Liberal Media Bias
We all know it exists and have noticed it at various times in passing, but here I’m going to chronicle what I hear of it. While walking my dog each day, I listen to a good bit of NPR and local public media from across the country (through the Public Radio Player app); I’ve concluded that NPR presents a fairer view of the facts than other venues such as CNN and MSNBC, but here I’ll keep a record of various tidbits of bias I hear from the media in general and journalists in particular.
The list is mostly for my own reference, but if you see anything you think should be included, feel free to send me an email at info@libertariangirl.com.
- Ongoing, including November 2, 2009, NPR’s “Marketplace” special report
, teaser by Ky Risdal for news on the stock market
Is it really bad for the stock market to be down? NPR thinks so (as do most media outlets, to be fair). A downturn means it was a “bumpy day,” etc. Of course, if one knows anything about the stock market, one knows that people can short stocks and make money when stocks go down, especially in commodities markets. In fact, the best players of the stock market do just this. Therefore, a bad day for one person is a good day for others. And to be honest, some stocks deserve to be down and some companies deserve to fail. Perhaps a fairer and better marketplace requires a resettling of stock value every once in a while. It’s not a bad thing.
- October 29, 2009, NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross
, critic-at-large John Powers
John Powers “reviews” the documentaries Schmatta and American Casino. He starts off well, saying they might give you a better perspective on today’s economy than Capitalism: A Love Story. But he throws in some opinions in there that are biased at best. Maybe that’s OK since he’s a movie reviewer and paid to be biased, but I’ve read many newspaper print reviews that comment on political movies, not necessarily directly on the ideas behind them.
Powers brings us these gems of objectivity:
“Starting with the early sweatshops, filmmaker Marc Levin shows how the notorious Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 — in which 146 female workers died after being locked in their burning workplace — helped jump-start the entire American labor movement, leading to widespread prosperity.
It was only the labor movement which led to prosperity, it had nothing to do with the Industrial Revolution, women entering the workforce and gaining more rights over time, people and companies becoming more progressively accepting of what is right as with slavery and many things, America becoming a world power after two world wars, companies, Henry Ford, the American public and hardworking immigrants, or the workers themselves. It was only the labor movement that produced prosperity. No word on why it’s not doing that now.
Now, Powers’ review of American Casino:
American Casino links the crisis to three things. The ideological belief in unregulated capitalism embraced by the likes of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan;…”
We can stop with that because this is even more of a gross mischaracterization than the above. To say that Alan Greenspan had a belief in “unregulated capitalism” is misleading at best and in truth quite false. It’s like saying Abraham Lincoln was a believer in maintaining slavery. He might have said things like that at one point, but when it came down to it, he freed the slaves. In the same way, whether Alan Greenspan was an Ayn Rand devotee at one time is irrelevant to what he actually did. Greenspan did what Ayn Rand would have hated by actually helming a central bank and controlling a huge part of commerce, the central currency, interest rates, and monetary policy. Sure, he caused a lot of the problems we are experiencing today. But what he did was not “unregulated capitalism” as his entire job involved regulating and trying to control a financial system, and remember, at the time, he was cheered on by the media as an economic hero beloved by all, Democratic and Republican.
we’re reminded of the great paradox also revealed in American Casino: Capitalism is the greatest engine for creating growth and wealth the world has ever known — even Karl Marx was impressed — but if you don’t control it, capitalism can be as destructive as it is creative. It creates good jobs for American garment workers, then takes them away, invents seemingly magical ways of letting people buy homes, then throws them out. Nothing is immune from its genius for creative destruction, although one thing does seem to remain constant. The system is far kinder to bankers and CEOs than to those who cut fabric or teach in our schools.
We’ve been controlling capitalism since about the days of Karl Marx, so to say all these problems are the result of not controlling capitalism is pretty disingenuous (notice how the controllers are never blamed for not getting the controlling right, just the “un”-controllers). Powers doesn’t mention that America’s teachers can buy garments inexpensively because they’re made in Bangledesh, not America, and that a big reason for that is the previously praised unions which asked for too much in the balance between employer and workers (case study: GM). He doesn’t seem to feel any joy for foreign workers who now have jobs and can feed their extremely impoverished families; he just meditates on the apparently severe wrong that has happened– doesn’t everyone know that once a job is created by the capitalist job gods, it can’t ever be taken away, forever and ever.
No mention of the government’s (or Greenspan’s) complicity in the subprime crisis, just again, lamentation that once a subprime loan has been extended, no paperwork and all, it must not be taken away or that is a *sin* of capitalism and capitalism only.
I could repeat Powers’ last sentence– “The system is far kinder to bankers and CEOs than to those who cut fabric or teach in our schools” — but there are two differences: I’m talking about the government system, and I’m unequivocally right. Sure, there is room for nuance (those CEOs who expect taxpayer dollars to bail them out are the lowest of the low, I agree), but Powers gives none. I mean seriously, not a harsh word for government in a piece about our current economic crisis?
- October 29, 2009, NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross
, guest Timothy Egan, New York Times columnist
Egan talks about how Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, best friends and President and head of the National Forest Service respectively, skinny-dipped together in the Potomac while discussing policy. “Imagine if Karl Rove and George Bush had skinny-dipped together in the Potomac while discussing plans to deregulate banks?”
Why is this bias? I’m all for jokes about George W. Bush, but there’s so much rich material to work with that one might as well include a kernel of actual truth when making such a joke (especially if you work for a seemingly objective news organization). The joke would have been more appropriate and truthful if it was about plans to invade Iraq or line the pockets of Halliburton; as it is, the primary president of recent years to spend time deregulating banks was Mr. Secretary of State, Bill Clinton. To imply otherwise on a national radio show is buying the line Obama has tried to sell us in his campaign and presidency, that Democrats had nothing to do with causing the current financial crisis when that’s certainly not the case.
- November 2, 2009, NPR’s “Marketplace” special report
-report on various bailouts and CIT collapse
An analyst from the Cato Institute is introduced as being from “the libertarian Cato Institute”. No other analyst or economist is identified with a description of political beliefs.
- March 4, 2010, promo for St. Louis Public Radio’s St. Louis on the Air morning show
Veteran St. Louis news anchor Don Marsh talks about the next edition of his show, focused on state budget cuts and various politicians’ plan for them — the politicians are “sharpening their budget knives.” At first, this may seem innocuous, but why a violent metaphor used for budget cuts that would never, ever be used for budget increases? Just imagine an anchor saying: “The politicians are working on ways to increase the budget- they’re sharpening their knives aimed at your take home pay!” No, they’d instead focus on the wonderful, fabulous programs that would be instituted by the budget increases.