So I get my daily WND breaking news alert this afternoon. While I fully acknowledge WND is more right leaning than left leaning, I just had to take a guess. The WND headline was so tempting:
Guess which 'news' channel ... isn't news
Guess what?! I was right, it was MSNBC! 85% opinion, 15% news.
Even more fascinating yet slightly unnerving and somewhat distressing was the narrative holding up the headline.
Like:
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism just released its State of the News Media 2013 report,
which discovered that while CNN and Fox News can be expected to give
audiences about a 50/50 mix of news and commentary, the left-leaning
MSNBC dishes out a whopping 85 percent opinion to only 15 percent news.
Or:
“Given the current liberal approach at nighttime at MSNBC,” the Pew
study stated, “it’s hard to remember that back in 2007, the prime-time
airwaves were split between liberals (Keith Olbermann and, to a lesser
extent, Chris Matthews) and conservatives (Joe Scarborough and Tucker
Carlson). Now, Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz are linchpins
in an ideologically reconstructed liberal lineup.”
And how about:
Brent Bozell, president of the media bias watchdog Media Research
Council, commented on the study, saying it demonstrates MSNBC’s claim to
be a “news” channel amounts to “a farce.”
“Pick any Orwellian nickname you want: the Ministry of Truth, the
Department of Agitation and Propaganda, but don’t dare call MSNBC a news
organization,” said Bozell in a statement. “No legitimate news outlet
spends 85 percent of its airtime pushing leftist commentary. Pravda
would be proud.”
YadaYadaYada:
I suppose none of this comes as much of a surprise to anyone who reads any of the major dailies (with the exception of WSJ) today or watches the news on TV or online.
Well, at least we right-of-center folk can take a smidgen of satisfaction and maybe even some cover too knowing that the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism has seen the light or at the very least sifted through and exposed a portion of today's cable news charade.
Of course, CNN rated higher than Fox when it comes to "factual" reporting still has me scratching my little old noggin. How about you?
