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Jeff Greenfield: Liberal media biasA new twist on a very old theme
By Jeff Greenfield
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Al Gore talked about it; Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle complained about it. And now, according to the New York Times, Democrats want to do something about it. "It" is a conservative media network that is getting the Republican message out. It may seem that liberal complaints about the media is a new twist on a familiar conservative theme. New, but also very old. All through the 30s, 40s, and 50s, Democrats complained about a "one-party press." One reason President Truman delighted in the famous Chicago Tribune headline "Dewey defeats Truman" was that the Tribune -- along with the great majority of newspapers -- was staunchly Republican. Time magazine, perhaps the most powerful media outlet in those pre-TV days, also put a regular Republican "spin" on political news. But in the 1960s when network television news became king and when controversial issues such as civil rights and Vietnam emerged, conservatives began complaining of media bias. That complaint was aired most famously by Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1969, when he attacked a liberal media elite. That charge has become an article of faith among many conservative press critics. They cite surveys showing that the overwhelming majority of journalists vote Democratic and hold liberal beliefs, especially on social issues such as abortion. Former CBS Newsman Bernard Goldberg had a huge bestseller last year with a book alleging -- and titled -- "Bias." But now, the argument goes, a powerful conservative media machine has sprung up, with Web sites -- most notably "The Drudge Report" -- feeding into the dominantly conservative talk radio world of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Company and, some say, Fox News, which has grown into the most-watched cable news outlet. And attempts by liberals such as former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and Texas commentator Jim Hightower to crack the talk radio format have failed. Now, you can already hear conservatives laughing at such a notion. The whole of mainstream media, they argue, from the New York Times and Washington Post to the big networks to CNN, are all liberal. It would sound like special pleading to argue about this, but what is undeniable is that the conservatives belief that their views are not given a fair shake has led to a significant form of advocacy on the Right, a kind of modern-day pamphleteering that has no equivalent on the Left. What conservatives like Limbaugh have done is to figure out how to make their views entertaining and compelling to large audiences. And that is the essential challenge facing liberals today. -- Jeff Greenfield is CNN's senior political analyst
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