The conservative blogosphere is delirious over the recent screed by right-wing pseudo-scholar Tim Groseclose, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind. Groseclose claims to use statistical methods to prove that the American media is biased towards the left. He even claims that if the U.S. had a truly “fair and balanced” media, it would feel, sound (and smell?) like the sweaty semi-literate simians at a NASCAR rally.

In a devious bit of agitprop arithmetic, Groseclose uses the political scale developed by a liberal pressure group, the hypergeriatric Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), to describe the “political quotient” (PQ) of politicians on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being conservative (appropriately) and 100 being liberal. He then derives a similar measure to describe media bias: the “slant quotient” (SQ), using think tank citations as data points.

Groseclose–who does not bother to hide his right wing bias–arrives at the convenient conclusion that 18 out of 20 major media sources are biased to the left. Only Fox News Special Report and the Washington Times are conservative, i.e. have SQ scores below 50; the rest are all above the allegedly centrist 50. Meanwhile, Groseclose claims, the average American’s has a PQ of about 25–like Ben Stein. Bill O’Reilly, or Dennis Miller.

Then, in a petulant fit of anti-progressive pique, Groseclose takes on Eric Alterman of Media Matters. Alterman’s claim that Groseclose is a slave to right-wing plutocrats–a claim he repeated at the Center for American Progress–must have hit close to home. Alterman doesn’t answer Groseclose’s factual criticisms; he doesn’t need to, because Groseclose has published at Powerline, that bastion of “right-wing know-nothingism.” (more…)

Journalists love whistleblowers. Just not when the whistle is blown on them.

Journalists love transparency.  As long as they’re not the ones being exposed.

No steadfast journalism rule is unbendable when it comes to justifying and protecting the racket that is modern journalism, specifically, political journalism in the United States today. The ends justify the means for the Democrat Media Complex. They lie when they claim to be objective. They lie when they claim to be unbiased, because these so called “truth seekers” are guilty of engaging in open political warfare. And when the whistle is blown, they simply double down. “Journolist” — like Media Matters, but more insidious, if that’s possible — is an attempt to put the genie back in the bottle, technology and “the masses” uncovered the conspiracy:

Talk radio and the Internet have allowed outsiders the ability to challenge a multiple generational shift from journalism being about the story, to journalism being crafted toward a partisan end. From Newsweek killing the Lewinsky story to the Swift Boat veterans (until the undermedia pressure got too big) to the Dan Rather implosion to the open attempt to keep the Al Gore masseuse story under wraps to the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter debacle to the Van Jones admission of missing the story to the networks ignoring the ACORN video footage to the media playing up trumped up charges of racism in the Tea Party — while ignoring exculpatory evidence — to the mother of all media-as-political weaponry: the non-vetting of candidate Obama, the mainstream media has shown that it is in an ideological death spiral. And the ground is right here.

American journalism died a long time ago; today Tucker Carlson got around to running the obituary. What The Daily Caller has unearthed proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that most media organizations are either complicit by participation in the treachery that is Journolist, or are guilty of sitting back and watching Alinsky warfare being waged against all that challenged the progressive orthodoxy. The scandal predictably involves journalists posing as professors posing as experts. But dressed down they are nothing but street thugs. They deserve the deepest levels of public consternation. We must demand that they do. (more…)

You know things are really starting to go south for the Obama administration when its journalistic functionaries and spear-carriers on the left are starting to openly fret and worry as they begin to feel November’s chill wind blowing. The visions of historic change, social justice and a plum government job are gradually being replaced by nightmares not just of defeat but repudiation. The racket has been exposed by its own audacity.

First up is Ruth Marcus, of the deeply compromised Washington Post. What used to be merely a center-left news organization that nevertheless played relatively fair and boasted some outstanding writers has devolved into a poor imitation of the Huffington Post, replete with White House operatives and partisan hacks. By comparison with many of her colleagues, the liberal Marcus looks like Stewart Alsop. Here she is, writing about Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Death Panels himself, Donald Berwick:

As a matter of politics, the president’s choice of Berwick was, well, the polite word would be bold. The less polite word: boneheaded. Administration officials argue that Republicans would have seized on any nominee as an opportunity to re-litigate the health care debate. But Berwick offered opponents a loaded gun with his talk about rationing, his discussion of health reform as a matter of redistributing wealth, and his effusive praise for the British system. If the president wanted to buy a fight like this, he ought to have been better prepared to wage it.

And as a matter of good government, the president’s move to snub the Senate and install Berwick by recess appointment was outrageous… A recess appointment should be a last step in cases of egregious delay, not one of the first. That standard was nowhere near met in Berwick’s case. Berwick was nominated to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 19, less than three months ago. He had not yet had a hearing. His committee vetting wasn’t complete.

Well, duh. For a Chicago pol, whose path to prominence came not via intellectual brilliance or personal charisma but through behind-the-scenes machinations to get opponents thrown off the ballot or have their sealed divorce records made public, “by any means necessary” is not only a tactic, it’s a categorical imperative. (more…)

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EZRA KLEIN has entered the room.
MATTHEW YGLESIAS has entered the room.
ERIC BOEHLERT has entered the room.
JOSH MARSHALL has entered the room.

EZRA KLEIN: wassup

MATTHEW YGLESIAS: my dick

JOSH MARSHALL: lolz!!!

EZRA KLEIN: hahahahahaha

MATTHEW YGLESIAS: whos got assignmt for 1st period talking points for tomorrow

JOSH MARSHALL: boehlert was supposed to get them from Mr Soros

JOSH MARSHALL: boehlert???

EZRA KLEIN: yo eric where r u

ERIC BOEHLERT: sorry went off to get a red bull

JOSH MARSHALL: ridin tha bull (more…)