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Jewish World Review
March 13, 2012/ 19 Adar, 5772
Bias in the News: Blame it on Their Zip Code
By
Bernard Goldberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
For years, journalists have bristled at allegations of liberal bias in the news. "If you think we have a bias," some of them would say, "that only proves one thing: that you're the one with the bias." When my book Bias came out at the end of 2001 —despite a surprisingly good review in the New York Times — so-called mainstream reporters generally denounced the book. "Liberal bias?" they asked incredulously. "What liberal bias?" A few even called me a "traitor" for supposedly turning on my colleagues, which is kind of funny since these are people who won't call a real traitor … a traitor.
Well, now we have Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent at NBC News, breaking ranks (sort of) with his fellow journalists. In an interview with Politico, Todd says, "To me, the ideological bias in the media really hasn't been there in a long time. But what is there that people mistake for ideological bias is geographic bias. It's seeing everything through the lens of New York and Washington."
Not really, but it's good that Chuck Todd at least seems to be acknowledging that there was, once upon a time an ideological bias in the mainstream media. To say it "hasn't been there in a long time," acknowledges that it was there, once. This is something a lot of journalists would never admit.
To Chuck Todd, bias in the news simply stems from too many elite journalists living in too few places, Manhattan and DC. But what Chuck Todd doesn't quite seem to understand is that geography influences culture and culture influences ideology. People on the Upper West Side of Manhattan don't see Obamacare, for example, the same way people in Alabama see it. That's not because of geography. It's because of ideology. Or to put it another way, there are a lot more liberals on the Upper West Side than there are in Montgomery.
Todd is hard on political journalists, but only up to a point, and makes sure we understand that they're not slanting the news in favor of liberals because they themselves are liberals. The reason, he says, has a lot more to do with zip codes than party affiliations.
"I think sometimes there are too many people who cover politics that don't understand the grassroots of the Republican Party," he correctly tells Politico. And why don't they understand? Because they cover America from a safe distance, embedded in the nation's two media capitals — Washington and New York. "Part of what animates them [political journalists] is if [Middle Americans are] pushing it, I'm against it. But also that we don't understand their day-to-day lives. That we don't respect the fact that they go to church twice a week. That when we look down our noses upon Wal-Mart, they see it as the only place to shop."
Let's see if I have this right: The sophisticates in Manhattan and Georgetown don't like anything that the hayseeds who live in Middle America like. If the unwashed in Flyover Country are for it, the elites in New York and DC are against it. That, Chuck, is not a geographical bias. It's the same old bias conservatives have been complaining about for years. It's a bias based on the reporter's ideology, the journalist's liberal ideology.
By blaming it all on geography, Chuck Todd, intentionally or not, tries to take the edge off of the problem. If it's only geographical, it speaks only to a blind spot. It says, "Hey, we live in a bubble, that's why we're biased. And it has nothing to do with our politics." Yes, they do live in a bubble, but make no mistake: inside that bubble journalists don't simply share the same geography — they share the same ideology. They're almost all liberals inside the bubble who share the same values, and believe those values are moderate, mainstream and reasonable while conservative values are extreme and dangerous.
"Too many people mistake ideological bias for what really is a matter of geography," is how he ends his interview with Politico.
Sorry, Chuck, but you're the one who is making a mistake. If almost all the media elites live in Washington and New York and are liberal, is the problem that they live in Washington and New York or that they're liberal? If there were more conservatives in the ranks of elite journalists — editors, producers, anchors — it wouldn't matter if they all lived on the same block.
But let's give Chuck Todd some credit for even bringing up the subject of bias in the news. Halley's Comet flashing across the sky over the USA is a more commonplace event than a mainstream reporter admitting any kind of bias. Still, it's too bad, since he's in charge of political coverage at NBC News, that Todd forgot to tell Politico about how supposedly objective journalists fell madly in love with Barack Obama four years ago and decided they would not settle for being eyewitnesses to history. The election was too important. This time, they felt, they had to they help shape history. So they put on their short skirts to go along with their pompoms and shamelessly became cheerleaders for Mr. Obama — and will probably do it again once the Republicans pick their nominee. That kind of journalistic bias has very little to do with geography and whole bunch to do with ideology.
So, one cheer for Chuck.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
JWR contributor Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of several bestselling books, among them, Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news. He is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. Mr. Goldberg covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 10 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He now reports for the widely acclaimed HBO broadcast Real Sports.
He is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and a member of the school's Hall of Distinguished Alumni and proprietor of BernardGoldberg.com.
