MEDIA BIAS AND THE FAT LADY

(There will be no singing during this rant.)

Whenever they question a journalist about his or her location on the political spectrum I’m reminded of a large lady I once worked with. She had eaten her way into a disabled license on her car and was gobbling her way toward life in a wheel chair. I tried to express my concern to her in a low key way, to no avail. It didn’t help that a couple of times a day an even larger lady passed by. My friend would turn to me and say, “See, I’m not so fat.”

So picture a fat farm. Dozens of oversized ladies frolicking on an expansive lawn. The least fat one would start thinking, ‘I’m not fat at all! I’m skinny!’

A news room reminds me of that fat farm. The place will be so full of liberals that an individual reporter would lose all perspective. The least liberal one would start thinking he was a conservative. Others could point to far out whack jobs and say, “See, I’m a moderate.”

Evidence was supplied by the media reporter of the LA Times, Tim Rutten. His first column (I think it was his first) on taking the job was to criticize The Fox News Channel for being too conservative! Was it a joke? No. He was being totally serious. He had no idea that he worked at one of the most liberally biased newspapers in America. That’s what happens when you become so totally immersed in the “Fat Farm” environment.

(Continuing, as Drudge would say.)