BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
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For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
ALAN SIMPSON ON THE "LIBERAL"
MEDIA. Here at Media Log Central these days, it's all Clinton,
all the time. Day and night, we slog through My Life, a
project that's taking almost as long as it did for him to live it,
never mind write it. Is it "eye-crossingly
dull"? At times.
But I love a critique offered by
former Republican senator Alan Simpson, of Wyoming, about the
so-called liberal media. It appears on pages 692-693, and I quote
Clinton at some length:
Simpson laughed at how
willing the "elitist" press was to swallow anything negative about
small, rural places like Wyoming or Arkansas and made an
interesting observation: "You know, before you were elected, we
Republicans believed the press was liberal. Now we have a more
sophisticated view. They are liberal in a way. Most of them voted
for you, but they think more like your right-wing critics do, and
that's much more important." When I asked him to explain, he said,
"Democrats like you ... get into government to help people. The
right-wing extremists don't think government can do much to
improve on human nature, but they do like power. So does the
press. And since you're President, they both get power the same
way, by hurting you."
Liberal in a way. That sums
up what I've been saying about allegations of liberal media bias for
years. There are critics who deny there is any liberal bias on
the part of the media, or that if there was, it has long since burned
itself out. In fact, there is a liberal bias on certain cultural
issues - abortion rights, gay issues, and the social agenda in
general.
But the media are moderate to
conservative on economics (when was the last time you saw a positive
story about organized labor anywhere except in the Nation?)
and agnostic on foreign policy (if George W. Bush's Iraq misadventure
had been an unqualified success, the media would be hailing him as a
new Caesar).
Perhaps most important, journalists
counter the accusation that they are liberal by going after liberal
and/or Democratic politicians like crazed weasels. Just look at what
they did to Clinton. And Al Gore.
Those distinctions are important to
keep in mind as the 2004 presidential campaign moves ahead. The media
should be tough on John Kerry - and Bush. But their coverage of the
Gore campaign four years ago amounted to a wilding. That can't happen
again.
LITTLE PEOPLE MAKES
THE CONNECTION. Tune in this Thursday at 11 a.m., when
I'll be a guest on The
Connection, on WBUR
Radio (90.9 FM), talking about Little
People: Learning to See the World Through My Daughter's
Eyes.
posted at 9:13 AM |
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1 Comments:
I just want to congratulate you on having comments. Most media blogs do not.
And to point out that, yes, it would be nice if more people thought before attacking. That's true from the high school gang banger to the police to hacker the president.
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
