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Media Bias Tag

Because I write so much about climate change, I am constantly barraged by fake news about the hoax-based science. The good news: The mainstream media has finally noticed the fake news problem. The bad news: The main stream media hasn't recognized it's a significant source of the problem. The ugly news: There are policies proposals being bandied about that are suppose to prevent the spread of "fake news" (i.e. news found on conservative and other sites that the progressive left want silenced).

Politico's national editor Michael Hirsh has resigned after he pushed for attacks on white supremacist leader Richard Spencer and published Spencer's address. Spencer's group National Policy Institute recently held a gathering in DC with people posting pictures of themselves doing the Nazi salute. Spencer and his small minded group hold despicable viewpoints, but let's use our brain here. No one, especially a member of the media, should ever publish a person's private address. We should never advocate for violence against anyone no matter how disgusting we find them.

By now you probably have read the stories about how Trump called a meeting with the press, only to give them a dressing down. If you don't care all that much---well, the press certainly does. Just as an example, read this from David Remnick of the New Yorker:
The fantasy of the normalization of Donald Trump—the idea that a demagogic candidate would somehow be transformed into a statesman of poise and deliberation after his Election Day victory—should now be a distant memory, an illusion shattered. First came the obsessive Twitter rants directed at “Hamilton” and “Saturday Night Live.” Then came Monday’s astonishing aria of invective and resentment aimed at the media, delivered in a conference room on the twenty-fifth floor of Trump Tower...

Is it the role of the media to serve as "opposition" to the Trump administration? Yes, in the mind of Chris Cuomo. On his CNN show this morning, Cuomo said "the media cannot yield. This administration is going to demand constant fact-checking, and opposition. Because otherwise, you don't know which way it's going to go from day to day. That's just a fact." Fact-checking an administration? Absolutely. That's an important role for the press. But "opposition?" That's the role for the opposition party. Unless, of course, Cuomo sees the MSM as a wing of the DNC? Don't answer that question, Chris. Compare and contrast with what Chris Matthews said in 2008 at the dawn of the Obama administration: "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work . . . It is my job. To make this work successfully."

On With All Due Respect, John Heilemann was aggressively questioning Kellayanne Conway, arguing that conflicts of interests would arise when the Trump administration makes decisions that could affect Trump business interests at home or abroad. Conway eventually had enough. She shot back: "look, John, I know the election results are very tough to swallow, particularly for those of you who just couldn't see it coming, couldn't even conceive of the possibility that the other candidate may actually win, that you don't understand America." Ouch.

The New York Times public editor Liz Spayd's op-ed contains a lot of harsh truths and realities for those who write for one of the world's most famous newspapers: drop the bias. Her office has received "five times the normal level" of complaints "and the pace has only just recently tapered off." Spayd does not flat out say that, but she portrays it in her eloquent article:
But I hope any chest thumping about the impressive subscriber bump won’t obscure a hard-eyed look at coverage. Because from my conversations with readers, and from the emails that have come into my office, I can tell you there is a searing level of dissatisfaction out there with many aspects of the coverage.

Disgust at the open bias, collusion and smugness of the media -- from the older line major networks to the 20/30-something former SJWs with keyboards -- was part of the background for the backlash leading to the Trump victory. As that same media rolls effortlessly into attacking President-Elect Trump's transition and appointments, consider this analysis by Will Rahn of CBS News. It's possibly the best I've seen. Here's and excerpt and video, but please read the whole thing.

Liberals in media have made their new mission clear. Now that they can no longer prevent Trump from winning the presidency, they intend to attack and smear anyone who might become a member of Trump's administration. Roll Call columnist Jonathan Allen went after Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions before he was even announced as Trump's pick for attorney general. Here are a few choice highlights from Allen's column:
Jeff Sessions Is Unfit for the Cabinet Witnesses testified that the Alabama Republican had called major civil rights organizations “un-American,” used racially insensitive language with associates and even said pot-smoking was the only reason he no longer thought the KKK was OK. His nomination was withdrawn after two fellow Republicans crossed the partisan divide on the panel to disapprove of his confirmation...

As we blogged Sunday, there's a whole sect out there attempting to blame fake news sites for Hillary's electoral failure. Facebook responded to complaints about fake news sites, as did Google. In an attempt to distinguish fake or misleading news sites from legit sources, Melissa Zimdars, Assistant Professor of Communication at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, created a list of, "false, misleading, clickbait-y and satirical 'news' sources." The LA Times published the list.

