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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (107962)	7/25/2003 9:00:53 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Interesting take from a reader of a blog. I agree. I just posted a piece about Michael Moore that proves his point. Moore has played fast and loose with the truth, and the media never calls him on it. OTOH, Coulter gets every sentence taken apart. >>>Conservatives, including myself, regularly complain about liberal bias in the media, Hollywood, academia, etc. The silver lining to this annoying reality is that conservatives cannot avoid the world views and arguments of their political opponents. In other words, it is much easier for a liberal to escape confronting conservative views than it is for conservatives to escape confronting liberal views. The consequence is that conservatives are not allowed, particularly by the media, to "make things up". In a strange way, the liberal media forces conservatives to strive to be more careful and honest because conservatives know they will be challenged. As an example, I would point to the issue of gun control (where the media almost always favors greater regulation) and how gun control groups, the NRA, and researchers such as Kellerman, and Bellesiles behave. Even by the standards of political rhetoric, pro-gun control groups would have to be considered among the most irresponsible advocates with regard to factual distortion. In contrast, the NRA, while sometimes rhetorically over-the-top, take great care to be factually accurate. I don't think this is the case because gun control advocate are more prone to lie than NRA members, though NRA members may be more likely to believe in quaint notions like objective reality. Gun control groups know they can fax a press release to a journalist and, very likely, get it printed almost verbatim with little or no question about factual veracity. The NRA, on the other hand, knows it's claims will be viewed with deep suspicion and subject to a great deal of scrutiny. Therefore, I believe, the NRA devotes more effort to factual accuracy and do not have the luxury of pretending all respectable people agree with them. In addition, I think the typical liberal not-for-profit worker or college professor can, if they choose, live and recreate in something of a politically correct cocoon. When I used to be more liberal in my early 20s in Washington, DC, my liberal/left friends would talk in shocked tones if a conservative showed up at a party or social function. No one ever long had friends who deviated too radically from accepted socio-political norms. My more conservative acquaintances, by contrast, were more consumed with practical concerns, and though some were very intersted in politics, they made little effort to have ideological concerns define their professional or social lives. That was even the case with the Republican staffers that I knew on the Hill. And, of course, a stock broker, dentist, or businessperson does not choose their customers, secretaries, or their place of residence on the basis of politics or ideology and, as a consequence I believe, live and work in more ideologically diverse surroundings. This part of the equation would need more in-depth study of demographic data, etc. as we have less info available than we have with regard to liberal media bias.http://volokh.com/2003_07_20_volokh_archive.html#105906774483980252