PressEthic

This morning as I watched "Imus in the Morning" a confrontation between Chris Wallace of MSNBC's 'Hardball' and Joe Scarborough was discussed, in which Scarborough was accused of media bias. I dug a little deeper and sure enough, found the story on NewsBusters, a media ethics website dedicated to "Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias." I'm surprised that the site doesn't try and combat bias from both sides of the political spectrum, but I guess that's asking too much.

To summarize the incident, Chris Matthews, of MSNBC's 'Hardball,' had Joe Scarborough (of 'Scarborough's Country') on his talk show yesterday when Fox News covered the 2006 midterm election results. When the Pennsylvania Senate seat was called for Democrat Tom Casey, Matthews asked Scarborough if he thought Casey's win would mean if Hilary Clinton ran for President in 2008, she would have an easier time of winning the state of Pennsylvania for the Democrats.

Joe Scarborough responded,

"'There is a big difference between Bob Casey and Hillary Clinton. You know, Bob Casey really is, and I think this is the headline here, Bob Casey is the new breed of Democrat.'

'You know, like I have said for sometime, Democrats used to be so easy to pick off in the Southeast and even in states like Pennsylvania, because they would get these people who were ideologically aligned with Hillary Clinton and the far left wing of the Democratic Party. That's not the case this year, and you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Chuck Schumer.'"

Schumer, incidentally, is the head of the DNC. When Howard Dean heard these remarks, as he was also corresponding live with Chris Matthews, he said:

"'No, my concern was calling Hillary Clinton a member of the far left. I don't know who’s making those comments but he certainly isn’t anywhere close to neutral.'"

To Scarborough's chagrin, Matthews agreed, laughing, and then continued with the debate. 20 minutes later, Scarborough, apparently still ticked off by Matthew's jab, decided to go out on a tangent and address the accusation of media bias.

"'Howard Dean accused me of not being fair and down the middle. You agreed with Howard Dean. I just want to say, Chris, I have spent the past two years trying my best to be very critical of my party. In fact, if you look at my transcripts you will see that I have been bashing my party more than the Democratic party because I want to make sure that I am fair and down the middle.

If you look at an op-ed I wrote for the Washington Post, I actually said that George Bush should not be followed. If you look at a column I wrote for the Washington Monthly, I actually said that the Republican Party did not deserve to regain control of the United States Congress because they have done such a miserable job. Look at my transcripts, night after night, and you will see that I go after my own party more than the Democratic Party. That's all I want to say.

Now, one correction I do have to say, I actually did identify Hillary Clinton with the far left of the Democratic Party. Actually, Howard Dean was correct, I was wrong on that point. I was playing more to image to her voting record. She’s been a centrist, and that's something else I’ve said time and time again on my program, that Hillary Clinton has been an excellent United States Senator. I misspoke, I should have said Barbara Boxer [panel chuckles]. It's not an insult to say somebody is liberal. I like Barbara Boxer very much also. We agree on some things. We don’t agree on others, but the terminology that I affixed to Hillary Clinton is not an accurate term, and even though you play ‘Hardball,’ Chris, sometimes you throw the ball a little bit outside, and that time I think you did.'"

Matthews came back with a tongue-in-cheek response, but eventually sarcastically conceded his error in accusing Scarborough of bias. Now despite my extensive quotations from this transcript, what really struck me was the reaction from NewsBuster, which posted,

"So 'fair and down the middle' means hitting Republicans harder than Democrats? Too bad Matthews, a former staffer to Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, doesn’t routinely attack Democrats to prove how 'fair and down the middle' he is."

Although NewsBuster's ideology and agenda is clear, they do have a point. Scarborough, a Republican, is so afraid of being accused of media bias that he feels the need to trumpet the bashing of his own party. However, is Matthews really required to 'attack Democrats' to prove he is unbiased? Can he try and just cover the news as it comes?

I think in this day and age, when we are surrounded by political pundits, bloggers, and talk show hosts, the days of the 'fair and down the middle' political commentator are dwindling. Too often do people want to hear criticism of the party they dislike rather than their own, and too freely are accusations of media bias thrown around the moment someone hears something that doesn't fit in with their political views. Should Fox News just go ahead and declare itself right-wing, and a similar news channel go the left-wing route? Or within each station, should political commentators make their side clear and stop pretending that they are unbiased? Scarborough is a Republican. Shouldn't he be allowed to act like one?