February
23, 2001
Sorry Sam, But The Media Is Biased
By Tom Bevan
Last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC),
Sam Donaldson and Robert Novak spent more than an hour debating
whether there is a "liberal bias" in the media. Believe
it or not, Mr. Donaldson sincerely feels that he and most of his
fellow journalists are objective in reporting the news. Here are
three examples from the debate that prove he is wrong.
Example One: Responding to the question of whether a conservative
would ever be appointed to hold Donaldson's former position as
Chief White House Correspondent, Sam reminded the crowd of Brit
Hume's service in that capacity before moving over to Fox News.
Donaldson went on to mention a number of prominent conservative
columnists, including ABC's own George Will, as proof that conservatives
enjoy a proportionate voice in today's media.
But Mr. Donaldson's ability to cite a litany of conservative
opinion writers serves only to disprove his point. In fact, with
the notable exceptions of the Washington Times and Fox News, the
conservative (some would even go so far as to say objective) perspective
is restricted to the op-ed pages of newspapers and not even remotely
present in the major newsrooms across the country.
Just take a quick look at Mr. Donaldson's own vaunted ABC News
operation, for example. Peter Jennings. Liberal. Ted Koppel. Liberal.
George Stephanopoulos, Terry Moran, Jeffrey Toobin. Liberal, liberal,
liberal. Run down the list of reporters at NBC, CBS and CNN and
you will find them equally as liberal, if not more so. Mr. Donaldson
will claim that these people are "professional" and
"evenhanded" in their representation of the news, but
one needs only to glance at Fox to realize how dramatically different
the day's issues can look when reported with a more "fair
and balanced" perspective. Judging by the steady increase
in Fox's ratings, it seems there are some people out there who
agree.
Example Two: Mr. Donaldson fielded a question regarding why the
media did not give more attention to Juanita Broaddrick's rape
allegations against the president. Sam responded with pride that
he had asked a question on this very subject at a press conference
which the president refused to answer. Mr. Donaldson also reminded
the crowd that the story was featured on NBC News (even if they
did sit on it for a while) and received coverage in major newspapers.
Again, however, Mr. Donaldson's argument relied on turning the
exception into the rule.
If the outrage over the Marc Rich pardon has demonstrated anything,
it's the incredible force the media can bring to bear on a story
- when the people who run the New York Times, Washington Post,
and the network newsrooms in America choose to devote resources
to it. With relentless editorials and reporting this cadre of
media elites have kept the Marc Rich story in the headlines for
more than two solid weeks.
However, the reality is that most Americans (by this I mean the
270 million of us who live outside of the Washington beltway)
are no more or less outraged by the Marc Rich pardon than we were
with the charges leveled by Juanita Broaddrick - or impeachment
or Chinagate for that matter. The fact is that the establishment
media chose (Sam Donaldson would use the phrase "made the
difficult editorial decision") to let the Juanita Broaddrick
story die. Yes, it was reported, but the liberal media elite in
this country did not deem the Broaddrick story worthy of more
than casual coverage.
Example Three: In rebutting a point Mr. Novak made about school
vouchers, Mr. Donaldson provided a sterling example of the essence
of liberal media bias when he said (and I'm paraphrasing here),
"a voucher worth two thousand dollars isn't going to be enough
for inner city parents to send their kids to private school. Maybe
it will buy some crack, but it won't do much more than that."
If there isn't a bias in the media, Mr. Donaldson, then tell us
honestly how you think this "crack" comment would be
portrayed in the press if it were said by Jesse Helms.
The problem with the bias in the media today isn't the shrieking
and demonizing of conservatives by limousine liberals like Maureen
Dowd and E.J. Dionne but rather the subtle (and sometimes not
so subtle) double standard applied to conservatives by dopplegangers
like Dan Rather who present themselves before the American people
as "objective" journalists.
Much of the perception of bias, of course, has to do with where
one stands on the ideological spectrum. Anyone who hold views
more conservative than the press sees them as too liberal while
liberals (like Mr. Donaldson, it would seem) look to their right
and see the press as totally objective and fair.
Luckily for Sam, I have a solution to this conundrum - one which
will appeal to his liberal sensibilities. Since exactly half the
country voted for a conservative Republican for president, it's
only fair that their views should be proportionately represented
at ABC News and the other major media outlets. Call it "power
sharing" or "affirmative action" or (this is my
personal favorite) "bi-partisanship." Maybe then we
could believe that the mainstream media reports both sides of
the story.
Tom Bevan writes for RealClearPolitics
