Media Bias? Nah!
"I'm not 100% sure that" the media is wildly biased in what it decides to investigate and report or how it determines when allegations are to be reported as fact or be shrugged off as politically motivated. (Hand it to David Irvine; to get quoted on that canard is dandy legal work. I'm not 100% sure that it's repugnant to trot out such an allegation in that manner, but I am 100% sure that it's a biased reporter who gets hooked by such a sham lure).
So, let's do a little research. I reviewed the, um, reporting of Glen Warchol and Rebecca Walsh, until I felt I had lost 40 IQ points (yes, yes, like all neanderthal conservatives, that would mean that I dropped below zero), and -- among mountains of political displeasures -- I found narry a discordant chirp about any political figure anywhere left of conservative.
Now, hold on! Surely, professional journalists, like Warchol and Walsh, couldn't really operate from a perspective of 100% bias. Could they? After all, they're torchbearers for a venerable daily, even more, for the dispassionate fourth estate itself -- not, say, bloggers, for heaven's sake. They lobby hard for their tax exempt status, because they act (cue "God Bless America") in the public good. So, perhaps someone who can endure more than 5 minutes of their superiority and poor writing would be willing to review their posts in detail and list, oh, I don't know, 5 times that they've held up their journalistic lights to non-conservatives.
So, Glen, let me lead you by the nose on this one and answer your question for you. If you dig into the specific allegations, it's not really that tough. Who is Mr. Big? No one. That's who the complainants named -- no one. So, if no one has been named, then it's either no one or its 103 possibilities in the Legislature, assuming we weed out the hundreds of non-legislators who might believe they could affect budgetary decisions.
But, you posted a picture of Speaker Curtis. Now, in a fact that surely has nothing to do with anything, Speaker Curtis, right of center, won his previous election by less than 20 votes and happens to be a talked-about political target for the Democrats this year.
Why stop there, Glen? Democrats are energized about other races too. If you're going to use Big Media to unabashedly do their electioneering, and if you're willing to divine specific legislators out of the unnamed 103 possibilities, why not implicate a few others? If you're going to abandon presumptions of innocence until proof of guilt and, instead, embrace guilt before specific accusations are even raised, we'll, you've got no strings to hold you down. Other than limiting yourself to just smearing conservatives. But, of course, (of undeviating course), you don't need to be reminded to do that.
UPDATE: Well, that's a nice start. Glen admits that he's biased and (sort of) admits that his targets are lopsidedly conservatives. Bias is fine and free speech is fine. As the Media knows and faithfully practices, identification of biases can inform readers about a story or an institution.
So, let's do a little research. I reviewed the, um, reporting of Glen Warchol and Rebecca Walsh, until I felt I had lost 40 IQ points (yes, yes, like all neanderthal conservatives, that would mean that I dropped below zero), and -- among mountains of political displeasures -- I found narry a discordant chirp about any political figure anywhere left of conservative.
Now, hold on! Surely, professional journalists, like Warchol and Walsh, couldn't really operate from a perspective of 100% bias. Could they? After all, they're torchbearers for a venerable daily, even more, for the dispassionate fourth estate itself -- not, say, bloggers, for heaven's sake. They lobby hard for their tax exempt status, because they act (cue "God Bless America") in the public good. So, perhaps someone who can endure more than 5 minutes of their superiority and poor writing would be willing to review their posts in detail and list, oh, I don't know, 5 times that they've held up their journalistic lights to non-conservatives.
So, Glen, let me lead you by the nose on this one and answer your question for you. If you dig into the specific allegations, it's not really that tough. Who is Mr. Big? No one. That's who the complainants named -- no one. So, if no one has been named, then it's either no one or its 103 possibilities in the Legislature, assuming we weed out the hundreds of non-legislators who might believe they could affect budgetary decisions.
But, you posted a picture of Speaker Curtis. Now, in a fact that surely has nothing to do with anything, Speaker Curtis, right of center, won his previous election by less than 20 votes and happens to be a talked-about political target for the Democrats this year.
