Ramblings' Journal

More Democrats get their talking points from ABC News than any other source

Today's New York Post includes an editorial that finds it unfathomable that bias against the GOP by the mainstream media is as open and as blatant as it is during this election cycle.

Though many in the press deny this bias, Newsweek editor Evan Thomas all but confessed the bias on this week's edition of PBS' Inside Washington.

"The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards — I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox — as being young and dynamic and optimistic, and there's going to be this glow about them, collective glow."

A memo from ABC News Political Editor Mark Halpern surfaced on The Drudge Report on Friday. Halpern's memo, to the chagrin of ABC, all but told reporters to be harder on Bush than on Kerry.

An internal memo written by ABCNEWS Political Director Mark Halperin admonishes ABC staff: During coverage of Democrat Kerry and Republican Bush not to "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable."

The controversial internal memo obtained by DRUDGE, captures Halperin stating how "Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win."

But Halperin claims that Bush is hoping to "win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions."

This rings true when you look back at ABC News over the course of the past year, most notably at their daily political news column, The Note, back on February 10.

Like every other institution, the Washington and political press corps operate with a good number of biases and predilections.

They include, but are not limited to, a near-universal shared sense that liberal political positions on social issues like gun control, homosexuality, abortion, and religion are the default, while more conservative positions are "conservative positions."

It still has a hard time understanding how, despite the drumbeat of conservative grass-top complaints about overspending and deficits, President Bush's base remains extremely and loyally devoted to him -- and it looks for every opportunity to find cracks in that base.

More systematically, the press believes that fluid narratives in coverage are better than static storylines; that new things are more interesting than old things; that close races are preferable to loose ones; and that incumbents are destined for dethroning, somehow.

The overriding evidence shows that ABC News obviously has a liberal agenda, geared toward removing the current Administration from office by any means necessary, and they won't hesitate to use underhanded and unethical means to do so.

Posted by mhking at October 10, 2004 09:05 PM