One of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated by the conservative talking heads and pundits is the widespread existence of a so-called "liberal" media. They've been milking this one for a whole generation with much success, if not substance. Much has been written to plainly debunk this nonsense, with much more wit, eloquence and factual evidence than I could muster here. But suffice to say, the oppression of the masses by the lead-soled boot of the liberal media is the favorite and most successful of the "cry-wolf" stances of the morally bankrupt and opportunistic conservative charlatans. That's not to say there isn't a liberal presence in the media. Absolutely. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is a shinning example among the ones with a liberal bent. But the bogey man of an alleged liberal media has given the blowhards on the right an excuse to form their little separatist media empire. I mean, c'mon: the one-sided nature of talk radio prompted the creation of Air America, not the other way around.
Yet, you won't hear cries of "Damn that liberal media!" when ABC's George Stephanopolous literally takes notes for a nationally televised Democratic debate from a discredited fear mongering, smear merchant like Sean Hannity; or when that same network's John Gibson decries Sen. John McCain's inability to match Sen. Barack Obama in the fundraising department. Especially when the average contribution by an Obama donor is less than $100 and McCain is counting on his lobbyist-fat cats to fuel the, ahem, Straight Talk Express. Nor do they express displeasure when lazy moderators/hosts let their right-wing foot soldiers misrepresent candidates and/or positions on any of the major networks. Liberal media, my ass.
