Posted by
The Independent Thinker on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 12:00:00 AM
I'm watching "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE" on MSNBC, with host David Gregory. His panel includes Joan Walsh (Editor in Chief of Salon.com), Richard Wolffe (Senior White House Correspondent for Newsweek), Steve McMahon (Democratic Strategist) and Stephen Hayes (a columnist for The Weekly Standard). Now, even if you are generous, and count Wolffe as a "reporter," that's still a ratio of two liberals (Walsh and McMahon) to one conservative (Hayes). Now, any fair minded person knows and would conclude that Wolffe is more sympathetic to the democratic point of view. This is the kind of stuff that drives me crazy. It's so easy to be fair. If you are going to be discussing the "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE" bewtween a republican and a democrat (McCain and Obama), you need to have the same amount of republican analysts on the panel as democrats. Is that so hard? Is that "fuzzy math." I mean, my goodness. It's like MSNBC isn't even trying to be fair or objective. Recently, MSNBC took Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews off the anchor desk for election coverage (finally and Thank God), and replaced them with David Gregory. And don't get me wrong, I applaud that move. David Gregory, despite his famous confrontational episodes with White House Press Secretaries, is a fair and objective reporter, in my humble opinion. But even as fair as he is, on his own show, to have three liberals and only one conservative on a panel?!?! It doesn't make sense. Again, I go back to the point of, this is not rocket science. Have 2 conservatives on the panel if you are going to have 2 liberals; it needs to be EVEN. How, in the first place, by the way, did MSNBC think they could get away with having Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews anchor election coverage? They are both liberals. They didn't choose Tom Brokaw, or Brian Williams, or David Gregory (all respected, down the middle for the most part, fair, news anchor/reporters). Instead, they chose a man in Chris Matthews, who has spent his entire life working for democratic politicians, from Jimmy Carter to Tip O'Neill. And Keith Olbermann? I'm not even sure he's fit to be on television. This is a man who said Fox News was more dangerous than Al-Qaeda. A man who goes on TV, giving his "special comments" (with some frequency), ranting and raving, yelling at the camera, and spewing his one-sided venom, saying things like (as he did on his 9/11 anniversary commentary,) that John McCain helped Osama Bin Laden escape capture. All throughout the presidential primaries and even well into the general election campaign, MSNBC would have those 2 anchoring/hosting, and then a panel consisting of Rachel Maddow, Eugene Robinson, and the one lone token conservative, Pat Buchanan. So, let's see here, four liberals to one conservative? It was ridiculous. Finally, the higher ups came to their senses and pulled Matthews and Olbermann out of there, and off the anchor desk, and put them back where they belong, in their roles as analysts/commentators. I mean, it would have been one thing to have Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough co-host the election coverage, or Olbermann co-host with Tucker Carlson. Those two match-ups would have at least been fair and balanced, eventhough I prefer having an actual "Anchor" (like Brokaw or Williams) anchor election coverage, but again it would have been fair. But MSNBC didn't even try for that. I mean, even Fox News doesn't have Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity co-anchor election coverage. But I mean, this is something that happens all the time, all throughout the mainstream media landscape. Look at "The View." It should be called "The Liberal View," or "Four Liberal Views Versus One Conservative View." The hosts are Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd (ALL liberals) and the one, lone, conservative (this seems to be a pattern) Elisabeth Hasselbeck. The liberals pick on the one conservative all show long. It's ridiculously unbalanced and unfair. How about a little diversity of thought? How about Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, Tara Wall, Amy Holmes...there are many conservative commentators that could be added to that show to even things out, but no...Barbara wants to keep that show liberal. And what's sad about the whole thing is that liberals decry Fox News, like they can't stand the fact that there is an outlet out there for conservative viewpoints, even amid the overwhelmingly left wing biased media. All conservatives have is Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Talk Radio, and tabloidish newspapers like The Boston Herald and New York Post. Every other media outlet is in the tank for The Democratic Party.