![\"Alan](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/f\/fa\/Alan_Grayson_high_res.jpg\/210px-Alan_Grayson_high_res.jpg\")
The fact that there still lingers a perception that the media leans to the left is a testament to the hard working propagandists of the right. The Sunday New York Times has provided us with yet another demonstration that this perception is fatally flawed.<\/p>\n
In a profile of outgoing Representative Alan Grayson of Florida, Times correspondent Michael Barbaro described his commitment to traditional Democratic themes. Then, noting that Grayson was critical of his fellow Democrats for not “acting Democratic enough,”<\/em> Barbaro belittled that view saying…<\/p>\n “It is not exactly a widespread sentiment among the electorate.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Where did Barbaro get that idea? Who knows. He doesn’t say. And unfortunately for him, it isn’t true. Recent polls show<\/a> that the Democrats’ position on issues like allowing the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire, are favored by a majority of Americans. The same poll shows that most Americans favor keeping the Democratic health care bill or expanding it. The Republicans were recently shamed into voting for the Democratic proposal for aid to the 9\/11 First Responders. Majorities agreed that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”<\/em> policy should have been repealed, allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.<\/p>\n Grayson’s point that many Democrats may have lost in the election last November because they did not sufficiently support the agenda that voters expected of them was exactly right. The result of that failure was that many Democratic voters stayed home on election day. As Grayson said…<\/p>\n “If you want people to support you, then you have to support them. You have to think long about what you did for people who voted for you, made phone calls for you, who went door to door for you.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Therein lies the mistake that Barbaro, and most of the rest of the press, have made in their analysis of the mid-terms. There was no message from the people to move to the center. Barbaro does not, and can not, support his contention that this is “a moment when centrism seems to be the party’s antidote to a redrawn political landscape.”<\/em> The problem for Democrats was not that the people didn’t support their agenda. It was that they themselves didn’t support it, so the people bailed out.<\/p>\n There is still a great deal of talk about the “success”<\/em> of Tea Party candidates, even though most of their most prominent members lost. Recall senate candidates Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Linda McMahon, Carli Fiorina, Ken Buck, and Christine O’Donnell. All losers. Only two Democratic incumbent senators were defeated. The rest of the Republican gains were for open seats, some of which were held by retiring Republicans.<\/p>\n Poll after poll shows that the Tea Party is a trumped up charade<\/a> whose views are wildly out of touch with the mainstream of America. Yet the media continues to pretend that they matter. Even worse, they prop them up to deliberately and falsely inflate their significance. How else can you explain CNN partnering with the discredited Tea Party Express<\/a> for a GOP primary debate?<\/p>\n As for Grayson, he will be missed in the Congress. But hopefully he will find his own place in the media. He would make a great radio\/TV host. And in that role he could provide some balance to the heavily over-weighted conservative presence of extreme right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, etc.<\/p>\n It is long past time to abandon the falsehood that the media is liberal. When CNN and the New York Times, two of the right’s favorite “liberal”<\/em> targets, engage in overtly right-wing politics; when Fox News boasts of their dominance in the cable news marketplace; when the vast majority of news outlets are controlled by a handful of giant multinational corporations; the pretense of liberalism in the media should finally be put to rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fact that there still lingers a perception that the media leans to the left is a testament to the hard working propagandists of the right. The Sunday New York Times has provided us with yet another demonstration that this perception is fatally flawed. In a profile of outgoing Representative Alan Grayson of Florida, Times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,1,684],"tags":[849,79,534],"class_list":["post-3571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-media","category-general","category-media-bias","tag-alan-grayson","tag-new-york-times","tag-tea-party"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-VB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3365,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3365","url_meta":{"origin":3571,"position":0},"title":"Alan Grayson Exposes Greedy Media Leeches","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/5\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Ten years ago George W. Bush signed a bill to cut taxes that was so controversial at the time that it included a provision to expire in ten years. It was regarded by many as too costly and likely to produce massive deficits. Ten years later the worst fears of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1599,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1599","url_meta":{"origin":3571,"position":1},"title":"Why Does Andrew Breitbart Support Child Molesters?","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/24\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The terminally choleric Andrew Breitbart (or Boogerman as he'd prefer to be known) is featuring a story on his BigGovernment web site that illustrates a disturbing affinity for child sexual abusers. The article is authored by Jason Mattera, who appears to be auditioning to be Bill O'Reilly's next ambush geek.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1477,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1477","url_meta":{"origin":3571,"position":2},"title":"CNN’s Howard Kurtz On Glenn Beck, Fox News And Whores","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/29\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Today on CNN's Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz raised an issue of obvious hypocrisy on the part of Fox News. The segment addressed an incident a couple of weeks ago when Rep. Alan Grayson referred to an aide to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke as a \"K Street whore.\" Fox News\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3725,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3725","url_meta":{"origin":3571,"position":3},"title":"Keith Olbermann To Launch Internet Venture?","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/22\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Not 24 hours has elapsed since Keith Olbermann shocked the cable news world by announcing that Countdown has reached ignition and been lifted off the MSNBC schedule. And due to the vague explanations offered by the principals, the public is left to their imagination as to what happened. Today The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5399,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5399","url_meta":{"origin":3571,"position":4},"title":"GOP Debates Confirm That Fox Is More Cult Than News","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/13\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In May of 2007 I did an analysis of the ratings of the GOP 2008 presidential primaries broadcast on cable news. The conclusion showed that Fox News viewers remained glued to Fox regardless of what else on the air. 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