Shows That Inform (NewsHour) Or Deceive (O'Reilly Factor)?

A liberal bias is always easy to discern in newspaper writers when they tout liberal programs as informative and more conservative programs as deceptive. Take, for example, Kevin McDonough, a TV critic for the United Feature Syndicate (photo from UFS), touted by his bosses as lively and comprehensive in previewing TV seven nights a week with his "witty, insightful and occasionally offbeat approach to TV commentary." On Monday, he began:

Television has many powers. Its ability to distract (VH1), enter tain (“The Office”), inform (“The NewsHour”), deceive (“The O’Reilly Factor”), anger (ditto) and sell (QVC) are well documented.

But the moments when television reaches for the sublime, the beautiful, the poetic and transporting are few indeed.

McDonough urges viewers not to miss the PBS "American Experience" documentary on poet Walt Whitman, who we're told was a pioneer who "set out to celebrate the human body and its pleasures as a temple for a new democratic American spirituality," whatever that's supposed to mean. I'm guessing that means Whitman was a spiritual godfather to those who danced naked and drugged up at Woodstock, which might explain why PBS would celebrate him.

(Hat tip: ProudAmerican 33)