Decision 2008: The Presidential Election Thread

[Higher-Jin]

Hahah. When the majority of journalists describe themselves as liberal, you know damned well they’re going to let those beliefs color their reporting. They may not outright lie (although i’m sure that happens occasionally), but they will arrange stories in a way that will further their agenda, they will be less intense about reporting/investigating things that would hurt other liberals, etc.

As ultra david pointed out radio is ruled by conservatives, then there’s fox, and the fact of the matter is that supposedly LIBERAL stations still call out their candidate on his shit. FOX DOES NOT.

I read an interesting article written by a guy who worked for a big LA paper. He claimed the liberal bias is so overwhelming that most journalists and reporters don’t even realize that its there. All their friends are liberal, their bosses are liberal, the neighborhoods they live in are liberal. They’re completely disconnected from the reality of their position and how it relates to the majority of the country.

Yes because one person’s opinion is incontrovertible proof of liberal bias as opposed to the countless people who worked for fox and later exposed what a corrupt, reality distorting cess pool it is. (i.e. Outfoxed) You can’t compare your suspicion that journalists “arrange” things in a way to further their “agenda” to that. Even if they do arrange things around like that, you said it yourself they don’t outright distort facts or do it intentionally. I recall EVERYONE jumping on Bill Clinton during his scandal, if the liberal media was truly out to further their agenda then why not try to protect him like fox tried to protect bush from his collossal quagmire?

I don’t really understand this. People bring up Fox like it matters. It is clearly right-wing biased, and obviously so, when compared to the left-wing bias of the other major news stations.

I really hope you’re not trying to say the other news networks are anywhere near as bias as fox.

Dobbs is a populist, not a conservative by any stretch of the word. And again, just because Fox is more slanted for its team than CNN doesn’t mean that CNN isn’t slanted to the left - it is.

Dobbs takes huge issue with illegals and is conservative on a number of things. Yeah he’s independent, but as I said in my original post he has a conservative slant and was not shy on bashing Obama on Joe Biden’s “He will be tested” comment. If there is any bias it is not intentional or overt, like the conservative radio shows and again: FOX. Because FOX is a news network and it does matter that they have such a strong, pandering voice in the G.O.P’s favor. You can’t just discount them because it doesn’t serve your argument.

I seem to remember quite a few ‘big name’ FOX news commentators outraged at McCain as the choice. I think Coulter swore she would vote for Hillary before McCain.

Wasn’t this all the way back in the primaries? How much have they bashed him since McCain sold his soul and they got the “Let’s all get behind him and tow the party line” memo?

No, that’s untrue. Whether it is truly in the pocket of the Democratic party or not is debatable, but there is a quite obvious left slant in almost all big name media organizations.

Maybe because conservatives appeal to ignorant, racists, religious bigots and greedy wall street cock suckers. In other words the lowest common denominator in the entirety of the fucking planet. If normal, sane people and journalists shy away from that, then GOOD!

[Weeks]

As ultra david pointed out radio is ruled by conservatives, then there’s fox, and the fact of the matter is that supposedly LIBERAL stations still call out their candidate on his shit. FOX DOES NOT.

Talk radio? Please. Who listens to talk radio? Almost no one.

Yes because one person’s opinion is incontrovertible proof of liberal bias as opposed to the countless people who worked for fox and later exposed what a corrupt, reality distorting cess pool it is. (i.e. Outfoxed) You can’t compare your suspicion that journalists “arrange” things in a way to further their “agenda” to that. Even if they do arrange things around like that, you said it yourself they don’t outright distort facts or do it intentionally. I recall EVERYONE jumping on Bill Clinton during his scandal, if the liberal media was truly out to further their agenda then why not try to protect him like fox tried to protect bush from his collossal quagmire?

Of course the media is more interested in sensationalistic stories than in protecting one candidate over the other, but big media leans left in terms

I really hope you’re not trying to say the other news networks are anywhere near as bias as fox.

I wouldn’t say as biased, but they’re pretty damned, no doubt about it.

Dobbs takes huge issue with illegals and is conservative on a number of things.

Find me a true, honest, dyed-in-the-wool conservative on CNN or MSNBC who has a significant portion of the station’s attention. Not a populist independent with a ‘conservative’ slant, but an honest-to-god conservative. They’re fair and balanced, they should have one, right?

