A Liberal Bias? David Brooks Says Aye, While Shields, Ifill, and Schieffer Say Nay

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CBS Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer held his fifth Schieffer symposium at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth on Wednesday, and his panel was completely chosen from the set of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: anchor Gwen Ifill and columnists David Brooks and Mark Shields. Associated Press covered it, but not so much on the issue of liberal bias. The headline was "Media panel says constant Obama coverage warranted."

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was more pointed, with a headline asking "Do journalists have a liberal bias?" Reporter Gene Trainor began:

Are the news media biased toward President Barack Obama?

David Brooks, a conservative columnist for The New York Times, said yes before a sold-out crowd of about 700 Wednesday at Texas Christian University. Mark Shields, a nationally syndicated liberal columnist, said no.

Brooks said : "I think the press is pro-Obama. Most of my colleagues are extremely committed to the craft of journalism. So I think most of the bias is unconscious — in framing the issues and what gets paid attention to."

But AP also found that "conservative" Brooks had to moderate it, pull it back a little:

Brooks said he believes the press has a subconscious liberal bias, but that "for all the adulation, I think that there's been a level of scrutiny" on the stimulus package and problems with some of his initial Cabinet choices.

"Most reporters are motivated by a desire to get on page one" and not any political leanings, he said.

Shields tried the usual trope that the media has a bias toward winners – not that media bias can make winners:

"I personally believe that the press has a serious bias when it comes to presidential politics in favor of winners. If you win, you’re a genius. If you lose, you’re somehow inadequate. That’s the bias we have." He noted that four years ago former President George W. Bush’s campaign architect Karl Rove was considered a genius. "I haven’t heard that about him in the last three years."

AP added this quote from Shields about the president: "I don't think he's getting a free ride." Trainor reported the other two panelists were in the usual mode of denial:

Ifill: "Intensity" would be a better word than bias. "I have been around people who always say, 'What do you think is going to happen next?’ They’re so nervous. They’ve counted so much on this presidency. I think sometimes the coverage is being driven by the intensity of voters."

Schieffer, a 1959 TCU graduate: Most journalists are focused on getting the story. "We’re never going to do a perfect job. We’re never going to satisfy everybody. I myself think the press has done a pretty good job considering the problems that confront the country.

It shouldn't be too surprising that PBS commentators were going to be weak in general on the media-bias question. AP's story briefly mentioned the minor fracas over Ifill moderating the vice-presidential debate while she was composing her laudatory book about "The Breakthrough" of the Obama age, complete with comfy interviews with Obama aides like David Plouffe.

CNBC's Trish Regan was also on the panel, but her remarks were not reported in these stories.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.


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Well at least

one of them is right!

its amazing

Their perception is their reality. They can't be wrong. who would dare question them?

 

 

the silent are speaking(finally)

Their perception is their

Their perception is their reality. They can't be wrong. who would dare question them?

Some of the Old Media might actually really believe this crap. However, I suspect many of them know that they are indeed biased in favor of the Democrats, but realize they can influence more people if they pretend that they are not.

“There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” - Ronald Reagan (1964 Republican Convention)

Purpose of a free press?

This explains where our "free" press is at.  I thought that the purpose of a free press was to guard against government/Obama control of our country.  We could have a Hitler figure here repeating the '30's in Germany, but this press would be incapable of seeing it.

 "If liberals didn't live it, it doesn't exist."

 Pickersenior

The good news I see is that

The good news I see is that many of the old print media are now free to find other employment.  Can the NYT be far behind?

"Fighters are fun but bombers make policy"

Are they trying to convince

Are they trying to convince us or themselves?  Nobody who has  above a two digit IQ would doubt that there is a liberal bias to the news.  Their hubris is outstanding. In fact, it rivals obamas.

Bob?..Nope no bias here...Jim?...No sir never have seen any...Gwen?...bias?..from us?..never! Mark..not in forty years!!! David?..well, maybe just a little bias...these people should never be taken seriously on any subject they ever bring up, including the weather.

No Shields Allowed

Mark Shields is a pompous buffoon. I can't stand to listen to the man for a second. I would not trust him to report the weather today.

Just a year or so ago....

...Shields was on a local talking head show here in DC and claimed that abolitionists were Democrats!!!

Then again maybe he meant to say it was abortionists who were Democrats.

I don't find this

I don't find this surprising.  Typical of the MSM, NPR and most "news" networks.

Biases

There's nothing inherently wrong with biases. They're intellectually necessary. If you had to re-think and re-evaluate every component of every situation, you wouldn't have time to act. Knowledge couldn't proceed if you had to deliberate everything from scratch every time. And when we get to complicated political or economic issues, you simply have to take a lot for granted. You have to skip over a lot of arguments and positions whenever you address issues.

When journalists claim that they don't have any biases, obviously they're not being absolutist about it. We all have some. What they're saying is that they feel comfortable with the biases that they have. They're also presuming that their biases reflect reality, that the things they don't bother deliberating are obvious to everyone else. They deny that their biases are created by political ideology or moral positions.

And that's crap.

I have a lot of biases. Because I've studied philosophy, I've tried to go back and evaluate my convictions rationally and explicitly (that's what philosophy is about). But no honest person would brag that they've examined everything. Psychology constantly reveals how many subconscious biases we have that we never chose rationally. Some are genetic, some are developmental, some are cultural. Fairly few are chosen deliberately.

