On November 2, Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and former Republican Congressman from Florida, lamented the so-called "liberal media bias." He claimed that there had not been one Republican host of a Sunday morning political talk show or anchor of a nightly news program on ABC, NBC or CBS in the last 50 years.
By Dave Schraeger
On November 2, Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and former Republican Congressman from Florida, lamented the so-called "liberal media bias." He claimed that there had not been one Republican host of a Sunday morning political talk show or anchor of a nightly news program on ABC, NBC or CBS in the last 50 years. He said:
"Outside of Brit Hume, who has been a conservative in the mainstream media in the past 30 years who you've worked for? Outside of Brit Hume, who has held a powerful position at ABC, NBC or CBS News on the air? [...] Name the single Republican that has hosted a Sunday show, that has been an anchor of a news network for the big three networks over the past 50 years. You cannot do it."
He said nothing of the 24/7 conservative Republican Fox or Rupert Murdoch who owns not only Fox, but also The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in addition to numerous other newspapers in the USA, Great Britain and Australia. Given the popularity of Fox, which is now mainstream, and the extensiveness of Murdoch's media empire, Scarborough's failure to mention them is not only dishonest, but also inexcusable.
When have conservatives not been able to have their concerns aired over the last 50 years or more? Why did the so-called "liberal media" not call out the Johnson Administration over the phony case for war in Vietnam with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in August, 1964? Why did it not challenge the Bush administration's claims of WMD in Iraq in the build-up to that disastrous war? When have the news media reported sympathetically on striking workers and their unions, other than Poland's Solidarity union in the 1980's?
In 1981, during Ronald Reagan's first year in office, "Top 40" AM radio stations changed their format to talk radio. More specifically, the format was changed to conservative talk radio with 99% or more of the radio talk show hosts being conservative and 1% or less of the radio talk show hosts being liberals. This is where conservative Republican Rush Limbaugh started to build a career with his mysogynist, racist bluster. Limbaugh continues to spew his right-wing bluster on the radio as does Dr. Laura Ingraham who reportedly supports Donald Trump for President.
Where did this idea of a supposed "liberal media bias" come from? It appears to have come from what was supposedly Richard Nixon's last press conference in 1962 after losing the gubernatorial election in California to Pat Brown. Nixon ranted for 15 minutes attacking the news media, accusing them of being biased against him "since the (Alger) Hiss case" and declared: "You don't have Nixon to kick around any more because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."
It would be easy to dismiss Republican complaints about "liberal media bias" in the aftermath of the third televised Republican debate on CNBC on October 28 as "reactionary whining," but the truth is even more sinister than that. It is important to understand that the news media have historically been referred to as "The Fourth Estate." We have the three separate but equal branches of government: the executive (President), the legislative (US Senate and Congress) and the judiciary (the courts). The purpose of having the separate branches of government enjoying equal status is for checks and balances to make sure that none of them is abusing its legitimate authority. The news media exist as "The Fourth Estate" as a check on the power of the three branches of government, to keep the citizenry informed and to insure that we remain a democracy. It is the job of the news media to challenge questionable assertions and outright lies made by politicians and to make sure that government is acting in our best interests. The news media are supposed to do this on behalf of all us, not on behalf of themselves, politicians or elected officials.
Marco Rubio gave the biggest applause line of the night at the third Republican debate and got a significant boost in his standing in the primaries for the nomination as the Republican candidate for President when he declared: "The Democrats have the ultimate super PAC. It is called the mainstream media." This is a slap in the face to all of us and a bald-faced attempt to intimidate the news media from fulfilling their role as "The Fourth Estate" on behalf of all of us. In the end, it is an attack on democracy itself.
Dave Schraeger is a longtime labor, peace and immigrant-rights activist.
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