Give 'Em Hell, Ari

Ari Fleischer, former Bush II press secretary, takes the media to task for its bias, prompting Brent Bozell to defend him thusly:

So let’s go back to what Fleischer was talking about – the national media. Take a look at the most influential national media sources in Nexis and see how often they employed the label "social liberal" in the campaign year of 2004 – the year when the socially liberal cause celebre of "gay marriage" took center stage. ABC? Zero. NBC? Zero. PBS’s "NewsHour"? Zero. NPR? One, but only if you count Carol Moseley-Braun calling herself a "social liberal." NPR reporters weren’t using it. CBS? One, but only when a reporter explained Republicans attempted to tar Kerry with the loathsome label.

Even the major daily newspapers on the left couldn’t bear to use the label in 2004. The Washington Post had only six usages, three in editorials, and three in news stories – and only one of the news stories identified "social liberals" as a fact, as a Kerry constituency. The other two were only GOP attempts to "paint" Democrats as social liberals. Similarly, the New York Times also managed just six usages – two in editorials, two in news stories about GOP accusations, and two admissions that social liberals walk the Earth.

One of the juiciest anecdotes in the book concerns ABC White House reporter Terry Moran, whose sharply opinionated questions make him look like he’s auditioning for the role of the next Helen Thomas. On April 28, 2003, President Bush made a speech to Arab-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, proclaiming his confidence in the ability of the Iraqi people to create a new democracy and his commitment to helping build that vision. The crowd went wild in an emotional response. But ABC only gave the speech two sentences.

Fleischer asked Moran: Why so little coverage? "I couldn’t get it on the air," Moran tells him, adding: "If they had booed him, it would have led the news." That’s the national media we see too often. Arrogant, tendentious, partisan, unbalanced, unfair -- and in denial.

Of course, statistics doesn't matter to liberals---it's how they FEEL which truly counts.