For the second time in a week, Katie Couric illustrates the right-wing bias in the media. This AM in her interview with Howard Dean, she adamantly repeated Rove & Co.'s assertion that Democrats as well as Republicans have taken Abramoff money. When Dean protested, she got tense and said it would have to be looked into and shared with all the Today Show viewers.
Write to Today and tell them that they need to do that, fairly and objectively, and present the truth on the air, along with her retraction and apology for slandering all the Democrats with charges of corruption. Contact her at msnbc.msn.com or Today@NBC.com. Or you can call 212-664-4249. (You can also watch a video clip at msnbc.msn.com.)
The Today Show is important, because it has the highest ratings of any show on tv, and it is watched by people who otherwise pay little attention to what the news networks are saying. Also, people trust Katie Couric. She's betraying their trust by repeating lies, and needs to be called on it.
The corporate media and the major news networks have become incredibly biased, and no one except bloggers and certain liberal publications (The Nation is excellent) are speaking up about it. They are a huge part of the problem liberal Democrats are having in getting their message out. When they must spend the precious little air time they receive answering baseless charges, how can they help but appear defensive and hapless?
This bias needs to be slammed whenever it appears, until the media realizes that "we, the people" are tired of being manipulated and misled. It's time to take our country back, and that starts with insisting those with the incredibly crucial role of reporting what's going on do so with integrity and respect for the truth.
UPDATE: This morning, January 27, on Today, NBC news put Tim Russert on to speak about the controversy over the Abramoff scandal. Matt Lauer handled the interview, not Katie Couric. Russert stated that Democrats become "raging mad" when it is stated that it is a Republican scandal. They aired a film clip taken from yesterday's show, in which Dean states the Democrats did not take a dime from Abramoff. Then Russert goes on to undercut the point Dean made by saying he was only "technically" accurate.
Translation: Dean was right, completely, irrefutably, but let's not come out and say that. It would seem to most people that whether Abramoff gave money to some Democrat, for the purpose of influencing that Congressman's vote or not, is in fact a crucial distinction. But not, I guess, to the folks at NBC.
Russert goes on to say that Abramoff's "associates" gave money to Democrats and then they helpfully put up a graphic with an elephant on one side and a donkey on the other, with arrows pointing to both. See folks, the subtext is, they're both guilty as sin.
And that was the end of it. The Republicans must have been cheering. No background, no context, just a conclusion Tim Russert has drawn from his examination of "the facts." And this is how the corporate media operates. Because we let it.