From the ROMENESKO site,
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45Wolf and Judy disappoint us with their pathetic subservience to the wignuts, but they are just FATIGUED, tired of fighting off wingnut accusations of Lib bias if they even say g'day to a Dem in a civil way.
from the ROMENESKO site,
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45******QUOTE*****
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0401080324jan08,1,2816815.columnOmbud: Dare to criticize Bush and you'll be accused of bias
Chicago Tribune (reg. req.)
More even than the legendary "spin control" in the Clinton White House, President Bush and his people are actively involved in trying to shape and sell their message to the media and the American public -- and to discourage alternate readings of it, says Don Wycliff. "When the media report skeptically and critically about that message -- and what's the point of doing journalism if not to be skeptical and critical? --they come off as 'negative."
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2004/1/QA-Brokaw.aspThe Media Research Center, the conservative media watchdog group, has been getting a lot of attention for its reports alleging liberal bias in the media. They’ve been severely critical of Peter Jennings’s and ABC World News Tonight's reporting before the war in Iraq — and their reports get a lot of pickup on the Internet, through e-mails and on cable talk shows.
Look, I’ve been dealing with this myself since the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, when reporters were accused of having a liberal bias.
The fact of the matter is, if I don’t establish a bond with the NBC News audience that is based on my credibility and my integrity, then I go out of business. We’ve been doing this for a long time. NBC Nightly News still has the largest single audience of any media outlet, print and electronic, in the news business. The simple test is that if people thought I had a bias, they wouldn’t watch me.
What is the impact, do you think, of a steady drumbeat of such criticism? Does it not have an impact on the network?
It is a little wearying, but you’ve got to rise above it and take it case by case. Most of the cases are pretty flimsily made. I’m glad that Peter, Dan, and I have been doing this long enough that we’re confident in our own abilities to withstand that. I understand the Rush Limbaughs of the world. I have less trouble with that. That’s who he is and what he does — and he’s very skillful at it. Rush has a strong point of view — and that’s fine. What I get tired of is Brent Bozell
trying to make these fine legal points everywhere every day. A lot of it just doesn’t hold up. So much of it is that bias — like beauty — is in the eye of the beholder.
....Let me ask you about Fox News.
Don’t overstate Fox News — I mean, they’re enormously successful, but it’s still the most successful niche, is what it is
The spectrum now has spread out so much. But the broadcast networks still have the biggest chunk of that spectrum. When you get into the cable niches, Fox has the biggest cable niche. But it’s still much smaller than the least of the network niches.
What I think is that Fox has done a very smart job of carving out their place.
How would you describe that place?
Well, it’s a lively, right-of-center opinionated all-news channel. ....
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