Written : Aug. 3, 2010
Howard Kurtz, the host of Reliable Sources on CNN, is one of the most open-minded TV talk show hosts in the mainstream media. What amazes me is that he will bring up liberal AND conservative talking points for his guests to discuss, but he rarely has more than one verifiable conservative on his show at a time. His August 1, 2010 episode was no exception. No conservatives could be seen, and four liberal journalists were his invited talking heads this past Sunday.
To be fair, Mr. Kurtz showed a variety of clips to illustrate rudeness in the media. We viewed liberal Chris Matthews, of MSNBC, slamming Fox News for “whipping up white hysteria,” referring to Fox News’ coverage of members of the New Black Panthers illegally intimidating voters at a Pennsylvania polling place. Howard Dean was next, calling Fox News “racist,” inferring they showed the heavily edited tape of Shirley Sherrod to get her fired. Chris Wallace, of Fox News, corrected Mr. Dean by pointing out the Obama administration fired Ms. Sherrod before the clip aired on Fox. Shortly thereafter, Keith Olbermann criticized Fox News’ efforts and right wing views as the “utter and complete perversion of journalism...” A couple of clips of Fox News hosts were also shown where hosts were hollering at each other. You see, Mr. Kurtz is fair!
His guests, David Zurawick, Frank Sesno, Lauren Ashburn, and Chip Reid, however, were not as fair. Mr. Reid, when asked about hyper-partisanship in the media, said his department, CBS News, is an “island of sanity.” He implied that he has to be professional while others do not. Ms. Ashburn agreed with Mr. Reid’s take that mainstream news is upstanding and “paternal”, but told us the media is hurting its ability to be seen as objective – and yet, she conveniently left out the reasoning behind her revelation.
Mr. Kurtz asked Frank Sesno, a former CNN News reporter and executive, about the ferocity of media types. Sesno addressed conservatives’ criticisms of liberals, but not the other side of the coin. He said, “It goes to whether you’re a patriot or not.” The key to understanding how the mainstream media sees itself is found within Mr. Sesno’s following statement, “…the Chip Reids and the N.Y. Times…are trying to work…by some set of…traditional rules and the Breitbarts and the Becks and the others who live by no [journalistic] rules that we would recognize.” What he failed to mention is the elite media ignores news stories and events that don’t fit their liberal agenda. They don’t invite a balance of far-right wingers or even true conservatives on to level the playing field of their left-wing tilt. This is the secret that exposes Fox News’ success. Ignoring the liberal point of view is not the key. Instead, they regularly invite real liberals, even far-left wingers (such as Michael Moore) on their shows to enhance debate. Shhh, don’t tell anyone!
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