Previously:
• 03/06/12: Thank Heaven for Rich People --- a Second Look
• 02/29/12: Some Free Advice for the Republican Field
• 02/28/12: Do We Have a Right to Lie?
• 02/16/12: Can Obama Win Re-Election by Promising Free Stuff?
• 02/06/12: The 5 Stages of Mitt
• 02/02/12: Florida Has Spoken; Cue the Fat Lady
• 01/30/12: The Other Global Warming Story
• 01/26/12: They See Racists Everywhere . . .
• 01/24/12: The Arrogant and Clueless Mainstream Media
• 01/23/12: Gingrich Wins SC --- Media Help Big Time
• 01/18/12: A New Entry for 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America
• 01/12/12: The Dream Ticket Could Be a Conservative Nightmare
• 01/11/12: Now 'Anybody But Romney' Has a Name
• 12/30/11: I Have a Confession to Make . . .
• 12/27/11: Know When to Hold 'em and Know When to Fold 'em
• 12/20/11: NBC News, the KKK and the State of Journalism
• 12/19/11: Mitt and Newt: Two Rich Guys Arguing Over Money
• 12/13/11: Donald Trump Is the Greatest; Just Ask Him
• 12/12/11: Rob Peter to Pay Paul: Bad Economics! Good Politics?
• 12/07/11: Yeah . . . and Fish Don't Know They're Wet, Either
• 12/06/11: Did the Media Play Fair with Herman Cain?
• 12/05/11: Obama to Blue-Collar America: Adios!
• 11/29/11: We Can Stop the Crazy Train Before It Gets to Greece
• 11/22/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
• 11/15/11: The Dumbest Media Question I've Ever Heard
• 11/09/11: What If Herman Cain Did It?
• 11/08/11: What If Herman Cain Were a Lib?
• 11/02/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
• 11/01/11: We're Approaching the Tipping Point
• 10/25/11: A Response to the Angry Purists
• 10/18/11: They're Waiting for Reagan to Hit the Campaign Trail
• 10/12/11: Read This!!! --- But Only If You Have Nothing Better To Do
• 10/04/11: Can Obama Win Re-Election?
• 09/27/11: It's NOT the Economy Stupid, It's Theology
• 09/20/11: Bad News on the Doorstep
• 09/09/11: Hypocrisy!
• 09/06/11: Back to the Future
• 08/24/11: Hillary vs. Obama in 2012? It'll Never Happen --- I Don't Think
• 08/22/11: Warning: Conservatives May Be Harmful to Your Mental Health
• 08/17/11: Warren Buffett, Coddled Billionaire
• 08/11/11: Too Much Balance in the Media?
• 08/04/11: All Aboard the Crazy Train
• 08/01/11: Liberal Hate Speech
• 07/25/11: With All Due Respect, Go Fly a Kite
• 07/20/11: Who Is A ‘Natural Born Citizen’?
• 07/18/11: Guess Who's Not Paying Their Fair Share
• 07/12/11: Against More Taxes? You May Be a Terrorist!
• 07/11/11: Casey Anthony: The TV Show
• 07/06/11: Standards and Double Standards at MSNBC
• 06/29/11: Is Jon Stewart A Racist?
• 06/21/11: Let's Play the Race Card --- Just for Fun Of Course
• 06/20/11: Sarah Palin and Weiner's Weiner
• 06/03/11: Memo to GOP: Turn Mr. Obama into Mr. Yesterday
• 05/20/11: I Get Letters From People Who Should Be Locked Up
• 05/09/11: Is ‘Torture’ Ever Justified?
• 05/02/11: The Promiscuous Use of the R Word
• 04/19/11: The Man Behind the Million Dollar Smile
• 04/12/11: What's the Difference Between Libs in Politics and Libs in the Media?
• 04/08/11: An Idea Whose Time Has Come — and Gone
• 03/28/11: The Pundits Are Driving Me Crazy --- And You Thought Qadaffi Is Nuts
• 03/14/11: No Liberal Bias at NPR — Just Ask NPR
• 03/10/11: The media's frustration
• 03/01/11: Progressives Lost in Time . . .
• 02/23/11: The Lamestreams Strike Again --- This Time in Madison
• 02/03/11: You MUST Own a Gun --- Or Else!
• 01/20/11: It Was Horrible, I tell you … HORRIBLE!
• 01/11/11: Here We Go Again . . .
• 01/06/11: You Go, Oprah
• 12/28/10: A Year-Ender --- The MSM and Obama's Fall from Grace
• 12/14/10: Thank Heaven for Rich People
• 12/02/10: The Phony Nobility of Wikileaks
© 2011, Bernard Goldberg
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