Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Is this bias in the media?

The "60 Minutes" curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, has been making a bigger fool of himself lately by calling conservative Christians uneducated and ignorant. When the sports commentator Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder disparaged blacks in 1988, Dan Rather aired video of the remarks, which led to Mr. Snyder being fired by CBS management. That Mr. Rooney holds his job after stereotyping and disparaging Christians sends a message of bias, even bigotry, to a substantial audience CBS has mostly lost and obviously does not care if it wins it back.

There is no cabal to decide these things. News directors don't receive a memo from the Bavarian Illuminati or the Dealy Lama telling them which group to bash.

The bias in the major media stems from the fact that all those who make it through the filters and reach positions of power believe conservative Christians are bigoted and ignorant. There is no more stigma in saying this than there is in saying the sun is bright. But a person who sincerely believes that Blacks are different – for better or worse – speaks his truth at his peril.

(So much, by the way, for "respecting an individual's personal truth.")

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