What Liberal Media?

If anyone still believes in the myth of the liberal media, one only has to look at two recent stories to show the limits of the mainstream media and how they are anything but liberal.

On October 6 Salon reported that George Bush's 2004 election may have been made possible by a Toledo Blade chief political columnist sitting on a story. The columnist reportedly knew that the chair of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign for Lucas County's had potential campaign violations in early 2004 but suppressed the story.

Salon reported that according to several knowledgeable sources, the Blade's chief political columnist was told of the potential campaign violations as early as January 2004. But according to Blade editors, never gave the paper the all-important tip in early 2004. The reporter, who later went to work for a Republican congressional candidate, said he told his editors about the story.

The publisher and editor in chief of the Blade said that had the story blown up before the 2004 election "that most Republicans I know agree that Kerry would have won Ohio and won the presidency."

On October 10 Washington Post Media Critic Howard Kurtz noted in a story on Stephen Colbert of the "fake news show" the Daily Show on Comedy Central that Colbert said "The most common thing that real reporters say to me is, 'I wish I could say what you say.' I don't understand is, why can't they say what I say, even in their own way."

As an example, Colbert reviews how the Daily Show was the media that showed that Vice President Cheney's denial that he said it was "pretty well confirmed" that terrorist Mohammed Atta had met with an Iraqi official in Prague was false, showing both Cheney's denial and his original statement. Colbert was left wondering why it was left to the Daily Show to show it.

"That's not advocacy journalism. That's objectivity in its most raw form," Colbert said, adding the reason many reporters won't do that type of reporting is "that there's a sense that if they engaged in what we do at 'The Daily Show,' they'd be accused of being too aggressive."

Kurtz is a prime example of those accusers. In June Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post said following a weak effort by Tim Russert on Meet the Press in questioning RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman that "Russert is fast becoming journalism's answer to the 'E-ZPass,' those electronic tags that allow drivers to go through toll booths without having to stop. Kurtz snidely commented "How dare Russert not act as a Democratic debater!

So in both cases it looks like some, possibly many, in the media aren't doing its job. So if the media can't even go so far as to report the truth, how can it be liberal?