Matt Bittenbender
Aug 24, 2017 · 4 min read

The media has always had bias. In the early part of last century we had the same issue with sensationalistic media. Lies were created and passed as fact. newspapers lost a lot of credibility, until they started to elevate the profession. They became journalists rather than reporters, had more integrity, and built reputations on being fair and unbiased. With information at a snails pace they were relied upon for their accuracy. Whether your were a socialite or a bumpkin, you got the same message and you simply had an opinion about what was written, not to whom it was written.

Nearly 100 years later we have sensationalistic media again. This time it’s in the form fast and wide spread broadband. people are still proving to be as ignorant an gullible as they were back then. The ploy is the same. It’s like how many people in this country today have been quick to throw out the lessons of fighting Nazi fascism and Confederate white supremacists.

The media that had existed during that period (what the POTUS and alt-right is calling “fake”) has been a pretty reliable for reporting the facts. Sure, sometimes they get it wrong and it is there job to announce corrections, mistakes and retractions.

Coming into the 1980's, the media was considered to be the fair and unbiased foil to the corruption of politics. The 4th Estate effectively exposed Watergate the decade before and the debacle of Jimmy Carter’s Iran hostage rescue, and the Iran Contra scandal. It wasn’t considered a “liberal bias” then nor was it considered “the enemy” by those that disagreed with what was reported.

Enter Rush Limbaugh. When Reagan allowed the the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. The law, which was passed in 1949, required radio stations provide free air time for responses to any controversial and provocative opinions that was broadcast. This now meant stations could then broadcast editorial commentary without having to present opposing views. Daniel Henninger, of the Wall Street Journal, wrote in “A Rush to Victory” “Ronald Reagan tore down this wall (the Fairness Doctrine) in 1987… and Rush Limbaugh was the first man to proclaim himself liberated from the ‘East Germany’ of liberal media domination.” (WSJ, April 29, 2005). Around this time, a young Congressman named Newt Gingrich had founded the Conservative Opportunity Society (COS) with the blessing of Reagan and set an agenda for pushing conservative agenda. This committee had dozens of Congressmen and met weekly. It was fed grievances and ideology from the Moral Majority. The neo-conservative movement began in an auspicious and silent attack from the far right politicians and media of that time. Whether it was coordinated or not remains to be seen, but that is occurred at the same time is not inconsequential.

So the first shot was fired in the battle to at once polarize and marry media an politics. Since then, media has become increasing inflammatory with increasing number of editorialists allowed to pass themselves off as news without the proper labels. Limbaugh pioneered the extreme political position with rhetoric echoed from Gingrinch’s COS. As in Newtonian physics, so goes humanity; “forever reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The left then came out with their versions of biased editorialism. Media began to be choose sides running along the hard line between conservatism and liberalism. This was based on the political leanings of the outlet’s ownership and their Managing Editor’s desire for readership.

It ramped up in the 1990’s targeting Bill Clinton. It came to a head in the 2000’s under Bush as he was attacked and then attacked well established opposition journalists like Dan Rather. Rather, a self-avowed opponent of Bush, reported about his National Guard record from what was later revealed as forged documents. Even though he retracted his statements, Bush and Cheney insisted he resign from CBS News. CBS caved and an illustrious career and charismatic voice was gone like that. Now politics began encroaching on media and influencing their narrative. The 4th Estate was diminished. Opinion started to become as important as facts, history and science. The alt-right began to embrace their ignorance as a virtue because their media enabled this.

At this moment in history, the media became vulnerable. I say all this because history can put this in perspective. Since Bush Jr.’s administration the media has declined. Nine years hence, people appear are more interested in the ideology and emotional responses than rational thought. The long assault on facts has been cultivated over time.

The sad part of this now is that “liberal media” is a catch-all phrase for anything the alt-right disagrees with. The liberal media is just “the media,” reporting as they always have. In most cases, especially under the Trump presidency, the live interviews are in line with their reporting. Even sadder is that the late night satirists end up reporting scathing editorialist segments that are more legitimate for facts and fact checking in the name of humor.

News media has clearly lost the public trust. Some of it is a conservative political agenda to polarize and galvanize their base. Some of it is the over-reaction by liberal media.However, when it comes to believing what is reported, the conservative media has clearly lost. The extreme and narrow anglo- and wealthy-centric views and stretching of reality compared to the left’s habitual defense of their position is proof positive of where the attacks are coming from and the inadequacy weakness in the left to diminish this indoctrinated attitudes. Does this happen on the left? Sure. But how many lefties does anyone see shooting up a theater or church, bombing, or organizing racist rallies?

All this was fomented by the conservatives in Congress and disseminated by conservative media outlets, without the rule of law telling them they needed to present a fair and unbiased point of view.

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