Maybe because conservatives appeal to ignorant, racists, religious bigots and greedy wall street cock suckers. If normal, sane people and journalists shy away from that, then GOOD!

Whether you feel like conservatives are evil and liberals are awesome is immaterial. You have to choose from one these options.

1. Big media (with the obvious exception of FOX) is slanted to the left
2. Big media (with the obvious exception of FOX) is fair and balanced.
3. Big media is slanted to the right.

I’m going with option number 1 and so should anyone else who has been paying attention.

[fishjie]

news is not liberal. when we declared war on iraq not a single one questioned the war. only once bush’s approval ratings plummeted did they even have the guts to do so. a true liberal would have called bush on his bullshit, despite whatever retribution of being labeled"unpatriotic".

[pherai]

Talk radio? Please. Who listens to talk radio? Almost no one.

Lots of people do, myself included.

[Weeks]

news is not liberal. when we declared war on iraq not a single one questioned the war. only once bush’s approval ratings plummeted did they even have the guts to do so. a true liberal would have called bush on his bullshit, despite whatever retribution of being labeled"unpatriotic".

please tell me you’re joking. i remember reading all sorts of stuff about all these protests around the world, about how we were making a huge mistake, etc etc

so if it isn’t liberal, then it’s slanted to the right, is that your position? even though the overwhelming majority of journalists describe themselves as liberal?

or do you think it’s truly fair and balanced?

[archetype]

Humans are imperfect, so when reporting they are not gonna be 100 percent non partisan. So even if there is a bias in the media, which i think probably exists but certainly not to the extreme conservatives depict it. What the hell can you you? Unless you want impartial cyborgs presenting news?

Are conservatives locked out of the television industry? I’m sure there are billionaires and millionaire conservatives all over the place, cant they just pool their money and make another channel or something. I know if they would love some leave it to beaver type shows and stuff. lol

[Weeks]

Lots of people do, myself included.

As a percentage of people who watch CNN/MSNBC, I mean

[Preppy]

As a percentage of people who watch CNN/MSNBC, I mean

I do. So that’s 100% right now.

[kingofkod]

Glenn Beck on CNN Headline News is a hardcore conservative. Doesn’t believe in Global warming and all that. CNN doesn’t really have any shows like the Orielly Factor or Hannity & Punching bag. Most of thier stuff outside of Lou Dobbs is based more on panels discussing stuff and not so much a particular host giving his opinion.

EDIT: Also Rush Limbaugh ONLY has a radio show and he’s insanly popular.

[fishjie]

please tell me you’re joking. i remember reading all sorts of stuff about all these protests around the world, about how we were making a huge mistake, etc etc

so if it isn’t liberal, then it’s slanted to the right, is that your position? even though the overwhelming majority of journalists describe themselves as liberal?

or do you think it’s truly fair and balanced?

so i just remembered the opposite. no one in the mainstream media really brought up how there was no real ties between al qaida and iraq, asked questions about the WMD evidence, the exit strategy, or anything else. what i remember is that anyone who questioned these things was considered unpatriotic.

if you were arguing that universities have a liberal bias, then i’d agree with you there. most profs are liberals, and if you take courses such as english and history, you’re most likely gonna get a liberal bias.

[UltraDavid]

I do. So that’s 100% right now.

I also do.

[General_Deamond]

Maybe because conservatives appeal to ignorant, racists, religious bigots and greedy wall street cock suckers. In other words the lowest common denominator in the entirety of the fucking planet. If normal, sane people and journalists shy away from that, then GOOD!

Are these the general feelings/thoughts that liberals have about conservatives? Some stupid blanket statement like the one quoted above.

[Weeks]

Humans are imperfect, so when reporting they are not gonna be 100 percent non partisan. So even if there is a bias in the media, which i think probably exists but certainly not to the extreme conservatives depict it.

Things are rarely to the extremes that people talk about, but to pretend like the liberal media is just some myth manufactured by dastardly Republicans is ridiculous.

How do you get rid of the media bias? Well, we could start by accurately describing it as such when we see it.

Are conservatives locked out of the television industry?

