Del Lonowski

Those who thought that the media had a liberal bias should have attended the Denton Film series video “… And Nothing About the Truth” last Wednesday night. It was advertised as “looks at the failure of the mainstream media to ask important questions and cover opposing points of view.” You would have seen a real liberal bias.

The argument was that the media is controlled by large corporations who are controlling the news in support of the conservative agenda. It was the same argument that we have been hearing for years from conservatives who have argued that the news is based on the bias of liberal reporters. The conclusion one is forced to reach is that the media has been successful in achieving its ideal of balanced reporting if both the liberals and the conservatives believe that it is biased.

If liberals do have a complaint, it should be with the Democratic Party. The media only informs the public, but it must have something to report. It is the political parties that provide the news. It is the political struggle that the media reports and most of the struggle reflects party differences.

Since 9/12, since Tom Daschle hugged George W. Bush after his 9/11 speech to Congress, the Democrats have been in lock-step with the Republicans in prosecuting the war in Iraq. Perhaps that is an overstatement-for sure, the Democrats have been shirking their responsibility as the opposition party. They have been so afraid of being labeled un-American or un-patriotic, that they have been unwilling to challenge and question what Bush and the Republicans have been doing in Iraq. This was the complaint that liberals had in the Denton video. All of the news is favorable to corporate America, however. This is so because the Democrats have not given the media anything else to report.