A new Media Research Center (MRC) and YouGov poll shows that the majority of voters recognized media bias during the presidential election, but chose to reject it: https://twitter.com/BrentBozell/status/798600042831454209

Remember when, at the beginning of his administration, President Obama made Valerie Jarrett his closest advisor, and how CNN went on the attack because of her far-left roots? Neither do I. But now that President-elect Trump has named Steve Bannon as a senior advisor, CNN is in full inquisition mode. Chris Cuomo and Poppy Harlow, co-hosts on today's New Day, cross-examined Trump spox and former Sen. Tom Coburn, respectively. References to the alt-right, anti-Semitism, etc. flew as the CNNers combatively questioned their guests.

Apparently the NY Times is reeling from its abysmal, over-the-top, foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Trump "news" coverage. Mark Halperin of Bloomberg News and Joe Scarborough noted the bias regarding election results coverage:
MARK HALPERIN: Look at the headline of this story. [Featured Image] Look at the headline of this story. This is the day after a surprising underdog sweeping victory and their headline is not “disaffected Americans have a champion going to the White House” or “the country votes for fundamental change.” The headline is about how disappointed the friends of the people who run the New York Times are about what’s happened. It’s amazing. It’s amazing to me that this is the headline of the New York Times. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Look at this. Look at this. This is staggering. It really is, Mark. I’m glad you brought this up.

Rush Limbaugh refers to CNN as the Clinton News Network. The emails obtained (hacked?) from the DNC and Podesta email accounts demonstrate how true that is. The DNC, which was supposed to be neutral in the Democratic primary, was all in for Hillary, as previously reported. Also, CNN commentator Donna Brazile, who was DNC vice chair at the time (now interim Chair), also fed town hall and debate questions to the Hillary campaign. That latter issue should be an enormous campaign focus -- has there EVER before been a proven case of presidential debate cheating? Yet the mainstream media ignores it - I haven't seen a single question to Hillary or the campaign about it in any news coverage. CNN for its part, acted *shocked, shocked I tell you* to discover that one of its commenters was helping a campaign under the table. The latest revelation, however, cements CNN's tattered reputation. Wikileaks released emails obtained from the DNC, and those show CNN actively soliciting questions from the DNC for interviews of Trump, Cruz and Fiorina.

In one of the more absurd statements of this absurd political season, Michelle Bernard, a guest on Joy Reid's MSNBC show this morning, said it was "hubris" for Donald Trump to imagine that he was "akin" to American leaders who have been the target of assassination attempts such as Lincoln, MLK, JFK, RFK and Reagan. How illogical can Bernard be? Whether or not Trump belongs in the political pantheon she described, can she actually believe that he could not possibly be the target of a madman? And what of others she didn't name who were the object of assassination attempts, such as McKinley, Garfield and Gerald Ford? Would it also have been "hubris" for them to have been concerned?

Every once in a while a headline catches my eye because it is so profoundly misleading that it can only be purposeful.  This is one of those times. A Huffington Post article entitled "A Guy In A Trump Shirt Carried A Gun Outside Of A Virginia Polling Place. Authorities Say That's Fine" has the strange non sequitur subtitle: "The incident happened in the wealthiest county in America."  Its url also contains, for no apparent reason, the term "voter intimidation." Here's the story:
A man wearing a Donald Trump shirt and carrying a weapon stood outside a voting location in Loudoun County, Virginia, on Friday. Authorities in the nation’s richest county are apparently OK with that. Erika Cotti encountered the man when she went to vote at the county’s registrar’s office, she told The Huffington Post. Virginia doesn’t have early voting per se, but voters can cast in-person absentee ballots for a host of reasons, like if they’re going to be out of the county or city on Election Day.

In case you missed it, the liberal media is really upset that the people they have been pissing on for years are pissing back. But it shouldn't be a surprise. There are countless stories of liberal media enemies-of-the-week, innocent citizens who make one errant comment or tweet and are the subject of a swarm of media bees. Remember how just recently the liberal media built up Ken Bone, who asked a question at a presidential town hall, because he said he had been for Trump but was considering Hillary after the event? It was a useful narrative, so Ken Bone became media hero. But when Bone appeared to go back to Trump support and commented that the Trayvon Martin verdict was correct, the media singled him out and took him down as quickly as they built him up, Ken Bone told the truth about Trayvon Martin, and for that media must destroy him.