Franks Rich Explains Media Bias

Frank Rich's take on media bias is old news as far as I'm concerned - it's just that now more of the big shots around town are coming out and admitting it even though many in the mainstream still believe they are bias free - they explain themselves by saying they are professional journalists, which means, to them, they report the news, not make the news - what a laugh.

They want us to believe that the Associated Press, CBS, The New York Times and many others aren't biased? I can't stand it - give me a break already.

What this means is that the Brooklyn Bridge is for sale again and the people are lining up to buy. yuk yuk

(this is from Newsmax)

Frank Rich: TV News Is ‘Fictionalized’

Today’s TV news programs have more in common with television miniseries than with factual reporting, says New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich.

“What used to be truth has been replaced by something that looks like reality, but is often fictionalized,” Rich — a former theater critic — told a gathering at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 30.

It all began with the highly successful 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which romanticized history, and that set the example for later distortions of the facts by CNN when it covered the first Gulf War as 24/7 entertainment, according to Rich, who called that coverage a “mediathon.”

“It made the Gulf War the first war in American history with its own theme music, its own logo, and a cast of, if not thousands, hundreds,” Rich said in remarks reported by the Palm Beach Daily News.

Because of a news blackout, actual journalism was scarce, and instead “experts came on and said whatever they wanted based on idle speculation and government officials came on and said whatever they wanted us to hear,” Rich told the gathering.

Other mediathons have included the O.J. Simpson trial and the deaths of Princess Diana and John Kennedy Jr., according to Rich.

The evolution of news into entertainment — driven largely by the profit motive — and the distortion of facts to serve political ends “is not a Republican problem,” Rich added. “It’s a cultural problem.

The Democrats are just as eager to take this entertainment-over-reality approach and exploit it.”