High Bias "Mainstream" reporters aren't just liberal--they're fanatical.

[kaitykaity]

by Orson Scott Card (WSJ)
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005312

((Needs some serious debunking.))

So when Mr. Collins sets out to write a fair and balanced account of Fox News's triumph, he does not realize that his own reporting is biased, too. He scrupulously avoids demonizing the folks at Fox News.

But the bias is there. It is simply taken for granted that Fox distorts the news, that Fox is unusual for taking sides, while all of the allegations about liberal bias are refuted so that one could close this book believing that liberal bias in the vast majority of the American news media is a delusion shared only by dimwitted conservatives who don't like it that the world has passed them by--and blame the messenger.

So let's put it to the test. Is there a real leftist bias in the mainstream news?

<more>

[donco6]

1. Orson Scott Card

Hard core Mormon. Used to write fairly decent sci-fi (Ender's Game), but has since sunken to a morass of RW mumbo-jumbo.

[trotsky]

2. You can't argue with cherry-picked evidence.

And that's what Mr. Card's "case" is based upon.

[Kholst]

12. anecdotal evidence is an oxymoron.

Two strategies:

1) Use anecdotes showing conservative bias (especially if from the same source). This doesn't demonstrate a conservative bias, but destroys the case he's laid out for a liberal bias.

2) Use studies looking at things like how many newspapers supported Bush vs how many supported Gore, where the media outlets donate their money in campaigns, how often liberal vs conservative think tanks are consulted, and how often liberals are labeled as such vs. how often conservatives are. A bunch of that is collected here:
http://answerpool.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=669605981&f=245604891&m=902100042

[aden_nak]

3. Grrrrr.

Such a good sci-fi writer (I have one of his books on my desk right now, in fact), but apparently such a prat IRL.

[SonofMass]

4. With all the right wingers such as

Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings et. al., you aren't serious, are you?

[Ruffhowse]

5. Who gives a rip what right wing Mormon cultist Card thinks about anything?

Mormon cult members will spew out this kind of right wing rhetoric because they are so programmed by their religion. They have given up their free will.

[kaitykaity]

7. Because it's great fun to shoot his

arguments down. I like arguing with a famous person and
winning.

:evilgrin:

[trotsky]

8. Tell you what you do.

Go get the same papers he cited, and find an article or two that either:

1) Praises Bush (or Republicans), or justifies the Iraq war
or
2) Criticizes Democrats, or anything left-of-center

I guarantee you will find something meeting those two qualifications in even the most "leftist" of publications.

And fortunately you have a LOT of leeway in interpreting what "conservative" bias would be, considering the stretching he did.

[kaitykaity]

9. I cited Judith Miller's WMD stenography and

the ban on the footage of Bush's seven minutes
of fear after the attack.

I still can't believe they are stupid enough to
still try to advance this canard.

[trotsky]

10. Here's something else.

From the Asheville Citizen-Times!

http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/news/57642

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry selected former rival John Edwards to be his running mate, picking the smooth-talking Southern populist over more seasoned politicians in hopes of injecting vigor and small-town appeal to the Democratic presidential ticket, The Associated Press learned Tuesday.

So the "lens," the "filter" that we're supposed to use to view the rest of the article, says that John Edwards is an unseasoned smooth-talker. (And it also implies that Kerry's campaign lacked "vigor and small-town appeal.")

Oh yeah, THAT'S some liberal bias there. Hey Card, to quote your favorite VP candidate, "Go fuck yourself!"

[kaitykaity]

11. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Ruffhowse]

dupe

[Ruffhowse]

6. dupe