I have followed the news almost religiously since I was seventeen. I had a political science teacher who inspired me to get involved in politics and actually develop an understanding of my world. When I started following the news, I was an avowed liberal, because liberalism was all I knew. Using the power of government to distribute wealth equitably, protect the environment and ensure social justice has been considered the correct course of action by the vast majority of media types for years. This is what young people are taught almost exclusively in school, and this point of view is born out in most news reporting, especially nowadays.
My views changed not long after the Reagan administration put an end to the “fairness” doctrine. I distinctly remember many in the news business howling about that policy change, and I now understand why. Even though I was a liberal, I instinctively felt that much of what I was taught to believe was not right. When I began to hear a different point of view (in this case, the conservative view) the new view resonated with me. It obviously resonated with many others, as shown by the meteoric rise of conservative talk radio and the phenominal success of the Fox News Channel.
And what has been the response of liberals in the media and in government? Liberals are demanding things like the breakup of Fox News and the restoration of the fairness doctrine. In other words, liberals want views opposed to what they consider the correct view suppressed, all the while complaining about how their views are “not getting out”.
That’s the trouble with liberalism: modern liberals consider themselves to be so correct in their thinking that they see anyone who disagrees with them as ignorant at best, stupid at worst. Air America radio has been a total failure for on reason only: so many of the talk jocks on Air America treat conservative listeners with such a condescending attitude that even their liberal listeners tune them out. The same is true with the so-called “mainstream” press. I believe most americans are tired of seeing the things they know to be true constantly treated with such contempt.
It is time for the “mainstream” media to seriously examine what goes out as news over their airwaves. When one whole side of any debate is supressed or treated with contempt by those responsible for informing the public, our news media becomes no better than Pravda or the Nazi Times.