The Liberal Media

"A popular tactic right now is to assert that a kind of gaffe gap exists, and is dispositive evidence of the media’s bias toward the president. As a result, you get a contorted column that bemoans the press’s shallow obsession with this kind of campaign ephemera while it simultaneously labors to prove the “underreported” nature of these very same harmless misstatements by Obama. This kind of whinging shouldn’t be given the time of day, but the implicit stamp of approval it gets when Tapper and Halperin throw out their fact-free, faux outrage means that the media bias myths live another day.

But there’s a long-term price for this reckless self-sabotage of journalism. If the media itself accepts the fact that bias no longer needs to beproven but merely asserted, if our democracy comes to believe (as polls increasingly show is happening) that this mythical bias is simply a given, then the public’s trust in the profession will be irreparably harmed. Once defanged, the press will discover what it’s like when it can no longer effectively function as a champion of the truth—politicians will be free to brazenly campaign and govern based purely on dogma and ideology, without regard for facts at all.

Right here, right now, and especially after what we've seen the past few nights down in Tampa, the press is facing this frightening prospect. So, it must make a choice and make it quickly. Should the media continue to give in to a mistaken sense of professional guilt by avoiding controversy and seeking penance for partisan transgressions that it hasn’t really committed? Or should it be willing to stand firmly with the facts, whatever they are and whomever they afflict, and let the evidence ultimately prove it right?"

--great summation of the Liberal Media myth and the crap it's unleashed on us all

'Post Truth Politics,' Continued | The Nation - http://bit.ly/N7RbQm

How Mitt Romney Won The Debate Spin Over And Over -- By Fulfilling The Liberal Media's All-Consuming Need For Fresh Narrative | The New Republic - http://bit.ly/TRK24H

Polarization and the Fetishization of the Mythical Center

Paul Krugman on: "Reasonable Republicans?"

"Several commenters have asked that I provide examples of Republicans making reasonable economic arguments; some of them seem to be saying that I’m proving my bias if I don’t provide such examples. 

But it doesn’t work that way: if all Republicans are saying unreasonable things, then it’s a distortion — indeed, a form of bias — to insist that there must be reasonable Republicans. 

Now, what you can quite easily find are examples of people who used to be Republicans, or even still consider themselves Republicans, saying reasonable things — say, Bruce Bartlett or David Frum. But the very fact that they’re reasonable has led to their excommunication from the movement! 

It’s kind of the “treason never prospers” argument (“for if it prospers, none dare call it treason”); if someone declares--

• that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves, or 

• that printing money when you’re in a liquidity trap isn’t deeply inflationary, or 

• that fear of Obamacare isn’t holding the economy back, 

--he ceases to be considered a member in good standing of the GOP. There are, therefore, no reasonable Republicans on these issues."

______________

Vast Wasteland.

see Newton Minow, in 2011, talk
about the "Vast Wasteland" speech.
Read brief overview, here

we have the Echochamber of Fox News, but let's be real... the news media as a whole is Not Helping, if your goal is real information, insight, analysis based on facts.

I'll be throwing relevant links of interest about The Media in this thread as I find ones that interest me. For now, here's a good place to start:

• Per a study on "job killer" claims, as discussed in dailyKos: Liars "can count on media quoting w/o pushback, and ultimately treating lies as reality"
• Daily Kos: "Republicans say 'job killer.' Traditional media fails to challenge or fact-check. Then repeats it." http://goo.gl/36nxM (6/14/2012)
• Slide to 10:50 or so for Colbert's laser-focused take-down of the media, which is as relevant today as 2006

 For more recent description of our newsmedia and how it's hurting democracy--see this Bill Moyers interview with Marty Kaplan:
 

KUDOS: MEDIA FIGURES DOING IT RIGHT

• O'Brien holds him to the facts about Medicare: Pawlenty suggests that Soledad O’Brien doesn’t understand English | The Raw Story (8/15/2012) - http://bit.ly/PkIkKj
• O'Brien pins Sununu down on Medicare facts:  Romney surrogate to CNN host: ‘Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead’ | The Raw Story (8/14/2012) http://bit.ly/Re0FfK
• Chuck Todd calls out a Romney surrogate liar on his lie | Eclectablog (8/15/2012) - http://bit.ly/RSV63Q

EXAMPLES OF STUNNING MEDIA FAILURES ON FACTS

• "We Haven't Run The Numbers:" A Startling Ryan Admission That's Getting Little Attention | Blog | Media Matters for America (8/15/2012) http://bit.ly/RWIlH1

MEDIA CONGLOMERATION

• The National Entertainment State, 2006 | The Nation - http://bit.ly/NqrDPD
• Where do Americans get their news and who controls what they consume? Ten years ago, when The Nation first charted a map of the National Entertainment State, four colossal conglomerates spread across the media landscape. Today, that map has significantly changed, because of the rise of new media and a vigorous reform movement, but the old corporate giants still hold most of the cards. Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are quickly rising, but are not included in this chart because they do not own--not yet, anyway--the major television networks, which remain Americans' #1 source of news.