Today’s lineup:
Chuck Todd – NBC Political Director
Judy Woodruff – PBS reporter
Mike Murphy – Republican consultant
Andrea Mitchell – NBC reporter
Apparently every Democrat and Liberal in the area left town for the weekend…
Breaking News
Oprah Quitting TV Show In 2011
Meet The Press: No Liberals Allowed (Again)
August 3rd, 2008
36 Comments
What are you talking about? You had Todd, Woodruff and Mtchell. The republican was outgunned 3:1
Todd, Woodruff, Mitchell liberals? LOL! Looks like liberals have been absent for so long, people don’t even know what they look like anymore.
Sure, the ratio of journalists to conservatives was 3:1, but not a liberal or Democrat was on the panel.
No, no Oliver, as has been amply documented, simply having a journalist of any stripe (other than maybe Bob Novak) counts as your recommended daily intake of liberals as far as the teevee is concerned.
Correct Rheinhard!
4 times more journalists define themselves as “liberal” as opposed to conservative….
http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1269
And yet their work product demonstrates that unlike con “journalists” (in outlets like The Weekly Standard, The National Review or Fox News), they don’t echo party talking points. Meet The Press has a habit of excluding liberals from their panels. Would it have hurt for them to have a Democratic consultant or someone from The Nation or The American Prospect on to balance Murphy?
Last week the only two people were Obama and Brokaw. The week before it was Al Gore, David Gregory, and Chuck Todd.
Quit your faux outrage, Oliver. It’s transparent and pathetic.
Gimme a break. I think it’s ridiculous that there’s a panel on the campaign and a liberal is excluded. You seem to confuse (purposefully) the interview with the panel.
Cry me a river. Here’s the list of MTP people for anyone who wants to verify Oliver’s BS.
Today of all days is NOT the day to complain about conservative bias on MTP. Did you just completely miss the 1st half of the show with Kerry and Lieberman?
This seems like a good place to pose this question for our conservative brethren –
1) Would the fairness doctrine be a blanket FCC policy, pertaning to all broadcast media?
2) If so, don’t you stand to gain on television much more than you’d lose on talk radio, if TV journalism is as biased as you say?
Did you just completely miss the 1st half of the show with Kerry and Lieberman?
Surely you are not suggesting the LIEberman is a liberal. Because doing so would cause you to lose all credibility among thinking primates.
Wait.
I’ll tackle those two questions, Parthenon:
1) Yes, it would. But big deal — it would not cover cable channels, and that’s where the most heinous offenders against “fairness” live. Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN would be exempt from its restrictions.
2) The problem with that is threefold.
A) If it escaped your notice, Oliver is often touting the work of his employer, Media Matters For America, and their agenda is that there is already too much conservative bias in the mainstream media. With that mindset, should it prevail (and while I don’t know MMfA’a position on the Fairness Doctrine, I suspect they support it), the “obvious” solution is to balance out the “conservative” members of the media with more “liberal” commentators.
B) Those who are pushing hardest for the Fairness Doctrine would be the ones who would implement it. Their top priority would most likely be those who opposed it most strenuously — talk radio. Once that fight is over, either the Doctrine would be dead or talk radio would be dead. If it’s the former, then TV is safe. If it’s the latter, then I suspect the Doctrine’s enforcers will be singing out of the Media Matters hymnal, with a few token liberals slapped down.
C) There are a lot of us who oppose the Fairness Doctrine not because we think it will “hurt” our cause, but on principle. I don’t think that it’s the government’s place to control the market place. People will vote with their feet, their ears, their dials and decide the matter quite nicely.
Case in point: Rush Limbaugh just signed a renewal that will ultimately pay him almost half a billion dollars or so. Air America (if you’ve never heard of them, I’m not surprised — they’re a liberal talk radio network) had to rip off a New York City Boys and Girls Club to keep paying its bills.
For the record: I don’t listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, or Air America. I prefer the local stuff.
It’s not about “winning,” Parthenon. It’s about principle. And it’s about keeping the government out of the business of shaping opinion and balancing ideologies.
J.