Why stop there, Glen? Democrats are energized about other races too. If you're going to use Big Media to unabashedly do their electioneering, and if you're willing to divine specific legislators out of the unnamed 103 possibilities, why not implicate a few others? If you're going to abandon presumptions of innocence until proof of guilt and, instead, embrace guilt before specific accusations are even raised, we'll, you've got no strings to hold you down. Other than limiting yourself to just smearing conservatives. But, of course, (of undeviating course), you don't need to be reminded to do that.
UPDATE: Well, that's a nice start. Glen admits that he's biased and (sort of) admits that his targets are lopsidedly conservatives. Bias is fine and free speech is fine. As the Media knows and faithfully practices, identification of biases can inform readers about a story or an institution.
posted by steve u. at 7/08/2008
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28 Comments:
Um ... Rep. Steve?
There's a lot more of you guys and, well, you guys keep getting in a disproportionate amount of trouble and shenanigans.
I mean, look at how happy Worchol was when a DemocratIC candidate got caught up that prostitution ring scandal. He wouldn't shut up about it...
Now, let's see ... what else have Dems done wrong ... Dmitrich went to Jazz games? yup, seven stories last year in both papers, 4 in the Trib, 3 in the News.
Maybe if some Republicans didn't forget who they were and what they stand for, you'd actually see press reports about ISSUES which is what your post should have been about anyway.
xoxoxo
Steve U., what a whiner. You have Joe Cannon, KSL, Hannity, Kyle 2K, and Enid, and your griping because Warchol called it?
"Poor us, the liberals are picking on us!"
Your leadership, and leaders, Greg Curtis, Chris Buttars, and you, have inspired Utah to not even want to vote.
Whine, whine, whine.
Why not try something called leadership.
Steve -
A lot of this is the same point I've been making with my posts on the Tribune comment boards for awhile: Fish or cut bait. For all of the accusations of utter evilness leveled at Greg Curtis, the Speaker can't combat such accusations without any specifics. This has led people to believe I am Chris Bleak, Joe Demma, or some insider since, obviously, no regular human being could possibly make these observations about politics without having some skin in the game.
And JM, Warchol's coverage of the prostitution ring is now playful and silly with regard to Booth, as opposed to full of insinuations and accusatory language. Those insinuations are saved for Lohra Miller and Maese, who share only 2 qualities, methinks: Running unlicensed businesses and being Republican.
Susan, you have CNN, MSNBC, PBS, New York Times, virtually every writer in Hollywood, most entertainment industry figures (Bush almost had 50 cent for awhile...sigh) the Salt Lake Tribune, and now (trembling in fear) left of the dial with JM Bell, Saturdays on KSL from 4-5. I think you'll be okay.
JM and Susan,
We're going to have to break out the Ritalin, if we don't get better focus than this.
The media concerns itself with abuse of power. Amen. Fight the power. Well, the media itself is extremely powerful. It abuses that power in Utah by consistently bumping forward the Democrats' electioneering strategy.
Warchol and Walsh are quite active in the present kerfuffle(s). Well, more specifically, quite active in going after conservatives and excusing non-conservatives. So, the assignment is to find 5 articles (in their careers) where they've used their powerful positions to challenge anything that non-conservatives do. That's not too high a bar.
And, JM, it's endearing that you believe the Dems only issue is that (retiring) Mike Dmitrich goes to Jazz games.
I don't think I'll be coming out to defend Speaker Curtis any time soon but I agree with Rep. Urquhart that Warchol's post is open electioneering. That said, Susan is right...it happens on both sides in Utah's media environment.
The whole legislative ethics investigation of Mr. Walker was an attempt to co-opt an important public safe guard (the ethics committee) for purely political purposes. As long as Democrats have people using the ethics committee as a venue for political fishing expeditions it will be hard for us to argue persuasively in the future that our motivations for expanding ethics rules and laws are purely in the interest of a more open an honest government.
Steve you are making a complete fool of yourself with this series of posting.
