Hello Everyone:

One of my favorite cable news shows is CNN Reliable Sources with media critic Howard Kurtz because that is a program where both Republican and Democratic guests have to answer real questions about fairness and accuracy in the media. While no journalist is perfect, I think that Howard Kurtz is an honest broker of information who on an overall basis makes good calls and is equally tough on all of his guests:

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/reliable.sources/index.html

A pattern I have seen on CNN Reliable Sources lately is how several Republican guests seem to really enjoy bashing MSNBC for their blatant far left wing bias (which I would agree with them about) BUT at the same time they will not admit to the blatant far right wing bias at FOX News when that key question comes up which in my opinion makes them extremely inconsistent!

Here are three examples of Republican media apologists (Bernard Goldberg, Ed Gillespie, and Steve Malzberg) who in my opinion were NOT being consistent because they could not credibly answer the key question about the blatant bias at FOX News while they were bashing the blatant bias at MSNBC:

1) Bernard Goldberg in my opinion clearly wanted to keep the conversation on MSNBC while he tried as hard as he could to not answer Howard Kurtz's direct questions about the blatant bias at FOX News:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/22/sotu.02.html

STATE OF THE UNION WITH JOHN KING

State of the Union: Reliable Sources

Aired February 22, 2009 - 10:00 ET

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR: "You talk about the media not being very much interested in Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, the onetime terrorist, but you again point out it was ABC's George Stephanopoulos who pressed candidate Obama about this in the debate.

And FOX News, where you're a contributor, want to play some tape for you, went haywire on this issue. Let's just give a flavor of what it was like at that time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS: New tape of Bill Ayers saying he's an anarchist and a Marxist.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS: Now we know that Senator Obama wrote a blurb in "The Chicago Tribune" praising a book by Ayers.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: ... picture of Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist, stomping on the American flag, saying, free as a bird, guilty as hell, what a great country...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: So, Bernie, Bill Ayers, legitimate story, but when FOX is pounding it like that, when Hannity is talking about it every night, why isn't that media bias on the conservative side?

BERNARD GOLDBERG, AUTHOR OF "A SLOBBERING LOVE AFFAIR": Because it's a legitimate story. It's a legitimate story not because we think Barack Obama shares Bill Ayers' views on setting bombs in the Capitol or at the Pentagon, it's a legitimate story because we -- this was a relationship that we had.

And even if we take Barack Obama's description of that relationship as "flimsy," his word, "flimsy" relationship, what if John McCain had a relationship with a right-wing domestic terrorist who set bombs not at the Capitol or at the Pentagon, but at a black church or at an abortion clinic? Do you think the media would have gone easy on him?

Everybody would have picked up on that story, and not just FOX. And as for the first part of the question, about Stephanopoulos, George Stephanopoulos was the first mainstream reporter to ask that question about the relationship between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers.

And what happened the next day? Was the story of the next day, well, what is that relationship? No.

The next day the story was, where did he get that question? He got it from Sean Hannity. And that became the question and the bludgeon with which they beat up one of their own, George Stephanopoulos.

KURTZ: Well, mostly on the blogs. Now -- but what I'm trying to understand is this...

(CROSSTALK)

GOLDBERG: Well, no, no, no, no. That's not true.

The "L.A. Times" wrote about it. Cable -- MSNBC talked about it. There were numerous -- The Huffington Post wrote about it.

KURTZ: OK. Fair enough. But, you know, Ayers was a legitimate story, it was covered. My question is how often and with what intensity it should be covered.

But if you as a critic are upset about, for example, MSNBC's pro- Obama bias, Chris Matthews' "thrill up the leg" and all of that, what about all of the softball interviews that Sean Hannity did with John McCain and Sarah Palin?

In other words, are you applying the same standards to somebody where you also are a contributor on the right side of the spectrum?

GOLDBERG: My -- by the way, the fact that I'm a contributor, if you know anything about me, Howie, I'll blast FOX News in a second if I think they deserve it. I don't care.

