Political News Director of ABC Admits to bias

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 11:28 AM

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Video: Big media is too liberal, ABC News honcho tells O’Reilly

There's a Bill O'Rielly interview where he goes on Fox and admits the Old Media which includes mainstream American media (ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, urban print media.. NY Times, LA Times, etc) has a bias to the left.

He has printed a note regarding future policy changes to balance out the media.
ABC News: The Note: Pending: Six Days of November Surprises

In light of BBC coming clean, it's about time some American media outlets are starting to do the same.

Some quotes from the interview. Mind you I'm paraphrasing and copied them as I watched. Might not be 100% accurate. Watch for yourself.

"It's not fair... we should be impartial."

"You know how this works. There's no strategy calls. We're not on the phone with Howard Dean and George Soros in the morning getting our marching orders. But the mindset at ABC and the other big news organizations is just too focused on being more favorable to Nancy Pelosi than say Newt Gingrich. Being more down on the Republicans chances than perhaps is warranted. Singling out, here you're showing a 60 Minutes piece of Nancy Pelosi. I don't remember Newt Gingrich getting a piece that favorable..."

"I'm saying people of the Old Media should be watching that piece on Nancy Pelosi and asking 'are we being fair to everybody in the political process'."

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 11:33 AM

Just a reminder Mark Halperin is the guy who wrote a memo that was:

made public by Matt Drudge -- directing them not to "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable." He justified this stance by claiming that both John Kerry and George W. Bush used "distortion" in their campaign, but that Kerry's distortions were not "central to his efforts to win." This was interpreted by many conservatives as an instruction to favor Kerry in ABC News coverage [1], while many liberals felt it was an accurate assessment of the campaign. [2]

WickedLou9 · 10-25-2006, 11:56 AM

Thats why I like NPR. Yesterday morning they had Bob Casey on to give an interview and this morning Rick Santorum was on. The person doing the interview asked some tough questions to both people and refused to give his own opinion. Santorum actually asked his opinion on something and he refused to respond.

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 12:12 PM

I like NPR too.

Here's a link to the Drudge Report on Mark Halperin for those interested.
DrudgeReportArchives.com © 2006

He's not some rogue conservative infiltrated into ABC. He's been with the company for many years and became their political news director almost a decade ago. And he has personally helped shaped the bias of ABC news.

An excerpt of Halperin's response to Drudge exposing the memo [emphasis mine]:

Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.

We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides "equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that.

I'm sure many of you have this week felt the stepped up Bush efforts to complain about our coverage. This is all part of their efforts to get away with as much as possible with the stepped up, renewed efforts to win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions.

It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public interest. Now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right.

Thorgrim · 10-25-2006, 12:52 PM

Such a joke, the same network that carried out PT911 is just making an effort to try and be the Fox News of major media networks so they beat out NBC

It's all about corporate money

His one example in the interview 'They didn't give Gingrich a spot like that in 94'

Did he even watch the piece?
1) She was tore into, in the end she ended up looking bad
2) The title was "two heartbeats away from the presidency" a clear warning sign to conservatives that "omg if the democrats take over san fran liberal pelosi will be the prez!!"
3) Even conservatives thought the GOP didn't have a shot at winning in 94, from firebrand like Krauthammer to old school pundits like Novak, both republicans thought the GOP would not gain the house...now basically everyone is saying the Dems will take the house

If anything, the piece helped conservatives, yet thats his one shining example of liberal bias

what a handjob

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 02:40 PM

It just keeps getting better:

Originally Posted by Mark Halperin

Despite the fact that many of the Democrats' House and Senate candidates are quite liberal (read: "too liberal for the people they hope to represent") and/or have things in their backgrounds that would normally be ample fodder for disqualification by the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Mehlman machine, fewer than five Democratic candidates in the whole country in contested races are even close to being successfully branded (so far) as too liberal and too kooky.

The Old Media — giddy with excitement over the prospect of the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Mehlman machine losing, filled with guilt over complicity in an Iraq war it wants ended, flush with anticipation over two years of anti-Bush leaks from a gavel-wielding Henry Waxman, and substantially more interested in revelations about congressional pages than in trying to tell voters the truth about whether or not the economy is strong and getting stronger — can barely contain itself on its secret morning conference calls with Howard Dean and George Soros, during which it was agreed just this morning that, yes, we can keep the meta-narrative ("The Democrats are going to beat Bush and run Congress!!") going for another 19 days, without interruption.

