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From: plunkett@rlgvax.UUCP (S. Plunkett)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Liberal media bias
Message-ID: <160@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Oct-84 13:16:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.160
Posted: Mon Oct  1 13:16:11 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Oct-84 07:24:09 EDT
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..

In view of the interest here about the press and it's biases
(or whether they exist) I draw your attention to a pertinent
Wall Street Journal editorial of Oct. 1, 1984, first paragraph
of which is quoted here:

	"The ethicists of the press have been clucking
	about two things these past two weeks, and
	the comparison tells a lot about their standards,
	moral and professional.  Despite the release of
	a 385-page independent counsel's report, they
	have decided questions remain to be asked about
	the financial affairs of Ed Meese and his wife.
	But all questions about the finances of Geraldine
	Ferraro and her husband have been answered, and
	anyone insisting on asking more will get booed
	by the defenders of the public's right to know."

At a conference some months ago in Washington attended by
Rupert Murdoch (News America) and Ben Bradlee (Executive
Editor of the Washington Post) the following question was
addressed: "Is there a liberal media elite?"

R. Murdoch stated plainly, that, yes, there is.  B. Bradlee
squirmed and fidgeted, waffled and evaded, and would not be
pinned down to even *denying* that there is a liberal elite.

Others, like Hodding Carter III, perceive a bias, but not a
liberal one.  To him it is actually a conservative bias, one
that is manifested by conformity, patriotism, fiscal responsibility,
and the like.  One supposes that to be a `liberal' in H. Carter's
eyes one must be a flaming marxist.

Anyone witnessing the applause from the reporters at the end
of Rep. Ferraro's press-conference where she supposedly laid
bare her finances, and the resounding silence on the Meese
affair might well note a liberal bias.  I also note an utter
lack of professionalism.  Which is the worse charge, I don't
know.

Scott Plunkett,
..{ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!rlgvax!plunkett