The Press is Honest

I began my 20-year career in broadcasting in 1979. I spend most of that time in radio, with a few forays into television. I was more of a radio guy.

During my two decades I was fortunate enough to do everything from hosting entertainment/humor-oriented morning shows to running news departments to hosting talk shows.

Either I'm multi-talented or I just never found something that I enjoyed enough to stick with, take your pick.

However, I'm afraid I don't have much tolerance for those who claim to know how the industry works, when they have never spent a day in the industry. I, for example, would not be much of an authority on the inner workings of the proctology industry.

So, to my point.

Regarding the thesis: "The press is populated by roughly 85% liberals, and they don't go out of their way to hide that fact in their reporting."

I can say this - the press is, indeed, populated by roughly 85% liberals, and their reporting leans decidedly left. I could quote myriad studies that prove this painfully obvious fact, but those who deny it certainly wouldn't admit it -- so I generally don't waste the time.

The fact is, a story can be pushed into an ideological direction in several ways - by adding opinion disguised as fact, by not including opposing facts to balance the story, where the story is placed in the broadcast or the newspaper, and whether it is even covered at all if it does not support a liberal agenda.

With that as a foundation, I'd like to explain it a bit. First of all, most journalists will deny that the press leans left. If they were to do that, it would destroy their credibility, such as it is. But there's much more to it than that.

This is a hypothetical situation, but it is the type of situation that I dealt with many times in my decades in the industry:

A reporter writes and produces a story about how several Iraqi citizens hate America and want our troops to get the hell out of their country. You see them in a group, screaming angrily, holding anti-American signs and making it quite clear they're not happy with us in general.

The story makes no attempt to balance this information with an acknowledgement of all the Iraqis who are happy with us there, thankful that we are changing their country and their lives for the better.

If you were to ask the reporter why they angled the story in such a distorted way, you could very well get a puzzled look, and an answer such as, "well, it's true, we shouldn't be here."

The reporter is being perfectly honest and sincere. His ideology has convinced him that the war is wrong, and that he is simply reporting a fact. He honestly doesn't recognize that his opinion has overwhelmed his ability to see any kind of balance. He is literally reporting what he sees as fact.

And what about the people who feel we should be in Iraq, those who say the surge is working, those who say we should stay and finish the job?

Well, in the eyes of the reporter, these people are simply wrong. Why would the reporter report that it's Monday when it's Thursday? The reporter wants to be accurate, and in his mind, he therefore must report data that supports "the facts".

Do you see the difference between purposely slanting the news and reporting it as fact?

There are many in the press who have been so immersed in their ideology for so long that they simply can no longer few anything else as anything but incorrect.

Additionally, if you were to spend any significant amount of time in the halls of a radio station, television station or newspaper, you would often hear "readers/listeners/viewers are stupid" coming from the mouths of those who provide us with our news. I heard it so many times in my years that I came to view it is normal.

The press looks at the public as naive and under-informed, in general. They feel it is their job to enlighten us to what's really going on. This is not hyperbole on my part, I'm being literal.

Does the press lean left? Of course, obviously. Does it realize it? Perhaps not.

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