It's amazing that one time this guy was the poster child for Democrats in regards to media. He defended it to his very core. He worked PR for Clinton, talked his way out of the Drudge memo and Democrats loved him.

Now he's beginning to see the wealth Fox News receives and he's beginning to realize he needs to get off his high horse if he wants to make a buck in the news media. ABC isn't far left enough to get the extreme viewers. There's a reason Fox News gets more independent voters as their viewers than any other news outlet.

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 03:40 PM

Kos responds!!!!

He responds by quoting an article from within his site:

[ABC's The Note Mark] Halperin told O'Reilly that the Right was correct in distrusting the Liberal Media who conspire for ways to make Republicans look bad. Halperin, one of the leading GOP bootlickers in all of the Media has the gall to say that.

Thorgrim · 10-25-2006, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by JaJae

It just keeps getting better:

It's amazing that one time this guy was the poster child for Democrats in regards to media. He defended it to his very core. He worked PR for Clinton, talked his way out of the Drudge memo and Democrats loved him.

Now he's beginning to see the wealth Fox News receives and he's beginning to realize he needs to get off his high horse if he wants to make a buck in the news media. ABC isn't far left enough to get the extreme viewers. There's a reason Fox News gets more independent voters as their viewers than any other news outlet.

Wrong, his job was just covering Clinton, thats like saying David Gregory is adored by conservatives because he covers Bush

And OFCOURSE a management member at ABC is going to defend itself from attacks

he was never a darling of Democrats

but you are right, he is just trying to make a buck

Same thing with PT911, appeal to conservatives, they are trying to become the Fox News of network news, its all about being a corporate sellout

This is a marketing ploy and only a sucker would fall for it

Thorgrim · 10-25-2006, 04:01 PM

"The truth is, I've gotten fairer, more comprehensive coverage of my ideas than I ever imagined I would receive."
"I've gotten balanced coverage and broad coverage -- all we could have asked… For heaven sakes, we kid about the liberal media, but every Republican on earth does that."
Pat Buchanan

7960 · 10-25-2006, 04:12 PM

NPR

They gave up their objectivity in my eyes when, during a news segment, one of the news anchors started her segment with "Let's talk about what Bush messed up today....."

Sure, it was just one newswoman, but dan rather was "just one newsman" who used what he *had* to know were questionable documents, Terri Gross was just one NPR interviewer who gave Al Franken a kids gloves treatment while going after O'Reilly, blah blah blah.

They're all biased. Watch NPR and Fox, CBC (canadian), and BBC if you want more objectivity. And no, BBC and CBC do not lean toward liking the US or Bush, so it's fair to say you'd get a well-rounded view by watching all 4.

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 04:27 PM

I get the majority of my news from news.google.com and news.yahoo.com

Google has random articles. But I click view related and read it from a couple sources. Yahoo is mostly AP and Reuters.

RMNIXON · 10-25-2006, 06:12 PM

Has the BBC begun a domino effect?

kinggovernor · 10-25-2006, 06:43 PM

finally

Thorgrim · 10-25-2006, 07:52 PM

In a report on how recent campaigns advertisements are "getting ugly," ABC News, unable to point to a single instance of "nasty" attacks from Democratic candidates or their supporters, suggested it is only a matter of time before "the left" begins to "unleash its garbage as well." ABC News offered no evidence to back up its allegation that Democrats might soon resort to distasteful, negative advertising.

ABC News had no problem documenting ads, currently airing in campaign across the country, attacking Democrats, including one from the Republican National Committee about Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. In it, an actress playing a ditzy blonde bimbo says: "I met Harold at the Playboy party. ... Harold, call me." Critics, including one prominent Republican, have called the ad borderline racist.

At the conclusion of its report on attack ads, ABC News insisted that "Democrats aren't necessarily running clean campaigns." Unable to cite any examples, ABC News reported, "As the races tighten in the next couple of weeks, the left will likely unleash its garbage as well."

Media Matters - ABC pre-emptively criticized Democrats for negative campaign ads that have not yet been produced

Oh my god Fox has some competition!! All we need now is the world news to be replaced by Sean Hannity's talking points for 30 minutes

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 07:55 PM

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

In a report on how recent campaigns advertisements are "getting ugly," ABC News, unable to point to a single instance of "nasty" attacks from Democratic candidates or their supporters, suggested it is only a matter of time before "the left" begins to "unleash its garbage as well." ABC News offered no evidence to back up its allegation that Democrats might soon resort to distasteful, negative advertising.

