Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog.

Friday, August 17, 2007

The sacred, magical Klan of librulness

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Seattle Times reporters to our Klan. From Media Matters:
Summary: On the August 16 O'Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Bernard Goldberg asserted that "news executives ... don't seem to care very much about intellectual diversity of opinion." "[T]hat's why journalists can boo ... cheer ... bash Christians, and they're not afraid of what will happen." He concluded: "[T]his isn't that much different from how the Ku Klux Klan operates." O'Reilly responded: "I think it's even beyond that, Bernie." As Media Matters has documented, O'Reilly has repeatedly compared Daily Kos to the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

---snip---

O'Reilly's examples of "liberal bias" included MSNBC's Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough's August 16 assertion that, on his first day at MSNBC, members of the news staff booed during the 2003 State of the Union address. On his August 16 show, Scarborough was discussing the disclosure by The Seattle Times that several staff members had cheered in a meeting after Karl Rove's announcement that he will be leaving as the White House deputy chief of staff on August 31.

As Media Matters has noted, an Indiana University study found that "O'Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the ['Talking Points Memo'] editorials that open his program each night."
The futility of news organizations trying to appease the wingnuts should be obvious. Anything other than 100% pro-Republican and pro-Bush propaganda has been defined as "liberal bias" by the right. The wingnut method of argumentation is based on logical fallacies, so there's really no point in taking them seriously.

Journalists can still be professional, get the facts straight and acknowledge this basic fact of American politics. If it leads to the occasional whoop in a newsroom, I guess I don't see the problem. It gets old being called traitors, Nazis and such. After decades of this I'm surprised more reporters don't whoop it up a little.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM GEORGE SOROS -- All reporters should set their decoder rings to "27." We have a secret message for them: The eagle is soaring. I repeat: the eagle is soaring. And don't forget to drink your Ovaltine.

Resume liberal biasing at this time.

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