KURTZ: Here's your opportunity.

GOLDBERG: Well, no, this is not a good opportunity because I don't agree with the premise of the question.

KURTZ: All right. Take it on.

GOLDBERG: It's not what they say on commentary shows, although what Chris Matthews talked about, a "thrill running up his leg," that's not commentary, that's a man-crush. It's when MSNBC makes a business decision to let partisan commentators anchor news coverage.

KURTZ: Which I was very critical of.

GOLDBERG: Absolutely.

KURTZ: Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are entitled to say whatever they want, but they shouldn't be in the role of anchors.

Let me ask you this, because if you had written this book and said, you know what, the media coverage of Barack Obama was too favorable, I would agree with that and I think a lot of people have already said it. Is there a subtle pressure when you're writing a book to use a title like "Slobbering Love Affair" to push the envelope a little bit more, because that's how you break through the static?

GOLDBERG: Maybe, but that wasn't my reason. I'll tell you how that came about.

I was minding my own business, Howie. I wasn't writing any book. I wasn't bothering anybody. I was following the coverage the way you were and just millions of ordinary citizens were.

And I heard one thing too many. I don't even remember what it was. And I said, this isn't coverage, this is a slobbering love affair. And, boom, that became the title.

KURTZ: All right. I've got half a minute left..."

Unfortunately a video was not made of this portion of the dialogue that I could find and this part of exchange came up toward the end of the interview so Bernard Goldberg was basically able to filibuster his way out of answering Howard Kurtz's questions about the blatant bias at FOX News!

Howard Kurtz in my opinion was very fair to Bernard Goldberg in this dialogue because he was just as tough on MSNBC as he was on FOX News!

2) Ed Gillespie in my opinion also wanted to keep the conversation on MSNBC while he tried as hard as he could to not answer Howard Kurtz's direct questions about the blatant bias at FOX News:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0903/29/rs.01.html

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES

State of the Union: Reliable Sources

Aired March 29, 2009 - 10:00 ET

ED GILLESPIE, FMR. WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL FOR PRESIDENT BUSH: "But my point is, this -- I was using that to illustrate what I think is a problem in journalism today, which is this line between commentary and opinion and news analysis and reporting has really kind of been washed away in the 24/7 news cycle.

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR: I agree with that, but it's not only in the liberal direction. You talk about MSNBC. What about Fox News? What about...

GILLESPIE: And can I finish on that?

KURTZ: Please.

GILLESPIE: So this reporter on the air calls me completely disingenuous in response to a setup from Chris Matthews, who's not exactly the most objective newsman in the world.

KURTZ: Nor does he claim to be. But go ahead.

GILLESPIE: Well, but he serves...

KURTZ: He's an opinion guy. He's an MSNBC opinion guy.

GILLESPIE: Who also takes that cap off sometimes and is an NBC newsperson.

KURTZ: Which I've been critical of. But we've got to bring Fox News into the discussion.

GILLESPIE: Sure.

KURTZ: How do Fox News pundits, some of whom cheerlead for Republicans -- these are the opinion guys now -- how do they not do the same thing? And you don't seem to have a problem with that, but you certainly do have a problem with MSNBC.

GILLESPIE: Well, I would say that Fox, in their news hours, their news blocks, as opposed to their opinion shows...

KURTZ: Sure.

GILLESPIE: ... are more balanced than MSNBC and their news programming. And the fact is, I'm not saying that there are not some folks who bring a different perspective as a rule. You know, in the Pew survey, by 4 to 1, reporters identified themselves as liberal versus conservatives. So I'm not saying there aren't some...

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: Their job is to keep it out of their work.

GILLESPIE: That's my point, Howard. Their job is to keep it out of their work. And increasingly, they're not doing it as much as they used to.

KURTZ: All right. Ed Gillespie, thanks for stopping by.

GILLESPIE: Thank you..."

Because this exchange came up at the end of the dialogue, Ed Gillespie like Bernard Goldberg was also able to filibuster his way out of answering Howard Kurtz's questions about the blatant bias at FOX News!

