The Boys Who Cried Fox
By NICOLE HEMMER
NYT
Just last week, Newt Gingrich delighted observers on both the right and the left when he slammed Fox News for “bias” and “distortion.” Gingrich claimed that the conservative news channel slanted its coverage to favor the less conservative establishment candidate, Mitt Romney. At first this seemed to be just another example of the former speaker’s ability to unabashedly embrace contradictory ideas. This is, after all, a man who saw nothing inconsistent about inviting reporters to the “private meeting” with Delaware Tea Party leaders where he made his comments.
But accusing Fox News of pro-establishment bias is not simply a quirk of the Gingrich mind. In mid-March, Rick Santorum (like Gingrich, a former Fox News contributor) accused the network of boosting for Romney. “He has Fox News shilling for him every day,” Santorum grumbled to Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade. “No offense, Brian, but I see it.” The conservative journalist Robert Stacy McCain called out Fox for “a clear bias toward front-runners.” He was backed up by a pair of columnists who reported concerns “that Fox News is morphing into just another liberal leaning voice.”
Nor do conservatives reserve the bias complaint for Fox News. When National Review promoted the candidacy of Mitt Romney in mid-December, it stoked outrage among the base. Rush Limbaugh dismissed the magazine as part of the “Republican establishment media.” The promotion of Romney, the nephew of National Review’s founder claimed, “proves only that this is no longer the magazine of William F. Buckley, Jr. My uncle would be appalled.” Commenters on National Review Online unfurled the nickname National Romney Online, which soon began popping up on other conservative sites.
The funny thing is that this role reversal is the end product of a process that was set in motion by the conservative media. Having spent decades promoting the charge of bias, they have helped strip it of meaning. These days, bias translates roughly to “reporting something I don’t like,” a reflexive defense against stories that cut against conservative interests. (Liberals claim bias, too, but here we’re focused on the curious spectacle of right-on-right crime.)
(More here.)
NYT
Just last week, Newt Gingrich delighted observers on both the right and the left when he slammed Fox News for “bias” and “distortion.” Gingrich claimed that the conservative news channel slanted its coverage to favor the less conservative establishment candidate, Mitt Romney. At first this seemed to be just another example of the former speaker’s ability to unabashedly embrace contradictory ideas. This is, after all, a man who saw nothing inconsistent about inviting reporters to the “private meeting” with Delaware Tea Party leaders where he made his comments.
But accusing Fox News of pro-establishment bias is not simply a quirk of the Gingrich mind. In mid-March, Rick Santorum (like Gingrich, a former Fox News contributor) accused the network of boosting for Romney. “He has Fox News shilling for him every day,” Santorum grumbled to Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade. “No offense, Brian, but I see it.” The conservative journalist Robert Stacy McCain called out Fox for “a clear bias toward front-runners.” He was backed up by a pair of columnists who reported concerns “that Fox News is morphing into just another liberal leaning voice.”
Nor do conservatives reserve the bias complaint for Fox News. When National Review promoted the candidacy of Mitt Romney in mid-December, it stoked outrage among the base. Rush Limbaugh dismissed the magazine as part of the “Republican establishment media.” The promotion of Romney, the nephew of National Review’s founder claimed, “proves only that this is no longer the magazine of William F. Buckley, Jr. My uncle would be appalled.” Commenters on National Review Online unfurled the nickname National Romney Online, which soon began popping up on other conservative sites.
The funny thing is that this role reversal is the end product of a process that was set in motion by the conservative media. Having spent decades promoting the charge of bias, they have helped strip it of meaning. These days, bias translates roughly to “reporting something I don’t like,” a reflexive defense against stories that cut against conservative interests. (Liberals claim bias, too, but here we’re focused on the curious spectacle of right-on-right crime.)
(More here.)
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