Because they suggest journalists who deliver bad news for Republicans are biased. For real. And you couldn't ask for a better example than from our pals at Newsbusters who posted this dart:
Friday's CBS Evening News delivered a parting shot at outgoing President George W. Bush as fill-in anchor Maggie Rodriguez paired how a just-released CBS News/New York Times survey pegged Bush's approval rating "at just 22 percent" -- which she noted "is the lowest for an outgoing President since the question was first asked more than 70 years ago" -- with how "68 percent said they expect Barack Obama to be a good or very good President."
How dare CBS accurately, and in a straightforward manner, report the facts as reflected by public polling which captures the feelings of everyday Americans!!
Crossposted at County Fair, a Media Matters for America blog.
Their biggest tool is denial.
It is the proverbial "Men will never ask for directions" mindset.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiBt-pqp0E&feature=related
The coverage can be spun in any direction, but before the spin wars can begin, there has to be a story, preferably one that complements or balances the other stories in the mix. We can only focus on so many concurrent plot lines at once, and at the bottom of the hour we should come away with a sense of the moment brewed from the symphonic arrangement of news segments.
In the context of the need for a well-informed citizenry, we are hindered much more by what we don't hear at all than by the partisan polarization of the prescribed message calendar. As the saying goes, if they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. We choose between lefty and righty answers to irrelevant questions. The debate is what makes the questions seem important.
And you couldn't ask for a better example that from our pal Eric, who posted this dart proclaiming the bias inherent in casting doubt on a comparison of approval ratings between an outgoing president and an incoming president-elect. It doesn't matter who's right, because if this is what we're talking about, then we're already wrong.