Poll, Victories Show Media Bias Can Be Overcome

RUSH: I’ve said this myself to the people trying to call here worried about media. Look, Ronald Reagan won two landslides. George W. Bush won twice. Republicans won the House in 1994 . George H. W. Bush won the White House 1988. There’s all kind of evidence that the Drive-Bys can be overcome, although I think the Drive-Bys are at a more fevered pitch than ever before. They realize now that there’s a divided media just like there’s a divided country, and they’re a business like anybody else, and they’re going further and further left to serve their audience. As such, they are drifting further and further away from legitimate journalism.

I’ve always made the point: don’t be that depressed about it. But then again I find myself questioning it. I have a Zogby poll here. We knew what was in the poll, but the number is still staggering. Now, the headline of this: ‘Zogby Poll: Voters Believe Media Bias is Very Real,’ and not the American people here, American voters, a different number than that of the entire population. “The vast majority of American voters believe media bias is alive and well – 83% of likely voters said the media is biased in one direction or another, while just 11% believe the media doesn’t take political sides, a recent IPDI/Zogby Interactive poll shows. The Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet is based at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Nearly two-thirds of those online respondents who detected bias in the media (64%) said the media leans left, while slightly more than a quarter of respondents (28%) said they see a conservative bias on their TV sets and in their column inches. The survey, which focuses on perceptions of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ media, will be released today at the PoliticsOnline Conference 2007 at GWU. It is also featured in the March issue of Zogby’s Real America newsletter.”

Now, we knew that a lot of people knew there was media bias, but 83%? This is of likely voters. I find myself being dubious about all this, because if this is true then how the hell do you have so many dupes in this country buying the global warming hoax? I think there are psychological reasons for that. You have all the ingredients there to just melt people’s hearts — polar bears and all this other rotgut. I don’t want to be repetitive on this, but I see conflicting evidence. For example, if 83% believe the media is biased one way or the other and almost 65% think it’s biased to the left, then why would they believe anything the left says or the media says? Clearly they do sometimes. So it’s still a dilemma out there, folks. I do think that the media is getting more competitive — wrong word. They’re getting angrier. They don’t have the monopoly they used to have. As I say, it took Walter Cronkite one day to end the Vietnam War to convince the American people it was hopeless. It took the Drive-Bys four years to accomplish the same thing with the Iraq war, and they still haven’t really pulled it off because despite what the polling data is, the American people do not want to de-fund it or pull out of there without a victory. But you would never know that watching the rest of the media.

RUSH: Tom in Waterloo, Iowa. He’s been on hold for over two hours. Tom, welcome to the program.

CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush. It’s an honor to talk to you once again. I’ve talked to you one other time, and it is a true honor. Listening to you every day just makes me want to be a better American, and that’s why I continue to do it.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

CALLER: Rush, I had a question I wanted to ask you, and I wanted your take on whether you think this is a trend or something that’s going on out there. I noticed, like just especially in the last few weeks, you see things happening that normally would shock me if I would see it go on within the media or the scope of what’s happening politically out there — things like the New York Times slapping Algore down.

RUSH: Ah, ah, ah. Let’s go one by one and I’ll explain this to you. Because I understand, you think: Is there a trend here of liberals and Democrats cracking up?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: All right. In the case of Algore being ripped and his movie being ripped — the Inconvenient Truth being ripped — by the New York Times, I give you a possibility here. Possibly the Clintons are behind this story to make sure Gore doesn’t get any notions about getting in the presidential race. There’s always something possible behind the scenes and between the lines.

CALLER: One question, though, Rush.

RUSH: Yes?

CALLER: Dan Rather (sic–Ted Koppel) on the news talking in a different way than I’ve ever seen, especially coming from Dan Rather about the Iraq war. I mean, you see things that are pillars of liberalism.

RUSH: Wait, wait. Dan Rather or Ted Koppel?

CALLER: Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m sorry.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah. To see Dan Rather, you have to have the HDNet, and then you have to watch the HDNet to see Dan Rather.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Do you have HDNet on your TV?

CALLER: Yes, I do, Rush.

RUSH: Do you watch Rather on it, Dan Rather Reports?

CALLER: You know, every now and then I just flip over.

RUSH: I do. I scan around. I watch HD. I haven’t watched the whole report. He has been doing some Iraq stuff. Okay, keep going with your examples.

CALLER: Well, another example. We saw an excerpt in the media of representatives in Washington DC, shouting down liberal activists in the back hallways, and I’m just wondering, is this a trend? Is this something? Are we seeing liberalism kind of being sort of pushed out of the eye? At a time when Democrats are normally moving to the left to gain support in primaries, we’re seeing pieces in the media of liberalism being pushed back.

RUSH: I don’t look at it that way. All these examples that you’ve cited are accurate, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening. I think that the Democratic Party is simply fractious. It’s not monolithic. It never has been. It’s always been comprised of various coalitions: Big Labor, the feminazis, teachers unions and so forth and so on, the civil rights coalitions. The fringe kooks, the people out there called the netroots, the nutroots, the blogosphere, they’re really unhappy that the party is not left enough, and they’re trying to takes it that way, and that’s the example you cited about David Obey.

You know, these people believed the Democrats when they said after the election, “We’re going to get you out of Iraq. We’re going to get these troops and going to bring ’em home.” The left wants ’em out of now. They want them out now. Obey simply got frustrated. They’re protesting him and they’re protesting Pelosi, and he says, “You people don’t understand how this stuff works.” They’re creating their own monster by feeding it, but they need every coalition in order to win elections. If the nutroots flee, they’ll find their own wacko candidate like a Ned (What was his name in Connecticut?) and go down in flames. They’re trying to stay unified. It’s getting frustrating for them. I don’t think there’s total unity there. I don’t think it represents a crackup. You could say that about the different factions in the House and the arguments they’re having over how to get out of Iraq and how soon to do it and so forth. I’m way over time in this segment. I’d love to discuss this in greater detail, and we will as other programs unfolds. It’s a great question. I’m glad you called.