Roman Around

Michael Tomasky

The existence of a prevailing liberal media bias in almost every sector of the mainstream news complex can hardly be denied – unless, of course, your perspective is from the Left. From over there, liberal notions are seen as simply mainstream, middle-of-the-road, all-American ideals.

That influential, big media liberals rarely intermingle with “regular folks” who have dissenting points of view (unless covering them at a swastika-peppered Townhall meeting) also cannot be denied.

The truth is while these news-corridor lefties rarely find themselves exposed to the mainstream of conservative thought, conservatives are relentlessly bombarded with liberalism – from the culture-at-large to the way the news itself is “objectively” reported. Indeed, liberal perceptions of conservatism are often based on caricatures or clumsy stereotypes.

Even the word “conservative” is an effective means to an end.

While mainstream media news outlets rarely use the word “liberal” to describe Democrat policies, they manage to squeeze in the word “conservative” – not as a description, but a pejorative – at every opportunity.

In short, conservatives know liberals far more than liberals know conservatives.

It is what it is.

And while liberals are wont to attribute such assertions to conservative paranoia, a perfect illustration of this congenital media bias occurred on Dennis Prager’s radio program on Wednesday.

Prager interviewed Michael Tomasky – editor of Democracy and A Journal of Ideas. He is also a correspondent for The Guardian in Great Britain as well as a regular contributor to The American Prospect and The New York Review of Books.

Safe to say, Mr. Tomasky is well-connected to current events.

The subject of White House Communications Director, Anita Dunn, came up. You’ll recall that Dunn is the one who stated, in front of a graduating high school class, that humanity’s all-time genocidal maniac, Mao Zedong, was one of her two favorite philosophers. That a high-profile employee of the White House would declare someone such as Mao as a philosophical mentor is certainly newsworthy – or so one would think.

Here is the brief exchange between Prager and Tomasky. Unintentional as it was, it is, indeed, a profound “gotcha” moment:

Prager: Do you find it problematic that someone as high up as the Communications Director of an American administration says to young children that one of her two favorite political philosophers is Mao Zedong?

Tomasky: (slight pause) Uh .. now see, you’re catching me because I didn’t even know this.

Prager: Okay, that’s – well … Look, I have to say that proves my point – that the Left lives in a bubble.

Tomasky hadn’t even heard of the story. The entire Anita Dunn affair was “news” to him.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t “news” to the mainstream news outfits.

Would anyone care to speculate on the media saturation that would be taking place had someone on George W. Bush’s staff commented on Adolf Hitler’s clarity of thought?

What media bias?

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