Repack, Lieberman is very much a liberal. It was a single issue — the Iraq war — that got him labeled a heretic and cast out. On pretty much every other issue, he’s very much a liberal. Human Rights Campaign gave him an 88% approval on gay rights issues. The NRA gave him an F on gun control. He’s a very strong environmentalist. He’s staunchly pro-choice.
Gee, what happened to the guy who was enough of a good Democrat to be Al Gore’s running mate in 2000?
J.
I appreciate the thoughtful response Jay, even if I’m pretty sure the fairness doctrine isn’t well understood by most people, supporters and detractors. I myself am undecided. If it were as heinously thought-police as it is sometimes portrayed (generally by the big talkers, perhaps not surprisingly), then I would be against it. But from what I’ve read from other sources it appears that it’s been misrepresented in those circles.
Anyone notice how obsessed Jay is with where I work? And yet, unlike con bloggers who do conference calls, receive grants from con foundations and the like, I’ve always disclosed my connection – since the day I was hired (and even before I actually first came to work)? Yes, Media Matters believes conservative misinformation infects the mainstream media and… OMG I DO TOO!!!!
Anyhow.
I don’t think it was a good idea to get rid of the Fairness Doctrine, but I’m personally not in favor of it being reinstated. What I would like to see is the following from the media:
1. On panels where issues are being discussed, I’d like some balance. No, not a straight journalist with a conservative writer/pundit. Not someone from NPR and someone from the Weekly Standard. Republican consultant? Democratic consultant. Conservative columnist? Liberal columnist. It isn’t that hard to do. It can’t be that hard for a TV booker to call up The Nation and ask if they have a writer that can come down to their studios.
2. Ending he said/she said. The idea that reporters with a straight face write things like “Barack Obama claimed that the sky is blue, but in fact some Republicans believe otherwise” is ludicrous. Its a little harder work to investigate a pols claims, but considering the fate of the world’s largest and most powerful democracy is in play, I don’t think it’s too much to ask.
Again, boogedy boogedy I work for Media Matters. Boogedy.
BTW, was Joe Lieberman on MTP as an advocate of liberal causes? No, he was on as a chief surrogate of John McCain, who last time I checked was the Republican candidate for the presidency. On a variety of issues, Lieberman argued the conservative position in opposition to Obama surrogate John Kerry.
Repack, Lieberman is very much a liberal.
What are you smoking? It’s a lot better than the crap I get.
what happened to the guy who was enough of a good Democrat to be Al Gore’s running mate in 2000?
Liberals have been asking that question since 2003, when he went seriously off the rails. He lost a Democratic primary in 2006, and needed Republican votes to retain his seat. Now he is being seriously considered as a speaker at the GOP convention, because as everyone knows, they like liberal speakers.
OT, but I thought somebody should point out that one of our wingnuts was actually featured on The Colbert Report this past Wednesday, when ‘The Word’ segment was about none other than —-
Save Ferris.
I kid you not.
Air America (if you’ve never heard of them, I’m not surprised — they’re a liberal talk radio network) had to rip off a New York City Boys and Girls Club to keep paying its bills.
You know, all that blather about “principles” kinda loses its bite when you toss in cheap lies like this one.
Oliver, at 3:06 you cited a Media Matters report to back up your assertion that Meet The Press is conservatively biased. I’m not allowed to cite them to back up my claims?
But that does prompt me — I think I’ll take the opportunity here to disclose all my business affiliations, grants, paychecks, conference calls, favors, and all other compensation I’ve received for endorsing the positions I’ve held, and attacking those I disagreed witH:
…
Wow, that was cleansing. I feel so much better with that burden off my chest.
And Quaker, sorry I used shorthand. But it’s a matter of record that the Gloria Wise Boys And Girls Club, a tax-exempt non-profit that got a lot of its money from the city of New York, loaned Progress Media, the owner of Air America, $875 million interest-free. The loan was authorized by Evan Cohen, Progress Media’s chairman, who was at the same time Gloria Wise’s Director of Development. This was so illegal that Wise was stripped of its non-profit status and its right to the “Boys And Girls Club” name, and triggered a criminal investigation that resulted in the fugitive Cohen being arrested in Guam.