ABC News had no problem documenting ads, currently airing in campaign across the country, attacking Democrats, including one from the Republican National Committee about Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. In it, an actress playing a ditzy blonde bimbo says: "I met Harold at the Playboy party. ... Harold, call me." Critics, including one prominent Republican, have called the ad borderline racist.

At the conclusion of its report on attack ads, ABC News insisted that "Democrats aren't necessarily running clean campaigns." Unable to cite any examples, ABC News reported, "As the races tighten in the next couple of weeks, the left will likely unleash its garbage as well."

Media Matters - ABC pre-emptively criticized Democrats for negative campaign ads that have not yet been produced

Oh my god Fox has some competition!! All we need now is the world news to be replaced by Sean Hannity's talking points for 30 minutes

ABC has done more against the Republicans. Even their own political director says so. It's about time they started telling the story from both sides.

And I don't think it was unable to cite any sources as the article claims, it just didn't. What's so bad about showing a story of Republican scandal and then saying it is likely Democrats will be doing the same? When has that ever been untrue in the history of American politics?

On the EXTREMELY rare occasion anything positive is printed on Iraq it is trumped by at least half a page of possible negatives. Get used to it. We had to. Strange how the other side reacts when the roles are reversed. All of a sudden it isn't "fair" when the playing ground is just beginning to be evened out.

JaJae · 10-25-2006, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

In a report on how recent campaigns advertisements are "getting ugly," ABC News, unable to point to a single instance of "nasty" attacks from Democratic candidates or their supporters, suggested it is only a matter of time before "the left" begins to "unleash its garbage as well." ABC News offered no evidence to back up its allegation that Democrats might soon resort to distasteful, negative advertising.

ABC News had no problem documenting ads, currently airing in campaign across the country, attacking Democrats, including one from the Republican National Committee about Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. In it, an actress playing a ditzy blonde bimbo says: "I met Harold at the Playboy party. ... Harold, call me." Critics, including one prominent Republican, have called the ad borderline racist.

At the conclusion of its report on attack ads, ABC News insisted that "Democrats aren't necessarily running clean campaigns." Unable to cite any examples, ABC News reported, "As the races tighten in the next couple of weeks, the left will likely unleash its garbage as well."

Media Matters - ABC pre-emptively criticized Democrats for negative campaign ads that have not yet been produced

Oh my god Fox has some competition!! All we need now is the world news to be replaced by Sean Hannity's talking points for 30 minutes

And once again this is a copy/paste from:
Daily Kos: ABC criticizes Dems for what they haven't done

There is more info and comments if anyone is interested in hearing more from this political viewpoint.

For argument's sake. Let's include the rest of Kos's assessment:

Mark Halperin is doing a heckuva job. It would've pissed off conservatives for ABC to air the truth -- that Democrats are running clean, fact-based campaigns while the GOP lies, race-baits, and plays the fear card.

I don't even think Bill O'Rielly or Rush Limbaugh would say the conservatives are running clean campaigns. I read Kos for the same reason I read HotAir... he can be pretty funny at times. At least HotAir intends to be humorous and provides a nifty linkback

Thorgrim · 10-25-2006, 08:51 PM

Actually it's a copy paste from media matters which I clearly cite, then give my own opinion

Ok Ballz2w, I'm sorry if the new forum rule is that if any outside article is linked on DailyKos, I can't put it up

BTW O'Really was even saying how the conservative Ford attack ads were over the line, and the Dem ad that conservatives are mad about, MJF, was fine, factually correct, and tastefully done

Ofcourse, not even Fox News could find terrible DNC ads to post, but that doesn't stop FOX-ABC News from saying they are going to happen

Talk about your ultimate logical fallacies

Thorgrim · 10-25-2006, 08:52 PM

About Iraq, see...it really is in a civil war...it really isn't going great...that was objective journalism, not anti-republican propaganda on the nightly news

The commanding general in Iraq, Abizaid, told John Murtha he was only an inch away from his position that we needed to do an immediete withdrawal

motivez · 10-25-2006, 10:34 PM

Please don't aim comments at other posters. Keep it on topic. Next time it's going to be a thread ban.

Murtha doesn't favor immediate withdrawal from what I've seen him say.

All media outlets are bias. It's a question of degree. Then again, reality has a well known liberal bias, and so the news networks reporting reality are bound to share in that well known liberal bias, as opposed to the networks reporting fantasy, ie: