Need links debunking "liberal media bias"

[malachibk]

My dad just called and asked me to speak to a friend of his. This guy Bobby claims that the "media is so liberal it's sickening". He also avers that during the 2004 returns reporters on TV were "crying because the wrong guy was winning."

Clearly, this man will not be swayed by anything I can send him via my father, but I promised I would try. I know all about Media Matters, but if my fellow DUers know of any specific articles or analyses showing how the media is, in fact, run by conservative corporations, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

[LeftNYC]

1. What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman

Republican Noise Machine by David Brock.

These are books.

[KarenInMA]

2. www.foxnews.com

[expatriot]

3. mediamatters.com is always one good place to start

but it may be too "anecdotal" to provide proof positive to someone uncovnverted that "by and large" the media is not liberal. But good place to start none the less.

oh, is mediachannel.org still up? haven't been there for years.

[ComerPerro]

4. I'd start by having your father ask his friend for proof

of "the media crying because the wrong guy was winning".

And, no, hearsay "evidence" from a right wing discussion board or The OLiely factor does not count as proof.

We really need to start insisting on putting the burden of proof on them.

[Touchdown]

5. How about a book?

"What Liberal Media" by Eric Alterman.
"The Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock of MMFA

Doesn't read? How about a DVD? "Outfoxed" 1:30 min. "Orwell Rolls in his Grave" a little over an hour.

No DVD player? $40 at Target. No TV? How would he know the media is liberal?

No excuses for this guy not to look, unless he willingly wishes to remain ignorant.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. FAIR (link inside)

http://www.fair.org/index.php

[comsymp]

7. Actually, Bartcop nailed it a few years ago

http://www.bartcop.com/libmedia.htm

(excerpt)


The Myth of the "liberal" media

Let's do a "what if" so I can make a point. I think it's a good one.
I think it's so good, I'd like to hear from anyone who disagrees.

What if a show like Dateline did a "hatchet job" on George W. Bush?
It wouldn't have to really be a hatchet job, but any honest appraisal of that idiot's
qualifications would prove he's a non-thinking rich man's boy - and that's all.
But what would happen if Dateline did an unflattering portrait of Bush?

I'll tell you what would happen:

The vulgar Pigboy would spend at least three hours saying it wasn't true
and he'd offer hours of rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Bill O'Reilly would spend at least an hour on his show saying
it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Sean Hannity would walk all over Alan Colmes for an hour that night,
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Eva Von Zahn would spend at least an hour that night saying it wasn't true
and she'd offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

The Beltway Boys would spend at least an hour that night saying it
wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Brit Hume and Tony Snow would spend at least an hour on Sunday
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Juan Williams and Mara Liason would spend their entire allotted time
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

John McLaughlin would spend at least an hour on his syndicated show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Chris the Screamer would spend at least an hour on his show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

G. Gordon Liddy would spend at least three hours on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Laura the Whore would spend at least an hour on her radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Michael Medved would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

Sam and Cokie would spend at least an hour on This Whore
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

George (Judas Maximus) Steffi and George (dumb as a chimp) Will
would spend their entire allotted time swearing that it wasn't true.

[joanne]

8. What was Soviet "news" called?

Pravda? I cant remember now for sure.

In any case..... that is what the American media has become.

Almost total news blackout about Cindy. Brief attention paid to Karl Rove and treasongate but now that is not even mentioned any more.

We are living under Soviet style censorship in the US.

Nothing but "news" slanted in favor of Shrubco.

[Lars39]

9. Some links:

http://www.mediatransparency.org/

http://www.nowfoundation.org/issues/communications/tv/mediacontrol.html

http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/

http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/

http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/conspiracy.php

[malachibk]

10. THANK YOU ALL

Much appreciated

[MsAnthropy]

11. Here's another one

We have a Republican president, a Republican Congress and a Supreme Court dominated by seven Republican nominees. The mainstream media in this country are dominated by liberals. I was informed of this fact by Rush Limbaugh. And Thomas Sowell. And Ann Coulter. And Rich Lowry. And Bill O'Reilly.

And William Safire. And Robert Novak. And William F. Buckley Jr. And George Will. And John Gibson. And Michelle Malkin. And David Brooks. And Tony Snow. And Tony Blankely. And Fred Barnes. And Britt Hume. And Larry Kudlow. And Sean Hannity.

And David Horowitz. And William Kristol. And Hugh Hewitt. And Oliver North. And Joe Scarborough. And Pat Buchanan. And John McLaughlin. And Cal Thomas. And Joe Klein. And James Kilpatrick. And Tucker Carlson. And Deroy Murdock. And Michael Savage. And Charles Krauthammer. And Stephen Moore.

And Alan Keyes. And Gary Bauer. And Mort Kondracke. And Andrew Sullivan. And Nicholas von Hoffman. And Neil Cavuto. And Mike Rosen. And Dave Kopel. And John Caldera. And Matt Drudge.

On the X-Files they used to say "The truth is out there." I'm not so sure. And with everything going on in the world today I think we’re finding out why leaning too far to the right is wrong

[kansasblue]

12. I think on social policies the media remain somewhat liberal...

but the backing of this admin is way off the scale.

