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A recent Gallup Poll says nearly half the
country believes the media is biased left and this poll proves one thing:
The people who told the pollsters that are smarter than I am.
For most of my journalistic career, I did
not believe there was institutional bias on the part of the media. I felt
there was an exclusionary bias.
That is certain opinions and issues simply
were simply ignored by the major media. For example, I worked for two
network news organizations and the only time you'd hear a pro-life opinion
would be if some nut blew up an abortion clinic.
But I've now learned the hard way that
liberal bias is a way of life for many media organizations.
Over the past few months I have been slimed,
smeared, and pilloried primarily by leftists who do not approve of my
commentary.
I am not whining, I'm reporting. And to put
things into perspective, what actors Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger
have recently suffered at the hands of the left-wing press makes my
situation look like an episode of "Happy Days."
These guys have been viciously attacked and
even their own fathers have been used as bludgeons against them. Awful
doesn't even begin to describe it.
In my case the attacks are very personal but
also designed to advance the far-left agenda.
Item: When my new book "Who's Looking
Out for You?" hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, it was
described as an "attack" vehicle.
In reality the book is a primer for everyday
Americans on how to achieve success and stability.
In the past ten years only two people have
had three number one non-fiction bestsellers on the Times list: Washington
Post reporter Bob Woodward and your humble correspondent.
Yet somehow the Times has not gotten around
to reviewing any of my books while tomes by the liberal "satirists" are
given major exposure.
Item: People Magazine assigned a man
who loathes me (I know, I know it's hard to believe) to review "Who's
Looking Out for You?" Newsflash - he didn't like it.
Item: A National Public Radio
interviewer insisted on reading that People Magazine review on the air
during her chat with me. When I strongly suggested she read the very
positive review in Publisher's Weekly magazine as well, she refused.
Item: Matt Lauer on The Today Show
sat there smirking as one of the far-left "satirists" defamed me. When my
publicist called The Today Show asking for a chance to respond, the
program turned me down.
To be fair Barbara Walters gave me fair play
on "The View" and did challenge the "satirist" so there is not a left-wing
monolith in play here.
But there is no question that scores of
left-winger press people have now emerged from the closet and are out for
blood, the same way hard right-wing ideologues were during the Clinton
administration.
However, the hard right did not have access
to the elite media and that's a key however.
The assault from the left is directly
because of the unprecedented success of the Fox Newschannel.
Perceived by the "progressive" community to
be conservative, the network drives the far-left absolutely crazy. That
politically correct bastion, CNN, has been decimated in the ratings by
FNC, and traditionalists finally have a place on television to put forth
their points of view.
Of course, liberal voices are given the same
opportunity on Fox but it doesn't matter to the far-left ideologues. For
decades, they controlled the agenda on TV news.
Now that's over. All voices are heard.
So the far-left is counter-attacking and God
help you if you're in their sights.
My name is no longer Bill O'Reilly, it's
"gasbag," "bully," "liar," and "blowhard." Those descriptions are not
confined to opinion pieces but are routinely used in hard news stories as
well.
The far-left media has loaded up on sticks
and stones and is eager to hurl them.
There is some good news, though. Never again
can many news organizations claim any kind of fairness or
non-partisanship.
They have been flushed out of the weeds for
all to see.
Excuse me for a moment, something just went
whizzing by my head. | 