Monday, March 17, 2003 :::
Instapundit has an anecdote of bias, which anecdote he read in the Washington Post (sloppily worded, but I'm trying to be clear that the Post wasn't demonstrating bias, but reporting it).
When a group called the Young Conservatives of Texas was preparing to protest a Bill Clinton appearance in the state, Steve McLinden, a Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter, used the paper's e-mail to send the group this message:
"Ah, the heartless, greedy, anti-intellectual little fascists are mobilizing again. (Let me guess. All you frat boys saved up your allowances and monies from your McDonald's jobs for those Beemers you'll be driving to the protest, and those new jackboots you'll be sportin' en route)."
Editor Jim Witt let McLinden go that day and apologized to the group. "Obviously, reporters have opinions," Witt says. "But we expect our reporters not to express those opinions unless they're columnists."
Props are due that editor, depending on how much backlash he felt before excising his paper's credibility problem. If he sacked the reporter the same day the email was sent, he seems to have done good.
New readers should see Dean's assertion that the media isn't biased liberal so much as urban/coastal. I.e., the network newscasts from New York City are simply demonstrating a New York City point of view. I think he has a good case.
We should, of course, be careful about assuming pervasive bias based on anecdotes. But they are so much more interesting than statistics.
::: posted by Steven at 10:32 AM
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