For anyone, never mind a journalist who is surrounded by like-minded colleagues, chasing powerful people who specialize in persuasion and manipulation, to claim that they have no biases is simply a denial of humanity. It's so ridiculous that the moment you hear them say it, the mere fact that they say it reveals how trapped they are within their bubble.

There is an inherent

There is an inherent logical flaw in asking anyone if they are biased.  The fact that this flaw is not obvious to journalists is either evidence of their bias or evidence of their ignorance, take your pick.   Very few people believe they are biased; they merely believe things are the way they think they are, that's all.  If a journalist is for strong gun control, it is only because this is the way it should be--all reasonable people are for strong gun control.  If they are pro choice, it is not because they are "biased," it is because the pro-choice position is the "mainstream" viewpoint.  Only country-bumpkins and hicks are pro-life.  You see, no bias.

 

The most successful war America has ever waged is quickly becoming President Obama's war on capitalism.

Brooks is unconscious...and

Brooks is unconscious...and has been for years. 

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

Tokenism

Brooks is no conservative. I'm so sick of being told by everyone (the media and my liberal friends) that he is.

Why then, David Brooks, were these stories not on page 1

Why then, David Brooks, were these stories not on page 1 (i.e., why are they not widely known and understood by the pubic):

Bush did not cause the budget surpluses to dissapear from 2001 to 2003. He played a very minor role.

Clinton's complacency in addressing the world HIV/Aids pandemic resulted in millions more deaths - and that Reagan's whatever has no significant place in the discussion.

That among US presidents, Bill Clinton, was the most culpable in the underlying truths in the movie, "Blood Diamond."

That it was Gore, himself, and Democrats that prevented his own late 90's Airport saftey and security Commission reccomendations from being implemented. Would I like to know if increased airport security that was proposed, might have prevented 9/11? Color me silly.

That Clinton and the US turned their backs on the Afghanistan people in their last and most desparate moment of being crushed during the Taliban takeover in the mid-late 90's.

That Nelson Mandela and Pres. Carter condemned Clinton's effort in Kosovo as just as crimminal as what they were trying to stop.

That Clinton/Cuomo's HUD actions in the late 90's and in 2000 were much of the fuel for the housing bubble and the mortgage credit crisis.

That Obama has said that he thought that was a good thing in theory (felt good thing) - but that it didn't work out so well.

That President Bush pulled off the largest reduction in stockpiles of nuclear bombs - but Obama will be praised for doing just a little bit more.

The corruption in the Clinton White House - Riady, Huang, Trie, Lum, Brown, etc.

That Al Gores attorney in Bush v Gore, David Boies, came out defending Libby and attacking Fitzgerald.

That Rev. Wright ranted that Bill Clinton had ____ed the black community just as he had done Monica Lewinski.

That the loudest most public and highest elected official who still stated in Nov. 2005 that it was a fact that Iraq had nuclear bombs, was Democratic Senator and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Carl Levin.

The Clinton administration did far more for Enron than did the Bush administration.

That Clinton went on record in July 2003, defending Bush on WMD's in Iraq, and on the need for all of us to get together to support the effort to bring a democracy to the people of Iraq.

That William Ayers called for urban warfare on the streets of America.

About Biden's decade's long false accusations that the man involved in his first wife's car accident (resulted in her death and his daughters') had drunk his lunch. It was her fault.  

That Obama stole his first election (by left wing media standards).

That a majority of Americans want serious legal immigration reduction and the illegals kicked out.

That a majority of Americans supported much of Bush's proposals for reforming SS, including voluntary private accounts for a portion of the contributions for those under age 55.

And that a majority of Americans felt that 1.) the stimulus bill had too much spending in it, and 2.) it probably wouldn't actually work so well. 

We all realize that we could do this all day long. (;~/ gary

Gwen Eyefull

The exact year eludes me, (could have been 1989), but I was watching a panel discussion of six or so "journalists" on television.  The question was posed:  What is the most important news story of the year in a long-term historical perspective.  One after one the response was, "The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union."  That is until it was Gwen Eyefull's turn.  Her response?  The end of aparthied in South Africa.

Important?  Sure.  Bias exposing?  Obviously.

"When will Barack Obama apologize to the American people for destroying their once great nation?" - MSM 2012

Thank heaven for the MRC and NewsBusters

This bad joke of a show reminds me of the occasional episodes PBS would have in the seventies and eighties - before Rush, before the MRC, before just about all conservative opposition - where the host would read the accusation of media bias and the "jury" round table panel - composed - naturally - of media figures and moderates would "thoughtfully" comment and, voila, in an hour they'd find the media innocent of all charges of bias. They would find the media guilty of lesser charges  - you know, the usual minor things they use to divert the obvious conclusion of actual media bias like "sensationalism", "short attention spans", etc. (shades of Howard Kurtz). It was groan-inducing then - even more so than now -because I didn't know that other people saw the bias I saw. Lke I said at the top...

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

Individually, the bias may be missed.

But NB looks at the MSM collectively. Collectively, there is a loud clear bias. There is also a distinct echo chamber. They do not talk to us. They only talk to each other.

 Karl Rove was considered a genius. "I haven’t heard that about him in the last three years."

 Um, Karl Rove is now on the Fox News payroll. He is all over teh Fox News. You have not heard about him because you are in an ECHO CHAMBER.

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.