Perhaps “stole the money” was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a hell of a lot shorter than typing “the chairman of Progressive Media, the company formed to own Air America, who was also on the board of a city-funded non-profit, arranged for that non-profit to make an $875,000 interest-free loan to Air America, a for-profit entity, in violation of city, state, and federal laws. And though the illegal ‘loan’ was exposed in July 2005, Air America didn’t repay it until September 2006.”
There, happy now, Quaker?
J.
Good point, Oliver. I think I’ll take this opportunity to disclose all the conference calls I’ve been on, all the grants and subsidies I’ve gotten from right-wing foundations and organizations, and personal financial gains I’ve made because of the causes I’ve espoused and denounced:
…
Well, I certainly feel better.
Oliver, at 3:06 you supported your position on how terribly biased Meet The Press is by… linking to Media Matters. So it’s all right for you to cite them to bolster your position, but I can’t refer to them to support mine?
J.
Damn… double posting. My apologies.
J.
Thanks buma!. Even if he spelled it wrong…
I love Oliver’s reasoning: if you’re a liberal but you’re there in opposition to other liberals, you count as a conservative. If you’re a conservative, but you’re there in opposition to other conservatives (like all 875 John McCain appearances over the last 8 years), you count as … a conservative!
I would put it a bit differently, Farris:
If you’re a member (albeit in in poor standing) of the Democratic Party, but are actively supporting the Republican candidate for President and are being courted to speak at the Republican convention, then you don’t get to be counted as a spokesman for the Democratic party of progressive principles on a talk show.
If you can point to a time when John McCain was publicly supporting a Democratic candidate – for any office – over the Republican candidate, then I’ll grant you those the appropriate fraction of those “875″ appearances. Which I suspect will be a big fat 0.
Quaker, a bit of a quibble:
1) Lieberman is not, as I understand it, a member of the Democratic party. He caucuses with them and votes with them most of the time, but he is not a member of that party.
2) As I noted before, Lieberman takes the progressive side on most issues. So for most things, he is a reliable voice for the progressive cause.
3) I suspect a good chunk of conservatives’ admiration for Lieberman is based not on his stand on issues (as noted, he opposes the conservative side most of the time), but it’s guaranteed to piss off the Democratic leadership and the nutroots. Lieberman, like Zell Miller, is a classic liberal, an old-school Democrat, a leftover from the days when you could respect your opponents, even like them. (Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill were great buddies after hours.)
J.
what happened to the guy who was enough of a good Democrat to be Al Gore’s running mate in 2000?
I never thought that was a good idea.
Oliver,
You should ask P6 to share his devoweling software program with you.
PT, it’s most often called “disemvowelling” and we have it at Wizbang. We use it very rarely, but it is quite handy.
Oliver, I dunno if it’s a plugin or just some commands, but if you like, I can tell you the commands we use to activate it.
J.
That explains a hell of a lot of gibberish comments I’ve read in my months of blog-reading…
well if u know of another media watchdog who has quantified MTP guests feel free to cite them.
Just shorthand…with the added benefit of being defamatory toward people who never had anything to do with the loan (but you don’t like them anyway).
The chairman of Progressive Media, who dumped Air America on new owners without informing them of the loan. And the new owners who repaid the loan even though they had no legal obligation to do so.
Sure, Mr. Tea. That’s how “ripoffs” always work out.
“Stole the money” was more than a “bit of an exaggeration,” because it tarred all the people who work for AA, not just Mr. Cohen, the only person who seems to be responsible.
Quaker, Air America benefited from the illegal loans, and took over a year to repay them after their illegal nature was exposed. If you’ve got a better term to describe that kind of conduct, I’d be interested in hearing it.
J.
Jay Tea, Aug 3rd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Repack, Lieberman is very much a liberal.
As you were quick to inform me: put down the crack pipe.
Tom, I don’t recall ever using that phrase, let alone on you. My phrasing runs more toward “man, what the hell are you smoking, and are you willing to share?”
I think you’ve got me confused with Jay non-Tea.
In which case, you REALLY need to lay off the crack.
J.