Again, to select two well known columnists who are currently writing something that offends your sensitivities, and call it "media bias" in the face of the Deseret News, KSL radio's daily line-up is misleading and inaccurate to the point of intentional stupidity.
And Jeremy, I cannot disagree with you more. For you to assert that the ethics claims against Walker, and the subsequent calls for investigation was "pure electioneering" asserts that you have information we (the public) do not have. Since we do not have that information, the investigation is important to either 1) clearing Walkers name if he is innocent or 2) weeding out and holding accountable those involved if there was indeed a breech of ethics. It is an important part of the process, and even if there were a million pundits and op-ed scribes clamoring on this in our local media (which I don't really see like Steve U. does, or at least claims to when it suits his purposes), it wouldn't overshadow the simple fact that this investigation needs to happen.
Of course Democrats are going to jump on the story. It's politics. And I'm so tired of articles like this, and comments like Jeremy's where we are literally COMPLAINING about politics being political. Of course it is. But to lambast this investigation because Democrats want to use it as a leverage point in an election year, or to bury it because Steve U. gets a whiny in a few blog posts is pure idiocy, a depth of which our state has been the victim of all too often.
I remember reading a comment from AG Mark Shurtleff a few months back on an SL Trib story about payday lenders. He said something about "being partisan... must be an election year." And I thought. DUH! Are we really so naive that we are going to cry every time a Democrat attacks a Republican in a partisan manor, or uses a story that nearly fell into their laps (as the Walker/Ellis story most certainly did) as a chance gain political points? Are we really this naive about how all of this works? And if so, is it perhaps because of Reps like Steve U, who so desperately would like to find some wrong in the ethics investigation process, or spin it as a media "witch hunt," when in fact it is simply the system of check and balances written into the system FOR A PURPOSE.
Again, I am growing very weary of those complaining about this investigation. If Walker is clean, this investigation will help him move on much more than resigning ever could. If there was a travesty of ethics here, it is a service to all Utah voters to find out, and bring that information to light.
Steve U, you are an embarrassment for what you have been writing. I can't think of any other way to put it than GROW UP, and start acting (and blogging) like a man with at least an ounce of self-respect, huh?
Jason is actually making Urquhart's point. Urquhart is saying the Tribune is overly biased and Jason is saying "duh, it's politics."
In the long run, Steve's concerns about the Tribune won't be as serious since as the Tribune evolves into an openly moveon.org type rag that only a couple of thousand bitter, angry Utah-hating left-wingers read.
Jeremy, if you were hoping to see justice served in the Treasurer's Race complain filed with the Lt Gov, that's still moving forward. The criminal probe will cover that.
As for the House Ethics Committee complaint, it was a fishing expedition, where the Dems/Allen/Mascaro were praying they could get to someone, anyone, outside of Walker, as payback for their impotence.
Let's talk about media bias for a second, then, okay? Richard Ellis was the darling of the UEA and state employees, and Cathy McKitrick's coverage. Don't believe me? Check his financial disclosures and re-read the Trib stories. How many times did the Trib mention Shurtleff's 5k donation to Walker? Now, how many times have they mentioned the UEA's PAC giving $7k to Richard Ellis? And how many times have they mentioned that Ellis failed to disclose what this $7k INKIND contribution was for, a clear violation of election law (only gets a slap on the wrist at worst)? Which also could have shown Ellis to be incompetent to run a balance sheet, which, for some reason, I think a Treasurer should be able to do... Could there have been a political motive to non-disclosure of this inkind contribution's purpose? Like, say, the UEA paying for his legal counsel to file the elections complaint to Gary Herbert and then to sue the Lt. Gov before the Supreme Court looking bad to Republicans? I don't even know if this is the case, but the dates match up. The story is there, waiting to be written. Hell, Bob Bernick and his calculator could write it. But never happened.
Further, has the media bothered to check for conflicts of interest for Ellis? How many times did they mention the conflict Walker would have from being friendly with legislative leadership? But let's think for a second...Say, for example, that as Deputy Treasurer, Richard Ellis supervises employees. As Treasurer, he would supervise all Treasurer Office Operations. Has the Tribune taken the time to figure out which Ellis for Treasurer contributions came from employees he now supervises or will supervise if he wins? Nope. The story is there.
