Note: This is my first diary entry (I know, I know), so it might be messed up. Bear with me.
I was listening to our NPR station up here, and there was a program today (Talk of Alaska) on bias in public broadcasting. Among many of the guests that they had on was David Horowitz, and he was on a mission to point out the bias of NPR. His main point: he has rarely ever appeared on NPR in the last 20 years!
Now, excuse me for thinking that sounds a bit pretentious, but he then backs it up by saying that he has been on many talk radio shows. I'm sorry, but those shows aren't journalistic entities, they are forums for commentary (mostly conservative, by the way), and they often give voice to extreme viewpoints that would not be treated seriously by a news organization dedicated to honest reporting.
Other "newsflashes" from Horowitz are that Senator Ted Stevens is not ideological and that NPR being a counter-balance to Fox News is proof of its bias. I'll explain why these viewpoints indicate a serious need of psychotherapy after the break.
As for Stevens not being ideological, he has pushed for tax cuts, the Iraq war, ANWR drilling, and the expiration of the Assualt Weapons ban. He's a grumpy old man who banned the Anchorage Daily News (the main source of print news for every city in Alaska) from press conferences after they disclosed some shady personal finance issues of his. You really have to be delirious if you think that he's not ideological. (As an aside, Sen. Stevens also made an interesting comment that they played at the beginning of the show which I will expound upon later.)
Now, one caller made the point that NPR serves as a counterbalance to Fox News, and Mr. Horowitz used this as excuse to show that NPR really does have a liberal bias. I don't think the point of this was to say that it offset Fox News because Fox is conservative (which Mr. Horowitz's assertion confirms), I think it was meant to say it offsets Fox News because Fox doesn't pass for journalism! The PIPA poll (featured in "Outfoxed" among other places) showing the lack of truthful information about the Iraq war given to Fox viewers versus NPR listeners is evidence of why this is the case.
The main thing that really ticked me off is that Mr. Horowitz went on this huge diatribe (I'd link to the radio segment but it's not posted yet) about how he's published several books in the last 20 years and hasn't been on "Fresh Air", and how he knows all the conservatives out there and none of them work for NPR. Aside from the fact that this is a sign of some serious megalomania, he also never said that he knows any liberals that work there, either. Perhaps this is a sign that they do not have an ideological bent and that they are truly committed to [gasp] objective reporting!
As for the comment by Sen. Stevens, he said that when it's a privately owned entity, we "have no right to complain." (This leads me to my next post, which is "Attention Ted Stevens: Why are you, your son, and Rep. Don Young such complete and utter imbeciles?!?") The airwaves are owned by the public, and we have every right to complain about a lack of balance, public or private. Why is it that we should just focus on public broadcasting? If there is a general problem with balance, why not push for the return of the fairness doctrine? Why not demand accountability from all of the major news networks, from CBS to Fox News?
Of course, the answer to this is that conservatives only care about bias against them. They wouldn't want to regulate Fox News because it helps muddy the water enough so that anything that isn't hard-right conservative is considered "liberal", and the spectrum is forced to shift. I'm glad that Democrats have Air America (and hopefully more in the green room) to combat this nonsense.
In short, I have three words for Mr. Horowitz: get over yourself. If you look at independent surveys, most listeners to NPR think that the coverage is balanced. What's more, here in Alaska, the listener funding comes from 1/3 liberals, 1/3 conservatives, and 1/3 independents. The facts don't lie, Mr. Horowitz. Perhaps you and your books didn't make it onto "Fresh Air" because they suck.