In October 24 appearances on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, ABC News political director Mark Halperin claimed that the “old media” — broadcast news outlets and major newspapers — were “biased against conservatives; there’s no doubt about it.” He stated, “I think we’ve got a chance in these last two weeks [before the then-upcoming midterm elections] to prove to conservatives that we understand their grievances. We’re going to try to do better.” But if “try[ing] to do better” to not appear “biased against conservatives” meant offering viewers conservative misinformation, Halperin shouldn’t have worried; a review of dozens of items by Media Matters for America identifying and correcting conservative misinformation from ABC suggests that Halperin’s network was “try[ing] to do better” throughout 2006.
Clearly, ABC did in fact “do better” for Conservatives in 2006. ABC demonstrated that truth and reality need not be impediments to advocacy journalism..especially when as a corporation, the decision has been made to advocate Conservative viewpoints. Indeed, once freed of the archaic notions of “fairness”, “impartiality”, and “accuracy”, broadcast outlets like ABC are free to pursue any ideological bent free of fear of reproach or detection. With the exception of Air America, virtually all major media in this country is owned by (Conservative by definition) corporations run by rich White males. In light of that fact, for anyone in the Mainstream Media to be pissing and moaning about the unfairness and bias of the “Liberal Media” is disingenuous at the very least and an egregious, self-interested lie at worst.
2006 saw The Path to 9/11, which was truly a hallmark of MSM Conservative propaganda. By taking the worst day in this nation’s history and turning it into just another piece of propaganda for the Republican Noise Machine, ABC demonstrated that, as a journalistic entity, it’s completely beholden to the whims and sensibilities of Conservatives, and ignorant of the definition of “objectivity” and “integrity”. If the first casualty in war is truth, ABC publicly threw itself and it’s journalistic integrity onto a live grenade. Much of The Path to 9/11 was devoted to placing the blame squarely on the collective shoulders of the Clinton Administration.
The fact that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader ignored clear and convincing intelligence that al-Qaeda was planning an attack in the U.S. had NOTHING to do with 9.11, of course. And the reality that Our Glorious Leader and his fellow neoCon thugs gave short shrift to the threat of terrorism in general had NO impact on the horrific events of that terrible day. Then again, it DID provide them with ample opportunity to blame Iraq and embroil this nation is a seemingly endless war that thus far has claimed close to 3,000 of our sons and daughters.
Yeah…and that was also Bill Clinton’s fault, no?
Besides the lies and propaganda served up as “truth” in The Path to 9/11, ABC News demonstrated that it’s much easier (and no doubt far less expensive) to parrot Bush Administration talking points and propaganda than to engage in anything resembling journalistic “truth-seeking”.
Additionally, the network’s news coverage frequently reported Republican spin as fact, passed on falsehoods propagated by conservatives, and missed numerous opportunities to challenge or question the administration’s actions during solo interviews with Bush and key members of his administration.
These examples, and many more, earned ABC the distinction of being named Media Matters’ Misinformer of the Year for 2006…..But a look at some of its most flagrant examples of conservative misinformation confirms that ABC won the Misinformer of the Year the old-fashioned way: The network earned it.
The Path to 9/11 and the network’s willingness to parrot Administration propaganda virtually unfiltered are but only two instances of why ABC is so deserving of this award. Media Matters features a list of numerous instances of ABC News spin and propaganda repackaged as impartial journalism. I’m not going to regurgitate the list, because it’s there for you to read if you choose. It’s certainly an interesting, and quite disturbing, read. Suffice it to say that ABC is richly deserving of their “Misinformer of the Year” award. To call ABC and it’s news division sloppy, dishonest shills for Conservative ideology would be a simplistic- but not inaccurate- description of the lack of journalistic ethics and integrity on display throughout 2006.
The next time you hear talking heads bleating about the sins and bias of “the Liberal Media, you might want to take a look at the truth of what’s happening in TV news today.
LIBERAL MEDIA?? WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA?