But it will only be written now because the enemy, Mark Walker, is now gone, and now all that stands between Dick Clark and the Treasurer's Office is a bureaucrat who can't run a simple balance sheet for his campaign donations (without disclosing the U-PAC money both as contribution and expenditure, he would be about $7k, a discrepancy well over 10% of the total he has raised. What's 10% of Utah's portfolio?) and expenditures, and can't see a conflict of interest (Mark Walker did, and resigned his job from Zion's Bank because of it) in receiving donations from staff he would supervise. Man would I love to be Dick Clark right now... These stories hang in the air, and it's possible the criminal probe could point the finger at Ellis.
Point is: Walker got blistered by the media, when Ellis was ripe for his own beating. Now that the "ultimate threat" in Mark Walker is gone, look for the Trib to singlehandedly try to hand the election to Dick Clark.
It stinks to high heaven, folks. And may I say, it's not Dick Clark's fault, and he still has my vote over the apparently less-than-competent Richard Ellis.
woops. Should have said "jason the", not Jeremy. My bad.
Jason,
Read the comment again. Warchol's blog post with the picture of Speaker Curtis is what I referred to as open electioneering. I actually don’t have a problem with legitimate editorial content and I love Warchol’s blog. I just agree with Rep. Urquhart that it is what it is.
I’m sorry about how “very weary” it makes you to have to hear the fact that using the ethics committee as a fishing expedition for political dirt is foolish politics and bad public policy. I’m more interested in the prospects of increasing the ethical requirements and enforcement our legislators face than in seeing a big Republican go down in this particular case. The charge that the process is being abused for politics can now be legitimately proffered by Republicans and that weakens the likelihood of future enhancements to legislative ethics rules and enforcement. Political overreach in this case hurts all Utahns.
You really are an educated fool.
Warchol IS a blogger. And columnists and bloggers are, by definition, biased.
Kind of like this head-in-the-sand blog of yours.
Anon 1:00 pm,
Why doesn't the Tribune have ANY conservative bloggers/columnists?
Rolly = liberal, UPEA stooge
Walsh = liberal, UEA stooge
Warchol = liberal
Anderson = liberal, Sierra Club, UEA, UPEA stooge
And so on.
Thanks, 1:00 p.m. anon., for stepping on the punchline. "Saying it GOT to the other side of the road says nothing about the chicken's MOTIVATION for doing so."
"Poor writing"? Sorry to get all school-teachery when there are more important topics being discussed here. But really, SU, you could take a lesson in lucid writing from Warchol and Walsh. Think Simple, Declarative Sentences.
Simple and declarative sentences from Walsh? Don't you mean snide innuendo and a general tone of discontent with eveyone and everything?
No one ever said newspapers have to be fair and balanced. They pay for their whole operation from reporting to publication to distribution. Only radio and television have a fairness doctrine because they use the public airwaves. Newspapers have historically picked sides. That's why we have opinion pages, editorials, and columnists. People want their news objective, but they'll gravitate towards the opinions with which they agree. The progressives will read the Salt Lake Tribune, the "conservatives" the Deseret News and everyone will be happy. Unfortunately, the airwaves on the Wasatch Front (or in the rest of the country) aren't as balanced, at least on the AM radio side. And that's only because the Rush ditto heads will purchase the Chia Pets peddled during the commercial breaks.
No one here says newspapers HAVE to be balanced. We're just citing evidence that they are not, particularly the Tribune.
Has any here seen Sen. Larry Craig.
Isn't he the anti-gay gay republican. Lets all go to the bathroom now.
How about the Rep Parker in Logan?
How about that Jim bird? Boy oh boy! oops I said Boy. These republican are all hypocrites.
It is so EASY to blame the media. I would never want to showcase my bias in reporting, like Warchol and Walsh often do, but the excuse that the media is biased is so old that it makes me sick.
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