PressEthic

I found it funny that a Fox News editorial by Brit Hume characterizes the coverage of John Kerry's remarks about the troops as revealing liberal bias. Hume makes his point by saying that the story was not on the front page of some major American newspapers including the New York Times. Hume was not the only one who spotted liberal bias. The Media Research Center also took some shots at the media for the coverage.

On the other hand, Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog site, pointed out that all of the nightly news programs lead with the Kerry coverage on Oct. 31. Another link on the Media Matters site makes the claim that the media failed to fully explain the context of Kerry's comments, while failing to include the voices of some Republicans who did not believe Kerry was unsulting the troops, as the White House would like people to believe.

I can see both sides of the argument here, but let me inject my own bias into the discussion. Doesn't the simple fact that the story is still at the top of CNN and covered extensively on television and newspapers inherently reveal the importance the media is giving it?

One could make the argument that it is Kerry's fault for making such a comment and providing some much-needed fodder for Karl Rove and the Republicans just days before the election. And I would agree with that to a certain point. Perhaps this is just my bias kicking in here, but it seems that similarly offensive comments made by Bush do not get such attention. As the Media Matters item from above points out:

Speaking during a campaign appearance in Statesboro, Georgia, as noted on the weblog Talking Points Memo, Bush said, "However they put it, the Democrat [sic] approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses." The statement received no coverage on the October 30 and 31 broadcasts of the network news programs, yet what Kerry admitted was a mangled joke was the lead-off story for all three networks on October 31.

Bush's comments could have been interpreted in a number of ways, (including that a Democrat victory would be victory for terrorists) but there was no such media firestorm. The Republicans want to use Kerry's remarks to anger Americans and ultimately take votes away from Democrats. In my opinion, the importance given to the story from the media, especially television, seems to only serve the interests of conservatives and the message they want everyone to hear: John Kerry, and the Democratic party, do not care about our troops.