Arguably they aren’t, since FOX news is ‘conservative’ and they used to the number one news channel on TV.

[akumatrunigga]

As a percentage of people who watch CNN/MSNBC, I mean

Well im one of those people. Im currently listening now.

Are these the general feelings/thoughts that liberals have about conservatives? Some stupid blanket statement like the one quoted above.

yes

[Weeks]

so i just remembered the opposite. no one in the mainstream media really brought up how there was no real ties between al qaida and iraq, asked questions about the WMD evidence, the exit strategy, or anything else. what i remember is that anyone who questioned these things was considered unpatriotic.

that’s odd, i remember reading a whole bunch about how the entire world was upset, all these protests, etc.

also i don’t remember if bush ever actually claimed Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. i think that’s something that got kind of trumped up after the fact. i don’t remember him saying that.

i also remember reading lots of articles about how we should let the UN inspectors do their jobs, how we didn’t have any idea what we were getting into, etc ad nauseum.

are you sure you guys weren’t just watching Fox?

and again, do you think the media is fair and balanced?

[Weeks]

Glenn Beck on CNN Headline News is a hardcore conservative. Doesn’t believe in Global warming and all that. CNN doesn’t really have any shows like the Orielly Factor or Hannity & Punching bag. Most of thier stuff outside of Lou Dobbs is based more on panels discussing stuff and not so much a particular host giving his opinion.

EDIT: Also Rush Limbaugh ONLY has a radio show and he’s insanly popular.

fair point about beck, but i think he’s moving to FOX news soon. not 100 percent sure on that.

[fishjie]

Are these the general feelings/thoughts that liberals have about conservatives? Some stupid blanket statement like the one quoted above.

yeah i’d say that’s about accurate. personally, i view myself as more of a moderate, but i agree with that blanket statement. the republican party is comprised of two groups:

1. the rich and wealthy elite who runs shit. i don’t think of these guys as cocksuckers though. if anything, they are the ones getting their cocks sucked by dozens of the hottest hookers and secretaries and etc available. that’s admirable.

2. the stupid, homeschooled, ignorant, bible thumping, religious, bigoted, racist, creationist sheep who elected george bush into office for 8 years.

group 1 controls group 2. group 2 is too stupid to realize it. group 2 is the downfall of the nation.

[Weeks]

republican isn’t necessarily conservative though. at least, they haven’t acted that way lately.

i know loosely dem=liberal and repub=conservative but i feel like i’m fairly conservative and i wouldn’t vote for the current incarnation of the Republican party in a million years.

[Higher-Jin]

Are these the general feelings/thoughts that liberals have about conservatives? Some stupid blanket statement like the one quoted above.

Go fuck yourself. I’m sick of the idea that all liberals have to be politically correct and cordial while there’s a big red stinking elephant in the room. If you’re conservative and bash liberals that’s somehow okay and we really shouldn’t say anything about that because we’re the “pussy party”? Fuck that. Weeks came in here with that bullshit statement about the liberal media, and I made sure to point out it IS a bull shit statement.

Also yes, your party’s back bone is composed primarily of religious, right wing zealots that are fucking up the country for everyone. (Just look at who’s at the rallies) That’s true and I’m not going to ignore that fact to make you feel better. In fact I’m throwing it right in your hostile little face to try and make you feel worse. Because you should. Your party is a fucking joke. Klansmen and evangelicals shouldn’t have a significant voice in government, SORRY, and the fact they make up so fucking much of this country makes me sick to my fucking stomach.

If you’re really not like them, then cut them off. Don’t support a candidate who incites them like McCain. If not then you have little room to complain when you get lumped with the rest of them.

[fishjie]

republican isn’t necessarily conservative though. at least, they haven’t acted that way lately.

i know loosely dem=liberal and repub=conservative but i feel like i’m fairly conservative and i wouldn’t vote for the current incarnation of the Republican party in a million years.

yeah, the thing is, in america, the difference between left and right isn’t all that much. the republicans definitely have strayed from their conservative nature, and its unfortunate. i think their whole message gets confused because of the large number of religious nutjobs which muddle up the focus.

if the republicans did things such as abolish social security, and outlaw teacher unions, i’d support them. as is, i don’t really prefer one party over the other because at the end of the day, they’re not all that different.