Howard Kurtz in my opinion was also very fair to Ed Gillespie in this dialogue because he was just as tough on MSNBC as he was on FOX News!

Here is the CNN video link to watch this dialogue (The FOX News portion of this dialogue takes place at about 31:00 into the video):

Reliable Sources 37:29
Host Howard Kurts turns a critical eye on the media.

Source: CNN
Added On March 29, 2009

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/podcasts/reliablesources/site/2009/03/29/reliable.sources.03.29.cnn (37:29)

3) Steve Malzberg (an extreme right wing talk radio show host in the same mold of Rush Limbaugh but just not as well known) only wanted to talk about MSNBC when Howard Kurtz brought up both MSNBC and FOX News and he had the audacity to tell Stephanie Miller that FOX News is fair and balanced using the flawed reasoning that "I'm always sitting there against a Democrat debating an issue, like I am with you right here:"

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/05/rs.01.html

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES

State of the Union: Reliable Sources

Aired April 5, 2009 - 10:00 ET

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR: "Steve, Stephanie mentioned Ed Schultz, the radio host. He just signed a deal with MSNBC. We talked about Fox moving to the right by bringing in Glenn Beck and having Hannity without Colmes. MSNBC certainly seems to be moving to the left.

STEVE MALZBERG, WOR RADIO NETWORK: Oh, absolutely. They're radical to the left, and there's a market for that, there's a niche for that. Absolutely. You know, Maddow...

STEPHANIE MILLER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Thank God there's no TV station that's radical to the right.

MALZBERG: No, there isn't. Where is the TV station radical to the right?

MILLER: Oh, really? Fox News is fair and balanced. I see. OK.

MALZBERG: Absolutely. You know what? I'm constantly -- when I'm on Fox News, I'm always sitting there against a Democrat debating an issue, like I am with you right here..."

Steve Malzberg's reasoning that FOX News is fair and balanced because "I'm always sitting there against a Democrat debating an issue" is flawed and is not valid in my opinion because far left wing anchors at MSNBC such as Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, and David Shuster also have Democratic and Republican guests on their shows who debate issues.

So if the standard of a news network being fair and balanced is having Republican guests debating Democratic guests, then Steve Malzberg would have to recognize MSNBC as also being fair and balanced to be consistent (which he would never do) because they do that just like how FOX News does!

Here is the YouTube video link to watch this dialogue (The FOX News exchange takes place at about 9:07 into this video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Y-OQroFK4

Stephanie Miller vs. Steve Malzberg Re: Glenn Beck, Fox News (10:24)

RoachRadioTV
April 05, 2009

On a side note, Steve Malzberg is so much of an arrogant Neocon GOP ideologue that he said Obama "does not love this country" when he was a guest on a Lou Dobbs panel two days after being on Reliable Sources:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/07/ldt.01.html

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT

Obama in Iraq; Red Storm Rising; Renegade Plane; Gunning for Arpaio

Aired April 7, 2009 - 19:00 ET

STEVE MALZBERG, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, WOR: "I mean, I am shocked, really at the independent total. I expect it from the Democrats but I would think that most independent-minded people would understand what this man (Obama) is all about, that this man does not love this country..."

Joe Madison who was another guest on that panel was right to call on Malzberg to apologize for that insulting remark and Lou Dobbs in my opinion was irresponsible to allow Malzberg to get away with saying that on his show:

JOE MADISON, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, SIRIUS XM: "Somebody on that set needs to apologize to Obama.

LOU DOBBS, HOST: Excuse me, Joe, come on, buddy. We've been pals too long for that..."

