of an exit strategy, the ill-equipped military vehicles, the non-existent body armor, and the severe underestimating of - well, everything.

But regarding any media bias - I have stated this a million times, but will again reiterate this for your Bush supporting friends who are ready to launch another Anthrax attack on members of the media:

The media, ladies and gentlemen do NOT have a liberal bias - they have a sensationalist bias.

Most complex political debates cannot be dispelled by only one sentence but this issue isn’t complex, nor is this really up for debate. It’s actually proven, every single day, by every single cable and network news outlet, almost without exception. After all if there really were a liberal media bias, headlines like “Is the Iraq War Getting Fair Coverage” wouldn’t even appear around the country as they have this week.

This is a really big deal in this country because conservatives will concede there were no WMD’s in Iraq when we invaded before they’ll ever let go of the liberal media lie. What they don’t understand is that the media isn’t here to necessarily provide the best information. They’re here to make money, lead with big stories, entertain, get ratings, sell papers, and conquer their competitors.

It all goes back to the old journalism adage: If it bleeds, it leads.

This couldn’t be truer in a time of war. The basic cornerstones of war reporting include who fought where, and how many of them died. To think that the media is reporting only bad news from Iraq because they all have a collective and agreed upon agenda to discredit this war is so ridiculous I don’t really know where to start.

Do I really have to explain this? This is like 8th grade “introduction to journalism.” My conservative friends, the media reports on the deaths and destruction because you’re more likely to buy the paper with “52 Dead as Wave of Violence Sweeps Iraq” on the front page than you would be if “Mosque Basra Gets Second Coat of Gold Paint” was the lead story. So if you’re tired of the bad news, blame yourself and the guy next to you, because the consumers drive what is reported, not the reporters themselves.

In fact, their whole game is Capitalism, not necessarily reporting, and there are so many daily illustrations of the media NOT being liberal, I decided to make a small list of examples that I encourage you to forward to friends the next time you even hear a mentioning of the words, “liberal media.”

- There are 5 major, white/male/mostly Republican owned corporations who control almost everything you see and hear, and most are not exactly big Democratic donors. The impact of this cannot be stated enough, as this provides the entire backdrop of almost everything you see, hear and read unless you get your media from an independent source.

- Consider the incredible conservative AM radio domination drumming up support for Bush’s policies, on almost every dial, all day long, ever day. According to one recent study of the 45 top-rated AM talk radio stations in the United States, conservative talk accounts for 310 (or 98.4%)hours of airtime each week; liberal talk just 5 hours (1.6%).

- Think of the Republican attack machine via paid advertisements from local
political seats up to the presidential race. Most estimates and studies put the ’04 presidential elections at 75% to around 28%, Bush to Kerry, in terms of negative ads.

- Conservatives with poor memories (mostly due to lack of anti-embryonic stem cell research to combat Alzheimer’s) don’t remember that the New York Times was a strong supporter of both wars in Iraq before their invasions.

- Accusing black Louisiana citizens of “looting” while white citizens are “finding” is not exactly liberal thinking.

- Nor is coverage of missing white teens (do black teens ever get lost, abducted or killed?)

- Have you ever listened to Country Music? That counts as media

- Ever heard of ClearChannel, how much they own, or know what their politics are?

- Do you recall any media attention for the Swift Boat liars before the election or were you able to find the small, back page article about how they'd been dicredited after the election?

- Sinclair broadcasting, an ultra conservative media group, is the largest broadcaster
in the nation.

- Think about the “war rooms” all the networks set up at the start of the last few wars, and who their guests are. Most guests are ex-military generals and other high ranking officials of intelligence and the armed forces.

- Consider the amount of reporters and anchors embedded in war zones and traveling with our troops. Reports coming back from embedded reporters aren’t exactly liberal – they’re factual, and they provide a great perspective of war from a soldier’s point of view (as much as we can get via tv). They just don’t usually embed terrorist-supporting liberals with the infantries, including those who have risked and lost their lives to cover the story.

- Back in the 90’s, there was an affair between the President and an intern that produced some headlines. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

- Did you hear who made Time’s Person of the Year in 2004?

- Studies have shown the more 9/11 and terrorism is mentioned, the more people rally around the President, mostly out of fear. Have you seen any terror or 9/11 coverage in the past few years?

- Have you ever noticed the American flag animations flapping right near the network icon during cable news broadcasts? Hyper flag waving isn't exactly a liberal
characteristic.

- By the same token, have you ever seen the scrolling terror alert level status on the cable news shows?

- Ever read the PIPA study on media bias?

- Have you seen the recent study regarding Meet the Press and who most of their guests are? Or the one conducted on the conservative guests versus liberal guests on the Sunday talk shows?

- Since liberals are all Saddam/dictatorship supporters, have you ever noticed the amount of anti-Saddam coverage on all of the Discovery channels? Brutal, human rights-raping dictators are a favorite of liberals throughout history, and the Discovery channel is clearly against us.

- Discovery Military, the Pentagon Channel, and CSPAN1, 2 and 3 are all government affiliated cable channels, controlled by Republican influence.

- Have you ever looked at what is broadcast over government-sponsored Armed Forces Radio?

- Gay rights marches, as many as 500,000 strong include a makeup of about .00001% drag queens. Guess who gets on camera.

- Ever hear "liberal" Hardball host Chris Matthews draw comparisons between liberals and Al-Zarqarwi?

- The Bush administration has spent more on PR firm contracting than any other president in history. It has produced: Fake news stories, fake journalists, fake town hall meetings, fake Q&A’s with the troops, fake members of the White House press corps, and fake photography.

- Remember the network news magazines that used to cover news? Dateline on NBC now covers who-done-it murders and cruise ship stories, 48 Hours on CBS now does unsolved crimes (and even changed it’s name to “48 Hours Mystery”), Primetime promotes whatever ABC airs on weekdays (i.e. Dancing with the Stars appears on this channel, so Primetime has done several series on ballroom dancing), and 20/20 features the trashing of anything public by John Stossel. 60 Minutes is the only news magazine covering the news, and when you cover the news you’re considered liberal (I call it informed).

- Mostly because they have more money and there are more of them, conservative think tanks are overquoted in the media by a ratio of 2 to 1 over their liberal counterparts. What’s worse, this is often done without identifying the think tank getting quoted has a conservative slant.

Liberals have the Daily Show (a comedy skit hosted by a comedian), Real Time (with Republican guests sharing the guest panel, and airing on a subscription cable channel), Democracy Now (which has the same cinematic and broadcasting sophistication as Wayne’s World) and Air America.

That’s it.

So I was checking the latest headlines from the 10 or 12 sources I hit daily (actually one of which is Foxnews.com), when I noticed CNN.com was actively proving the point that progressives make regularly regarding the liberal media, right there on their web site.

Take a look at the screenshot from the aforementioned CNN.com from just the other day, a favorite target of the Right. All in one front page, you have the day's biggest news stories. Cruise ship fires, tour buses going into canyons, missing boys in Milwaukee (the first black kids to ever go missing, according to CNN), the death of a beautiful college student, a big break in another missing beautiful girl case, and on and one....see below:





I rest my case.