[Tim4319]

13. Ann Coulter says "we have the media now"

Audio of Ann Coulter can be found at: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/07/26.html

<<snip>>
Oliver came up with the audio: "Again putting the liberal media meme to death, right-wing loon Ann Coulter explains to fellow winger Brent Bozell on the 7/26 Sean Hannity Show that Bush should appoint a more extreme Judge than Roberts to the Supreme Court because “we have the media now”

click here

[johnnie]

14. Get the movie Outfoxed

Let him watch that.

[Emit]

15. Try these. They're must reads, IMHO:

The Disinformation Society

By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

George Bush’s re-election has been explained as a red-state-versus-blue-state “values” gap. But research shows a majority of Bush voters were misinformed about White House policies on the environment, Iraq, and terrorism. Instead of news, they got propaganda disseminated by the right-wing machine, corporate broadcasters, and journalists who think balance is reporting one side. In a new epilogue to his recent book, Crimes Against Nature, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shows how, almost two decades after Reagan’s FCC eliminated the Fairness Doctrine, the media have hidden the real gap—between America’s values and those of its government.

<<snip>>

Brock himself was one of the young stars recruited to this movement, working in turn for the Heritage Foundation, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times, and Scaife’s American Spectator. “If you look at this history,” Brock told me recently, “you will find that the conservative movement has in many ways purchased the debate. You have conservative media outlets day after day that are intentionally misinforming the public.” Brock, who admits to participating in the deliberate deception while he was a so-called journalist on the right-wing payroll, worries that the right-wing media are systematically feeding the public “false and wrong information. It’s a really significant problem for democracy."

<<snip>>

That “echo effect” is not random. Brockshows in his book how the cues by which mainstream news directors decide what is important to cover are no longer being suggested by The New York Times and other responsible media outlets, but rather by the “shadowy” participants of a Washington, DC meeting convened by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-government organization that seeks to prevent federal regulation of business.

Every Wednesday morning the leaders of 80 conservative organizations meet in Washington in Norquist’s boardroom. This radical cabal formulates policy with the Republican National Committee and the White House, developing talking points that go out to the conservative media via a sophisticated fax tree. Soon, millions of Americans are hearing the same message from cable news commentators and thousands of talk jocks across America. Their precisely crafted message and language then percolate through the mainstream media to form the underlying assumptions of our national debate.

http://www.sentienttimes.com/05/june_july_05/disinformation.html

_____________________________________________________

The Right-Wing Express

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted February 7, 2005.


If you want to know how the conservative message machine was built and what progressives can do to respond, just ask Rob Stein.

Consider that the conservative political movement, which now has a hammerlock on every aspect of federal government, has a media message machine fed by more than 80 large non-profit organizations – let's call them the Big 80 – funded by a gaggle of right-wing family foundations and wealthy individuals to the tune of $400 million a year.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21192/
________________________________________________________

Tentacles of Rage
The Republican propaganda mill, a brief history
LEWIS H LAPHAM / Harpers Magazine v.309, n.1852, September 2004 1sep04
About the workings of the right-wing propaganda mills in Washington and New York I knew enough to know that the numbing of America's political senses didn't happen by mistake, but it wasn't until I met Rob Stein, formerly a senior adviser to the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, that I came to fully appreciate the nature and the extent of the re-education program undertaken in the early 1970s by a cadre of ultraconservative and self-mythologizing millionaires bent on rescuing the country from the hideous grasp of Satanic liberalism. To a small group of Democratic activists meeting in New York City in late February, Stein had brought thirty-eight charts diagramming the organizational structure of the Republican "Message Machine," an octopus-like network of open and hidden microphones that he described as "perhaps the most potent, independent institutionalized apparatus ever assembled in a democracy to promote one belief system."

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Republican-Propaganda1sep04.htm

_______________________________________________________________

What's Wrong With This Picture?
Mark Crispin Miller

See a dramatic visual depiction of the vast holdings of the "Big Ten" media giants. Macromedia Flash required.


For all their economic clout and cultural sway, the ten great multinationals profiled in our latest chart--AOL Time Warner, Disney, General Electric, News Corporation, Viacom, Vivendi, Sony, Bertelsmann, AT&T and Liberty Media--rule the cosmos only at the moment. The media cartel that keeps us fully entertained and permanently half-informed is always growing here and shriveling there, with certain of its members bulking up while others slowly fall apart or get digested whole. But while the players tend to come and go--always with a few exceptions--the overall Leviathan itself keeps getting bigger, louder, brighter, forever taking up more time and space, in every street, in countless homes, in every other head.

http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html
_________________________________________________________

In 1994 these foundations controlled over $1 billion in assets , awarded $300 million in grants, and targeted $210 million to support conservative policy and institutional reform objectives.

The money was targeted at the following areas:

Conservative scholarship programs, training the next generation of conservative thinkers and activists and reverse progressive curricula and policy trends on the nation's college and university campuses.
Build and strengthen a national infrastructure of think tanks and advocacy groups, much to institutions with a major focus on domestic policy issues, and to institutes focused on American national security interests, foreign policy and global affairs.
Finance alternative media outlets, media watchdog groups,and public television and radio for specific, issue-oriented public affairs or news reporting.

http://www.mediatransparency.org/conservativephilanthropy.php

[wli]

16. that looks very useful, thanks n/t

[Doctor_J]

17. What about Andy Coulter's recent admission on the air -

"we have the media now". That would seem pretty conclusive.

[iconoclastNYC]

18. www.mediamatters.org n/t