Former Press Secretary to Bob Dole, Douglas MacKinnon, has an op ed piece currently up over at The New York Times.
The following excerpt encapsulates the thesis of his piece:
As an "independent conservative," I’m expected to see liberal media bias lurking everywhere, but it’s not just me — and it’s not just conservatives. I know liberals, including newspaper editors, who think the "news" pendulum had swung dangerously far to the left.
Upon completing the editorial, I felt obliged to respond to this moist mountain of horse hockey. At the time there were only three comments. Considering that this is not some fly-by-night upstart blog but "a paper of record," I felt obliged to draft and redraft my response.
Oh no! Uh oh! Too slow! 20 minutes later, when I hit that submit button I got an error message and was informed that comments are now closed on this feature. A refresh reveals the comments stop at 74. So snarky response in hand, I come back here to Daily Kos where the comments are always open. And my response to Mr. MacKinnon's editorial as intended:
I had drafted a long and thoughtful response to Mr. MacKinnon regarding the corporatisation of mainstream media increasingly hobbling the Fourth Estate; the transformation of televised news media into pundit-driven spectacle and entertainment; the erosion of the long and relatively proud tradition of American journalism over the course of the last several decades; and the phoenix-like reemergence of this tradition in the form of a flawed but spirited citizen journalism of the blogosphere. I also pointed out that for several years running, the regular adult viewers of two particular left-leaning nightly political satires have outscored regular audiences of ANY mainstream news programs when it comes to knowledge on current events, global and American politics and American history. I even threw in an obligatory jab regarding the "librul bias of facts."
But upon further consideration, I realize that Mr. MacKinnon is simply engaging in what us simple folk on the interwebs like to call "concern trolling." I recognize this drumbeat of liberal bias from the right for what it is: second verse, same as the first. To which the only reasonable response is a terse: lolggkthxbai.
Feel free, my fellow Kossacks to use this space as a scratch pad for the comments you too may have left for Mr. MacKinnon had the NYTimes interns not gotten flooded by reactions to his delicately fair and balanced op ed.