As Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas debut tonight as the co-anchors of "World News Tonight," the traditional liberal bias promises to continue. On today's "Good Morning America," Woodruff reported from Iran, and made sure to equate conservatism with oppression: "One more indication of the growing conservatism here: this week the government closed down a daily newspaper and banned a women’s magazine. It has happened many times before but these are the first to be targeted since the new President was elected in August." Earlier in his 7am half-hour report, Woodruff asserted: “There is a new ultra-conservative President here, who is causing worry both inside and outside this country.”
This is an old problem, very common in the last years of Soviet communism, when the oppressors trying to preserve their iron grip on power became in liberal media lingo the "conservatives." Reporters do not equate liberalism with dictatorship, or anarchy. They're far too protective of liberalism to do such a thing. But conservatism on a global scale can be defined as anything oppressive, and nobody at the networks cringes or fidgets a bit.