Monday, October 01, 2007

Kiro News Radio 710, Fighting The MSM Power

I was listening to 710 Kiro this last weekend, really late in the evening while I was in the office. Now granted it was late night weekend programming and that is probably not where the best talent is scheduled but good lord what a train wreck. A caller starts talking about how bad Tim Russert did moderating the last Democratic debate. How he would never ask such hard questions to Republicans, how he was trying to embarrass the Democrats. How this is another example of the MSM covering for the Republicans. Now I can understand how people see things from different perspectives. Sports fans from competing teams see the same play but do not agree on the same call. I can understand that. To this caller, maybe Tim Russert, who before joining NBC News, Russert served as counselor in New York Governor Mario Cuomo's office in Albany in 1983 to 1984 and was chief of staff to Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1977 to 1982 did come off too hard on the candidates. I am sure I would see him as lobbing softballs all night.

But to call into Kiro, as mainstream as there is in Seattle radio and to talk with a host who uses the word "we" when talking about Democrats and "they" when talking about Republicans, and to complain that the MSM is in the pockets of the Republicans, that is just too much. I guess he missed that MSNBC article that listed 144 political contributions by members of the media where 125 went to Democrats, 87%. Maybe he missed the study of 300 journalists which showed the preferred John Kerry to George Bush in the 2004 election 2.7 to 1. Maybe they missed the report that in 1992, Washington Bureau Chiefs and Correspondents picked Bill Clinton 12-1 over George H.W. Bush.

Feel free to be partisan but to say anything other than the media is biased in favor of the Democrats is just crazy talk. And that is what you get with late night Kiro radio.

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