It’s interesting to see how the Old Media constantly spins American politics, but one thing underlies the media’s conception about current events. The Old Media’s base assumption is that the left is “moderate” but all on the right are “far right.” This concept serves as the benchmark for almost every analysis of American politics. It’s the assumption they nearly all start with as they analyze modern politics.

Ron Fournier, Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, recently penned an analysis of Washington perfectly infused with this benchmark assumption. In early May, Fournier wrote a knee slapper that claimed that there is “no place to go for moderates” because the U.S. political scene is headed for “extremes.” And why is it headed for “extremes”? Most likely, it’s because it looks like the GOP is on the ascendancy and the left is in retreat. But according to Fournier it’s because “moderates” are being chased from the parties.

Fournier thinks that “extremes” are befalling American politics because Charlie Crist of Florida was somehow “chased out” of the Florida Republican Party. He also points to Arlen Specter’s ship-jumping move — which did him absolutely no good — as evidence that the “extremes” are winning. For balance he tries to use the case of former Democrat, now “independent,” Joe Lieberman as an example of a “moderate” Democrat chased from the Democrat Party. These examples, Fournier posits, are proof that “compromise” is being killed in politics today.

Fournier is, of course, absurdly off base. (more…)

Since President Obama’s elevation to Intergalactic Superstar Caesar in   November 2008, the media has been busy writing obituaries for the GOP. Most of these unwelcome mourners have offered nuggets of advice along the lines of, “Why don’t you try being more, you know, like us? More—what’s the term? Oh yes, more moderate. Conservatism is so last season.” The day after Obama’s  election, the Huffington Post gleefully announced “GOP Civil War Begins[!!!!!!]”

Being the tenderhearted folks they are, the liberal MSM diagnosed the real problem for us: “[I]f there’s a real crisis in the House right now for the Republican Party, it’s the gradually diminishing voice of moderation.” Over a year later, MSNBC was still going strong with the GOP civil war theme, warning that an ideological purity test “threatens to derail moderate Republican candidacies in heated 2010 Republican primaries already underway.”

Obviously, there have been and are ongoing arguments about the direction of conservatism and the Republican party. The 2008 election would’ve shaken the confidence of Alexander the Great, had he been a political candidate instead of a slaughtering conqueror. But the media is missing the real story again. The story now isn’t the demise of the GOP moderate. It’s the sudden downfall of last season’s debutante, the “moderate Democrat.” (more…)