Another Example of Media Bias
By Erick Posted in 2008 — Comments (11) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The news media is working over time on Fred Thompson's relationship with Phil Martin. Mr. Martin, you might recall, was arrested twice back in the early eighties. By all accounts, he has since reformed and become a good citizen.
Likewise, the media worked overtime when one of Governor Romney's staffers allegedly passed himself off as a cop (they haven't paid any attention after the investigation turned up nothing).
Whenever a Democrat winds up doing something like this, the media *always* is fair and balanced, pointing out that something similar happened to a Republican.
Why is it then that none of these stories about Fred Thompson's friend or Mitt Romney's staffer have mentioned Hillary hiring Sandy Burglar Berger as an adviser?
It seems that for all the outrage spent on Phil Martin, to name one, if the media were really fair, there'd be an inordinately greater degree of outrage over Hillary Clinton hiring a man who destroyed classified documents relating to Hillary's husband in just the past few years.
But of course there is not. And none of us are surprised, I'm sure.
By the way, if you want to fight this bias, sign up for our Action Emails.
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Another Example of Media Bias 11 Comments (0 topical, 11 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
The mainstream media has a "throw stuff at the wall and see if it sticks" mentality. Thompson made the right statement, so hopefully it will fall off the wall quickly. I think how he reacted reflects well on him as a person.
I don't know if I agree with you about disseminating the story. Noise is what keeps a story alive. And the blogosphere is often guilty of the same sort of out-of-proportion outrage generation, so breaking through the media envelope doesn't really do anything to reduce the pettiness.
Norman Hsu... where is the media coverage of that?
View my blog at http://preacherskid.blogdrive.com/
...Phil Martin's criminal past vs. Norman Hsu's criminal present.
Or how about convicted stock tout Martha Stewart? How many news blurbs mentioned her ties to Hillary Clinton the way others did Ken Lay's ties to Pres. Bush?
--furious
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." -- Darth Vader
Okay, leave Martha out of it. She got so badly screwed by the justice system it's not funny. I have rarely seen such a miscarriage of justice - and unlike Libby, no one stepped in to help.
Consistency, thou jewel !!
My observation is that the media can be too oriented to scandal, to the detriment of complete coverge. But I see no evidence of a bias for or against either main stream party. If a 'scandal' is likely to improve circulation or click throughs, they will follow it.
If criminal conduct on the part of your staff or your contributors is newsworthy, Hillary should be at the top of the page every day. Martin's crimes are twenty years back. He was convicted and served his time. They were crimes for which some people are KNOWN to reform. HSu's are current. Hsu certainly was laundering money for somebody, but for some odd reason the MSM doesn't seem to care who or why that somebody (somebodies?) were trying to buy an election.
I saw today that Martin resigned for Thompson's staff. I think Fred and Phil should have a serious talk, and if Fred believes Phil is reformed, he should decline the resignation, then publicly stand behind the man and his position on the campaign staff. Fred should explain that mistakes were made in not vetting him, but that had the vetting been done, he would still have placed Phil on his staff because his work with Phil has proven that he has reformed and is not only an old friend, but a valued adviser who is now an upstanding member of the community. Fred should further declare that being a conservative doesn't mean being a bigot, and that while conservatives believe in making criminals do their time, when the time is done and there is real reform, conservatives also believe in standing behind the people who have made that effort to reform.
Granted I'm a little bit biased on this count. Where I work we have someone in my immediate work area who is a convicted felon and doesn't hide it. He's also now a hardworking, honest employee, and someone I'm frequently happy has my back when things hit the fan.
be taking any drug tests in the near future.
____
CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Piranha-like behavior from popular media is a given. The skill of the candidate is demonstrated by the ability to control the narrative in a hostile media climate.
That's where the Thompson campaign is failing. They've got to do a better job telling his story of his candidacy, which is a compelling one.
Considering the headlines other candidates are generating (yes, I'm referring to He Who Will Not Be Named), today's performance looks particularly mediocre.
Perhaps better days for Fred are ahead...
what can be done about that? We know the MSM isn't going to cover it with any balance or objectivity. Quite the opposite.
So, what can Conservatives and Republicans do about this sort of thing (beyond not having a checkered past)?
Sites like RedState and other right-leaning blogs need to disseminate the story - in a professional, objective, correct manner - to as many outlets as possible.
I don't know if it's possible to ever break through the broadcast media envelop, but in the least, we have to make ourselves such a loud, visible presence we can't be ignored.
R.J.