Who Do They Think They Are Kidding?

As a resident of Florida’s Gulf Coast, I am bombarded daily by newspapers that are blatantly biased in favor of Democrats and liberal ideas. I find it hard to understand since Florida often goes Republican in national and state elections, and since such a large number of residents in this area are successful retirees who have little use for liberal nonsense. Each morning for me is a time of alternately grumbling and outright laughter at the way the news is presented, the biases of the columnists selected and the letters to the editor that are culled. Conservative ideas are routinely trashed, and liberal proposals that have failed everywhere are hyped.

Most major newspapers, like the Washington Post, the New York Times and the LA Times are decidedly liberal, and are rapidly going out of business. I know that the internet and the deteriorating reading habits of the public (a product of liberal ideas turning our schools into places for social experimentation) are the main causes of their plight, but cannot they learn something from the success of Fox News? People respond to a balanced presentation. I may choke when Alan Colmes spews his foolishness, but at least I know that Fox is trying to present both sides.
(As an aside, I think Sean Hannity is too far right).

Right now I am trying a little experiment on my blog. I signed up for a news service to present several capsules of news in a large box just under my profile to the right. The capsules change a few times every day. The interesting thing is how the news is presented in the capsules compared to the actual articles cited. Not only are the articles selected usually biased and sometimes just wrong, but often when you go to the article you find just the opposite of what the capsule said.

I know Americans have always had to deal with sensationalism and bias in the press, but we don’t have to put up with it any more. This is the real story behind the major declines facing TV network news and many newspapers. We don’t have to listen to Walter Cronkite lie about Tet, or Dan Rather lie about forged documents any more.

THIS JUST IN:
Silicon Insider: How The New York Times Fell Apart
Once the Paper of Record, the Newspaper Now has Investors Bailing. Why?

OPINION By MICHAEL S. MALONE
Oct. 18, 2007, ABCNews (Excerpts)
“Boom! And down goes the biggest newspaper name of all.

As you may have read, yesterday brokerage giant Morgan Stanley dumped its entire stake -- $183 million worth -- in the New York Times, in which it was the second largest shareholder. Not surprisingly, Times stock immediately slumped, bottoming at a nearly 3 percent drop to $18.28 -- the lowest it has been in a decade.
The actual damage is probably even larger than that. The Morgan Stanley sell-off has been expected for some time now. Ever since April, after Hassam Elmasry, managing director of Morgan's Investment Management Group failed in his attempt to challenge the Sulzberger family's iron grip on the Times, the market has been expecting Morgan to pull out -- and it is probably no coincidence that the stock has been in downward slide ever since….

As hard as may be for younger readers of this column to believe, twenty years ago, the New York Times was unquestionably the newspaper of record for the United States and (with the London Times) for much of the rest of the world. It had the most famous reporters and columnists, its coverage set the standard for all other news, and its opinions, delivered ex cathedra from the upper floors of the Gray Lady on 43rd Street set the topics of this country's political debate.

Incredibly, almost every bit of that power has been squandered over the last two decades. It's been a long time since anyone considered the Times to be anything but the newspaper of opinion for anyone but the residents of a few square miles of midtown Manhattan. Indeed, about all the newspaper has left of the old days under "Pinch's" dad, Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger, is that old Time's imperiousness -- earned back then, and more than a little absurd today.”
ABCNews