Stung by criticism from bloggers and others over a lack of will to truly examine the rise of the right wing media and how the MSM has cowed itself over the years, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz has looked down from his ivory story and attempted to determine what is going on in the streets.
After a quick looksey, Kurtz pronouncesd in a column in the Post that the Left's complaint is Why aren't you on our side? and the Right's complaint is Why can't we get an even break? What a joke. One only has to look at the favorite news organizations of the Right (FOX News) and Left (NPR). Which offers complete and balanced coverage (NPR) and which plays on one side (FOX - Republicans)?
Actually the Right wants it both ways - they want the media to be on their side (FOX News) and if not they complain that they don't get a break. What a crock!
Once and for all, this is the way it is - conservatives expect news coverage to be slated in favor of conservatives (i.e. Fox News) and get mad when it isn't. Liberals expect complete coverage (NPR) and get upset when it isn't.
But in the mind of pundits like Kurtz, asking tough questions of Republicans is akin to taking the Democrat's side, a point he made when Arianna Huffington complained that Tim Russert of Meet the Press gave GOP Ken Mehlman the traditional "E-Z Pass.
For years the Left has been pushing the media to just to do their job, not be a one-sided propaganda machine such as the Right has established with FOX News or the Wall Street Journal editorial page (which even the paper's news staff thinks it off the wall. - "They're wrong all the time. They lack credibility," said one Journal reporter)
For example, remember when the White House press corps woke up one morning earlier this year and decided it was okay to ask tough questions. Jon Stewart on The Daily Show joked that "We've secretly replaced the white house press Corps with actual reporters!"
However the Right has been pushing the media to cover the news from a right-wing perspective (attack Clinton, give Bush the benefit of the doubt) and it worked. Even the Post once upon a time admitted that in a column by John Harris.
Yet when liberals read stories like Harris's and get upset, the Kurtz's of the world call them "angry." One could live with the angry tag if the media would then apply the term "crazy" to the Ann Coulter's of the world, but too many in the MSM just laugh off comments by Coulter and Limbaugh.
In the end it's election year so the MSM wants to seem "balanced," or balanced in the eyes of Fox News so don't expect much to change.
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