By: Heidi Moseley, THL ContributorIt is 2005. We’re in the middle of the Iraq War. The country is divided over the war. MS-NBC is nightly condemning the Bush Administration. They put President Bush’s staff under constant scrutiny.
CNN claims that President Bush and his aides are far-right wing extremists. This pushes the Bush Communications Director to say that the White House will treat MS-NBC and CNN as if they were political opponents.
Then Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly invites the CEO of Media Matters for America, David Brock on his show for an interview. Instead of discussing the pre-determined points, O’Reilly personally attacks him.
Do you think that the rest of the main stream media would cry out against such egregious attacks on the first amendment and blatant media biases?
Yet all of these things have happened. It’s just reversed. The Obama Administration is waging a war against a private cable news network- Fox News.
Anita Dunn, interim White House Communications Director, is focused on Fox News to catch them in any lies or missteps. The New York Times quoted her as saying of Fox: “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent.”
She clarified this on CNN’s Reliable Sources: "The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.”
One of the many examples of the vitriolic bias of the left-wing media is The Rachel Maddow Show on MS-NBC. During a 10-minute segment with Tim Phillips from Americans for Prosperity, she quickly switched topics from health care which was the agreed upon topic.
Instead she attacked the Americans for Prosperity Foundation chairman, David Koch, and another board member, Art Pope. Both of these individuals have donated a lot of money to get everyday Americans involved in the national political scene.
Tim Phillip pointed out the hypocrisy of her attacks as George Soros is the main funding source of MoveOn.org and a major donor to the Democrat Party. Soros was a driving force behind the election of President Obama. Maddow had no answer.
Where are the mainstream media and why do they remain silent? They are playing the administration's game at the moment, but I would venture a guess that the President would turn on the media if they began asking tough questions, beyond what Michelle is wearing and how it felt to win the Nobel.
Instead they called the people attending Tea Parties and Town Halls "mobsters," "racists," and "un-American." They grossly under-reported the size and scope of the 9/12 Tea Party in Washington DC. They sided with those in power over every day Americans.
The news media were specifically given rights in our Constitution’s First Amendment. We expect our news outlets to report accurately and fairly. We want the media to stand up against bullies no matter how powerful they are.
Lately though it seems that we can no longer trust the mainstream media to tell us the truth.
