Sunday Audition: Media by Us.

In recent days, the axiom of liberal bias in the media has been tested.  The seminal work exposing the complete domnance of left-wing liberal views in the media, The Media Elite by Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman, and Linda Lichter was published in 1986 but a lot can change in twenty three years.

At the center of this firestorm is the complete lack of coverage given to 9-11 Truther Van Jones.  Jones was President Barack Hussein Obama's choice to head up the White House Green Jobs program, but he has since resigned his position when evidence connecting him to the 9-11 Truther movement was exposed.

The 9-11 Truther movement is a group of conspiracy theorists who believe that the US Government planned the terrorist attacks of 9-11 to provide a cassus belli to initiate a war with Iraq.  That a senior White House advisor could be part of this movement is so beyond the pale, it easily qualifies as the single-most important story of the decade.  And yet the sum total of coverage of this scandal in the pages of the nation's media is nearly zero.  Indeed, if it weren't for the diligent work of objective conservative bloggers and the fair and balanced coverage from Fox News, this story would have disappeared completely.

Countering this argument is a "good offense is the best defense" strategy from MSNBC's own Chuck Todd, who uses The Van Jones Affair as an example of how conservatives can get the media to address their posted issues, despite the media being liberals.  In fact, Todd claims that the bias in the media is actually conservative-biased based on this argument.

Clearly Todd has lost the narrative.  In regards to how outside the mainstream the Truther movement is, the media often compares this group to the Birther movement, a group of people who believe that Obama was born in Kenya.  This is clearly an example of liberal bias in the media as the Truther movement is far more radical.  A simple demonstration of this basic fact is that the Truther movement is so toxic that Jones had no choice but to resign when connected to it.  In contrast, the Birther Movement enjoys widespread support from many Members of Congress.  Indeed, the Truther movement is so bad that Jones spent much time trying to distance himself from the group, claiming that he never held any such views.

Then again, Todd's argument is to be expected.  Todd is himself, part of the media, so it is not unexpected to see such a liberal and left-wing view as his to be expressed so openly.  Compare this to Pat Buchanan's recent opinion piece where he provided a fresh and unconventional perspective on the causes of World War Two.  At first MSNBC was promoting the interesting piece on their own site, but they have since removed it, likely as a response to death threats from the far Left.

Twenty three years have indeed passed since The Media Elite was published and times have changed quite a bit since then.  But it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.