The Tea Parties helped to expose the bias of FOX News in my opinion because Meghan Kelly of FOX News slipped when she admitted at about 3:55 into this YouTube video that FOX News gave the Tea Parties "PR:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z5NLeUKMyU

Fox accuses CNN of biased, activist tea bag (First Amendment Right) (6:44)

TTrejo1
April 17, 2009

I will have to give Amanda Carpenter of The Washington Times and formerly of Townhall.com (a highly partisan Neocon GOP activist website) some credit for admitting to Howard Kurtz that personalities at FOX News promoted the Tea Party events even though I do not think that her justification for it is valid which is "there's no doubt where they stand on the ideological spectrum. People like Glenn Beck, you know he's a conservative, so they were promoting the event:"

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/19/rs.01.html

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES

State of the Union: Reliable Sources

Aired April 19, 2009 - 10:00 ET

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR: "Amanda Carpenter, is there any doubt that Fox pushed and promoted these parties, and deployed some of its hosts as star attractions?

AMANDA CARPENTER, "THE WASHINGTON TIMES": Sure, but I would argue that the personalities promoting the events, really recruiting people to go, there's no doubt where they stand on the ideological spectrum. People like Glenn Beck, you know he's a conservative, so they were promoting the event.

But, you know, there's people that disagree with them. And I think that's a legitimate concern, but you have to look at what the news coverage was on it if you want to evaluate that..."

Here is the CNN video link to watch this dialogue (which starts right at the beginning of this video):

Reliable Sources 38:44
Host Howard Kurtz turns a critical eye on the media.

Source: CNN
Added On April 19, 2009

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/podcasts/reliablesources/site/2009/04/19/reliable.sources.04.19.cnn (38:44)

I wonder what Amanda Carpenter and others like her on the far right would be saying if Keith Olbermann and MSNBC were openly promoting an anti-Iraq war rally and if they tried to justify it by saying "there's no doubt where they stand on the ideological spectrum. People like Keith Olbermann, you know he's a liberal, so they were promoting the event." The far right would be screaming "liberal media bias" over it!

Republicans who cannot stop talking about the bias at MSNBC definitely need to be pressed about the blatant bias at FOX News to the point where they are forced to admit it like how Amanda Carpenter did!

The evidence is very clear that FOX News is NOT fair and balanced and is biased toward the far right:

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16713

Bush 41 not knowing he was on the air asked "Do you see our man Ailes at all?"

Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on October 6, 2008 - 7:25pm.

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/12031

STUDY: Content analysis of Bill O'Reilly's rhetoric finds spin to be a 'factor'

Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on May 7, 2007 - 4:33pm.

However to be fair, the evidence is also very clear that most of MSNBC is biased toward the far left:

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16506

Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann have been dropped as anchors for the debates!

Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on September 8, 2008 - 3:38am.

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16378

Ed Rendell said "MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign" & More!

Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on August 25, 2008 - 4:29am.

I strongly agree with what Howard Kurtz and Joe Trippi said and I am also very "tired of this fragmentation in the media:"

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/12/rs.01.html

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES

Gay Marriage, White House Pooch; Obama Coverage; Palin Family Coverage

Aired April 12, 2009 - 10:00 ET

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: "Almost every night, I flip around the channels, I see opinionated hosts on Fox News beating up on President Obama. I see people on MSNBC beating up on the Republicans, defending Obama.

Do you get a little tired of this fragmentation in the media where some folks seem to take sides?

JOE TRIPPI, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Yes, I'm pretty sick of it. I think a lot of Americans are too. But it seems to be the way the media is fragmenting right now, where you tune in to Fox to get the hits on the Democrats, the liberals, and the same thing on MSNBC going the other way.

That's how...

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: Is that playing to your base, as a political term?

TRIPPI: Yes..."

I wish that Reliable Sources was on more than once a week, I wish that more high profile Republicans were being asked about the bias at FOX News when they are bashing MSNBC, and I think that we need many more non-parisan media watch dog groups who will honestly call things right down the middle to keep everybody honest!

Mitch Dworkin

http://www.securingamerica.com/

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16039
RESOURCES: Speeches, Articles, and Career Highlights to help define Gen. Clark!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on July 7, 2008 - 2:51pm.

http://www.securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7191
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program: An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight back against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda!