Bob Herbert: columnist from the Planet Benzar? Seriously, what the former New York Times op-ed writer had to say this morning is enough to make you wonder whether he occupies the same orb as the rest of us. Appearing on Melissa Harris-Perry's MSNBC show, Herbert literally laughed out loud at the notion that American media leans liberal. According to Herbert, the bias in the American media is "overwhelmingly" to the right.
Herbert's snicker came in response to a statement by New York Times reporter Amy Chozick, also an MH-P guest. Chozick recently wrote an article reporting on the Koch brothers' possible interest in buying the Tribune Company, which among other media outlets owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. According to Chozick, the brothers' interest was in part sparked by their outrage in seeing the liberal bias when they pick up American newspapers. View the video after the jump.
AMY CHOZICK: I had sources who told me time and again that the Koch brothers have opened the newspaper for decades and raged at what they see as the liberal bias--and how do they change that? How do they get their conservative voices heard?
Laugh heard off-camera.
MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY: So Amy, I just have to come out to the table here. Because when you said the rage about the liberal bias, Bob Herbert snorted, or laughed. What was that response about?
BOB HERBERT: It's silly that there's a liberal bias in media. Obviously, there are liberal voices and there are conservative voices. But overwhelmingly, media in the United States--television, newspapers, and that sort of thing--the bias shifts towards the right. It's a center-right media in this country.
