A few examples of
"Liberal Media" coverage...
The saga continues
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Let’s now examine if there is a perceived bias in three different prominent news stories of the past year. First we will examine the coverage of the death of Ronald Reagan, then the 2005 Inauguration, and finally the media’s coverage of the United States actions Iraq.[1]

In June of 2004 Ronald Regan, the 40^th President of the United States and deity of the modern conservative movement passed away at age 93. Surely this figurehead of conservatism would be meticulously analyzed and critiqued in his death by a liberal media. But that was not the case. Instead there was an overflowing of warm memories and purely positive sentiment. Despite Reagan’s record of deficit spending, fiscal and tax policies leading to increased social inequality, considering Nelson Mandela a terrorist, completely ignoring the emerging AIDS epidemic, and the Iran-Contra scandal, he was remembered and praised as the sole conquer of communism, the Great Communicator, and the funny cowboy everyone loved. [i]

Columnist Scott Holleran in Capitalism Magazine puts it in perspective, “The American public's response to Ronald Reagan's death reflects the cheerful, American sense of life that Mr. Reagan brought to the White House...Ronald Reagan was as engaging as everyone says, as this writer had the pleasure of discovering first-hand while working on his presidential campaign in 1980”. While Holleran freely admits these memories are pleasant, they are “no substitute for an appraisal of Mr. Reagan's political philosophy. From the beginning of his presidency, Ronald Reagan was neither a true defender of capitalism nor a great commander in chief. Wrongly using religion as the moral defense of free markets and letting faith blind him to the dangers of America's enemies, Mr. Reagan laid the foundation for today's faith-based presidency.”

This accurate summary of Reagan’s politics was nowhere to be found in the month long media orgy over his death. Holleran surmises, “Americans ought to revere what is good about Ronald Reagan, but we must acknowledge reality first”.[ii]

In yet another distinguished ceremony of America’s civil religion, the 2005 Presidential inauguration served as an opportunity for a liberal media to show its true colors. With the incumbent President wining by one of the narrower margins in history and facing a daunting second term due to first term decisions, a liberal media would be sure to strike. But that was not the case. Salon’s Eric Boehlert states that the “notion that the television networks or 24-hour news channels would spend their inauguration coverage contrasting the scenes of wealthy corporate donors toasting the president while young soldiers and middle-aged Guardsmen battle in Iraq is wildly naive...The idea that broadcast journalists would use this celebration, of all things, as a time to press President Bush on Iraq simply does not reflect the modus operandi of today's mainstream media.”[iii]

Media Matters for America (MMFA), a self styled “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media”[iv], documented that all the pundits or commentators who appeared on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels' January 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST, Republican and conservative guests outnumbered Democrats and progressives 19 to 7 on Fox News, 10 to 1 on CNN[2], and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. MMFA also noted that “the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives”.[v]

This trend continued through primetime inauguration coverage as well. MMFA found that Republican and conservative guests outnumbered Democrats and progressives 25 to 4 on Fox News, 7 to 1 on CNN[3], and 9 to 5 on MSNBC.[vi]

It comes as little surprise with this Republican/conservative slanted commentary then that the cable news networks downplayed and mocked inauguration protesters. MMFA documents how commentators on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all “ridiculed inauguration protesters, downplayed their numbers and significance; and implied that they posed a security threat”.[vii] If this arm of the media was as liberally biased as it is claimed, then unquestionably they would have taken this chance to give liberal dissenters a national platform.

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[1] These three news stories represent to me a time and opportunity for the news media to really show what they are made of. The public will turn to them in these situations as part of a grand ritual of our common civil religion. How the media acts during these times should be a strong indicator to their typical coverage perspective. These events represent times of sadness, celebration, and conflict, the bias of any relationship.

[2] This does not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters.

[3] Again this does not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters

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[i]Ronald Regan: Wikipedia encyclopedia. Retrieved , April 21, 2005 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan

[ii] Holleran, S. ( 2004, June 14). America's Funeral: Ronald Reagan in Perspective. Capitalism Magazine. Retrieved , April 25, 2005, from http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3732

[iii]Boehlert, E. (2005, Jan. 20). Giving Bush a pass – again. Salon.com. Retrieved , April 25, 2005, from http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/20/media_on_inauguration/

[iv] Who we are. Media Matters for America Retrieved April 23, 2005, from http://mediamatters.org/etc/about.html

[v] No room for progressives on cable news inauguration coverage. (2005, January 20). Media Matters for America. Retrieved April 20, 2005 from http://mediamatters.org/items/200501210001

[vi] No room for progressives on primetime in inauguration coverage either. (2005, January 21). Media Matters for America. Retrieved April 20, 2005 from http://mediamatters.org/items/200501220001

[vii] Cable news dismissed and ridiculed inauguration protesters. (2005, January 21). Media Matters for America. Retrieved April 12, 2005 from http://mediamatters.org/items/200501210007