Whining about the press

One of the major accomplishments of the far-right is convincing a good portion of the country that the mainstream media are liberal. Given the Oklahoman's own right win agenda, then it's no surprise that they ran this letter from Keith Marcum of Mustang:

Imagine a basketball team not having to play by the rules. Both teams are after the same goal but with two different sets of rules. The officials allow one team to walk, double dribble and foul without a whistle. The other team wants to play by the rules, but struggles to compete at the same success rate.

The officials in this scenario represent the liberal press. The team breaking rules would be the Democratic Party that doesn't hesitate to lie and distort the truth without hesitation or fear of consequences. Its members know the press won't call them on it and their lies won't be exposed. The other team would be the Republicans who are trying to follow rules while knowing they'll be exposed if rules are broken. 

Obviously, there's little chance for Republicans to win because of the difference in calls being made by the press. President Obama knows he can say and do whatever he pleases and it won't be called. George W. Bush would've been chastised by the press had he tried to do the same as Obama. Examples include Solyndra and Benghazi — I could go on and on.

To begin: The use of the sports analogy is an embarrassment both to Mr. Marcum and to the Oklahoman. Analogy is obviously an effective rhetorical tool that can be employed to make complex arguments and ideas easier to follow. Sports analogies are somewhat tired, but one can imagine where even they can be useful. Unfortunately for Mr. Marcum, his argument is hardly complex. Indeed, it's quite simplistic. So simplistic, in fact, that one could easily just re-write his letter in a few sentences:

Our liberal mainstream media refuse to challenge President Obama on his socialist agenda, thus allowing him and the Democratic Party to lie and distort the truth. Meanwhile, Republicans seem to be held to a higher standard and every misquote is blown out of proportion. No doubt George W. Bush would haver have gotten away with things like the Solyndra or Benghazi scandals, among the many many others.

Wow. Even if this was just something I jotted down in all of two minutes, it is clear that it is a much stronger letter. The analogy is gone-- it obviously only serves to get in the way and the main points are made in a more concise way. (Note also that I've done away with the tacit implication made in Mr. Marcum's letter that Republicans would "lie and distort the truth" if they could, and it's only our "liberal" press that's holding them in check.)

Unfortunately, the Oklahoman really doesn't care about the quality of the letters it runs. All it wants is to make sure that it runs letters that push right wing talking points. In light if this, it is worth asking if Mr. Marcum's assertion is at all valid. Is it really the case that our mainstream media are failing to call out members of the Democratic Party for their lies, while Republicans are forced to just "follow the rules"?

Anyone who really pays attention to the issues knows that our mainstream media aren't liberal or conservative. Instead, they're largely just lazy and stupid. A great example of this comes from the 2000 election, where our supposedly "liberal" press corps savaged Al Gore while mostly giving George Bush a feee pass. Gore never said he "invented the internet" but our "liberal" press corps were happy to parrot right wing lies because they were too lazy to question a story that fit the narrative they wanted to push.

Again: if the press were truly liberal as Mr. Marcum (and much of the right wing) has asserted, Al Gore would have easily gotten a pass on such a statement. After all, Gore was instrumental in passing legislation in the late 80's that helped fund a "National Research and Education Network" that led, ultimately, to a commercialized internet.

But while our "liberal" media didn't give a Democrat running against George W. Bush much of a free pass, a person like the GOP's candidate for Vice President, Paul Ryan, is considered a "Very Serious Person" about deficits by those same people. And yet his budget plan would have effectively destroyed the government!

For people like Mr. Marcum, the notion that our mainstream media are liberal and biased towards a progressive agenda allows him to find comfort when his favored candidates and conservative ideas are rejected in the polls. As he says in his letter, "Obviously, there's little chance for Republicans to win," against such bias. Unfortunately, this completely baseless attitude means that Mr. Marcum and those who think like him are unwilling to seek other reasons for the failure of such ideas (such as, perhaps, that those ideas are horrible).

Nevertheless, the Oklahoman is happy to run letters that push these sorts of lies, knowing that it allows its failing right wing plutocratic/theocratic agenda to survive a little longer.