It's not surprising for the liberal media to respond to the election returns by rededicating their column inches and air time to the liberal agenda, which is to say, the usual way of doing business. But if the news media were truly a nonpartisan institution, solicitous and responsive to the will of the majority, they might pay more attention to the viewpoints that actually persuaded the most Americans. Take the debate over the intelligence reforms emerging from the 9-11 Commission. The media are not treating this as a debate with two credible positions, but instead as a shocking delay by... continue reading
Ever since exit-pollsters discovered a significant chunk of voters were casting their ballots based on which candidate stood for moral values - and most of those who chose that reason for their vote said they picked Republicans - the Hollywood crowd has tried to pick the idea apart, as conflicted, even ridiculous. The anything-goes gang is suggesting we live in a pretty hypocritical country if we can profess our desire for moral leadership and make our number-one smash on television the ABC smut soap "Desperate Housewives." When the red states profess a great concern for moral values and then embrace... continue reading
After a long reign (and don't underestimate how much they feel they "reign" over American politics), two of the three evening news anchormen are headed for the door. Tom Brokaw declared long ago he would depart after a final newscast on December 1. Just before Thanksgiving, Dan Rather added that he would step down from his TV throne in March, on the 24th anniversary of his debut. No one, and I mean no one, inside or outside network news, would have predicted in January that Dan Rather would quit before his 25th anniversary in the anchor chair in 2006. That... continue reading
Reed Irvine, the founder and central figure of Accuracy in Media, the first conservative media watchdog group, died on November 16 at the age of 82. For inventing the field of professional conservative media criticism - to fight not just the liberal bias within the media but also its attendant arrogance - the entire conservative movement, and American journalism in general, owe him a debt of gratitude. In its infancy, network television news was a rip-and-read enterprise, 15 quick minutes of wire service copy. But as TV news divisions recognized their own political power, they began actively to steer a... continue reading
They used to joke that "I went to fight and a hockey game broke out." In the last few weeks, it seems like the fight comes before the sports in football and basketball and baseball as well. The whole culture of athletics needs someone with a whip and a chair to bring some order back to the scene. Even before the 6-foot-7-inch brat known as Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers started throwing punches at fans in Detroit, sports fights were breaking out all over. In mid-September, Texas Rangers relief pitcher Frank Francisco threw a metal chair into the audience,... continue reading
So much for Hollywood and the NFL being shocked - shocked! - over Janet Jackson's "accidental" breast nudity. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to watching football, now ABC has decided to cash in on the MTV sleazy-surprise formula. To lead into a "Monday Night Football" contest between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, ABC taped a supposedly satirical pre-game skit featuring Eagles star Terrell Owens and the slutty character "Edie" from ABC's "Desperate Housewives," played by desperate, surgically maintained 41-year-old actress Nicolette Sheridan. Edie pops into the locker room, fresh from a shower, to... continue reading
It might seem odd to compare and contrast two news stories from last week - the resignation announcement of Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Paris death of Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat. But an examination of the two demonstrates the degree to which the "news" media's compass of objectivity is so terribly misaligned. To read the coverage, you'd think Ashcroft was the tyrant, and Arafat the liberator. On November 10, the New York Times front page put the two stories side by side in the top left-hand corner. Reporter Elisabeth Bumiller told readers the "polarizing" Ashcroft was resigning after a... continue reading
For decades, kids have enjoyed following the out-of-this-world exploits of comic-book heroes, learning along the way about courage, and heroism, and the need for the forces of good to triumph over the nefarious plots of those possessed by evil. Every generation needs to learn their own duty to sacrifice and fight for the good. But lately, ever since the first "Spiderman" live-action movie roared at the box office, fans of the long-lasting Marvel Comics stable of superheroes have been inundated with big, noisy, expensive blockbusters bringing these two-dimensional pen-and-ink heroes to life. Unfortunately, in attempting to dramatize Marvel honcho Stan... continue reading
Anyone who is a political junkie - if you stayed up into the wee hours of Election Night, you qualify - had a couple of beefs with the national media amidst an otherwise riveting evening. First, just who were those so-called polling professionals hired to do the exit polls for the networks? For about six hours on Election Day, the Kerry camp was positively giddy and the Bush folks were forlorn as word spread of exit polls indicating not a Kerry win, but a Kerry landslide. All of those emotions were utterly wasted. Among other things, the expert exit pollsters... continue reading
To most Americans, Halloween is a happy occasion for little costumed children to plead with neighbors for handfuls of candy. Older children revel in an evening coated with spooky atmospheres, ghost stories, and haunted houses. And now there are those adults who are using Halloween for politically inane and insulting purposes. In 1990, a group of ministers in Cedar Hill, Texas created what they called a "Hell House," designed to scare people into realizing the dangers of sin and reminding them of the dreaded possibility of Hell. A Colorado minister named Keenan Roberts took that concept on the road, writing... continue reading