From: Ant McWatt (antmcwatt@hotmail.co.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 27 2005 - 15:03:28 GMT
Just to clarify my previous post (pasted below), Jonah Goldberg is one of
the presenters of the MRC's DisHonors Awards while Bernard Goldberg is the
author of "Bias". Both men are staunch conservatives hence my initial
confusion with these two people.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ant McWatt stated January 20th:
I was hardly expecting a response (even a glib one) concerning Geoffrey
Nunberg’s critique of the Media Research Center just yet as I said that was
I delving further into the organization and its articles. However, without
some equally credible academic source to discredit Nunberg’s critique –
at some point, at least - Platt’s contention that there is credible
supporting
material for (Bernard) Goldberg's books does appear increasingly unlikely.
Platt Holden responded January 22nd:
“Not knowing what you consider "high quality supporting sources," here's
just a beginning list of sources used as references by the MRC:
George Washington University, Smith College, US New & World Report, Editor &
Publisher, California State University, Indiana University, American Society
of Newspaper Editors, Princeton Survey Research Center, Los Angeles Times.
So what's the problem?
Ant McWatt replies:
Actually, there’s a couple of problems.
Firstly, the Media Research Centre website advertises itself on its homepage
as having a conservative bias:
“For years, conservatives could only present the anecdotal evidence of
liberal journalists' bias - a question in this interview, a statement in
that report. However, anecdotal examples of bias do not prove a liberal
agenda. Only through thorough, comprehensive, and ongoing analysis based on
quantitative and qualitative research can one document liberal bias in the
media…”
(http://www.mrc.org/about/aboutwelcome.asp)
Therefore, it’s difficult to see why you directed me to this site as an
impartial source of liberal or conservative bias. It is obvious that such a
source is biased towards the right and will support Goldberg!
Secondly, regarding the universities mentioned by you above, there is no
evidence of independent research published by them supporting the MRC’s
contention that the mass media has a liberal bias either within the MRC
website or, for that matter, anywhere else on the internet. The MRC
assertion that it is devoted to “thorough, comprehensive, and ongoing
analysis based on quantitative and qualitative research” therefore appears a
fallacious and misleading claim.
OK, some further observations about the MRC website:
“The Special Reports: An In-Depth Study, Analysis or Review Exploring the
Media” page on the website (http://www.mrc.org/SpecialReports/welcome.asp)
where I thought such research would be presented just seems to have various
reports by MRC employees (such as Tim Graham, Rich Noyes and Brent Baker)
who blatantly cite their conservative bias in their respective MRC
biographies.
“The Special Reports” webpage is endorsed by one Cal Thomas who is described
as a “National Syndicated Columnist”. This non-committal description is
indeed true but what the page fails to state is that Thomas also presents
“Watch After Hours” on Fox’s News Channel and is a panellist on the weekly
“Fox News Watch”. In other words, just another conservative hack.
Furthermore, the “What People Are Saying About the MRC” page on the website
(http://www.mrc.org/membership/kudos.asp) again lacks any credible sources
and cites only radio talk show hosts, conservative politicians and
journalists.
I also viewed a video on the MRC website of what is apparently advertised as
a Jonah Goldberg speech and as I watched it I thought initially “Oh, no –
not another flag waver”. However, the speech, by the end, began to make a
lot of sense and I was thinking maybe Platt wasn’t completely mistaken about
(Bernard) Goldberg and the MRC.
I thought (Jonah or Bernard) Goldberg had stated the following:
“I decided to put on my flag pin tonight - first time. Until now I haven’t
thought it necessary to display a little metallic icon of patriotism for
everyone to see.... I put it on to take it back. The flag’s been hijacked
and turned into a logo – the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On those
Sunday morning talk shows official chests appear adorned with the flag as if
it is the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and during the State of the
Union did you notice Bush and Cheney wearing the flag? How come? No
administration’s patriotism is ever in doubt, only its policies. And the
flag bestows no immunity from error.”
“When I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I think of the time in China
when I saw Mao’s Little Red Book on every official’s desk, omnipresent and
unread. But more galling than anything are all those moralistic ideologues
in Washington sporting the flag in their lapels while writing books and
running Web sites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as
un-American.... I put it on to remind myself that not every patriot thinks
we should do to the people of Baghdad what bin Laden did to us.”
I thought fair enough. Though Goldberg’s (pick either Jonah or Bernard!) a
conservative, he still wants to emphasise that his views aren’t that extreme
and that not all conservatives are ranting flag wearers with a distorted
sense of patriotism. Then I realised – due to the poor navigation on the
MRC site - that I’d actually been watching a Bill Moyers speech (you have to
remember that being British, I am unfamiliar with what many of these people
look like!) and the reason it was featured on the MRC website was because
this clip had actually won the “Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased
Liberal Reporters of 2003” – “I Hate You #!*#! Conservatives Category”.
It was quite disturbing that such a level-headed clip could be considered in
such an extreme way. If I had been originally directed to this “media
watchdog” page as a parody of conservative ideology (say by Mark H) I would
have easily believed it!
Finally, I quote Steve Rendall from Axess, a social sciences magazine, based
in Sweden that “strives, above all, for quality of thought and writing, but
without being defined by a single political position… open to differing
arguments and standpoints, driven by reason rather than polemic.”
Rendall (an American philosophy and chemistry graduate) states: “The real
bias in American media is top to bottom. Our media is in favour of the top,
that is the richest and those aligned with corporate interests, and against,
in many cases, human and citizen interests.”
(http://www.axess.se/english/archive/2004/nr5/currentissue/theme_ovrebo.php)
Though I have recently seen university research that support Rendall’s
observations (such as Geoffrey Nunberg’s investigation into some of MRC’s
dubious claims), I have yet to see ANY high quality evidence supporting the
converse and therefore have to presently conclude that (Bernard) Goldberg
and the MRC are not to be trusted as regards the issue of media bias. To
use an analogy – if the suggested bias was an illness in a patient, the view
that there is conservative bias in the mass media has the support of
university trained doctors and surgeons while the view that there is a
liberal bias in the media has the support of the average barfly.
However, if you think I have overlooked any such university research, please
provide the specific university website addresses or bibliographical
references (if citing papers or texts) so I can examine them and re-assess
my thoughts.
Best wishes,
Anthony.
"They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, YOU or ME?
We're all normal and we want our freedom... freedom...
They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, YOU or ME?"
Lyrics from Love's "Red Telephone" on "Forever Changes"
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