Leveling The Playing Field of Network News

15 Nov, 2010 by Kathleen McKinley

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My past post on Affirmative Action and this post at HotAir, got me to thinking about the term “a level playing field.”

Sarah Palin has given this piece of advice to the incoming freshman Republicans:

Remember that some in the media will love you when you stray from the time-tested truths that built America into the most exceptional nation on earth. When the Left in the media pat you on the back, quickly reassess where you are and readjust, for the liberals’ praise is a warning bell you must heed. Trust me on that.

Ed at HotAir goes on to relate a story where Justice Thomas talks about some Justices that may consider what the academic elite think when coming to a decision on a case.

All this got me to thinking about Fox News. It got me to thinking about how for most of my life liberalism has dominated the news, academia, and the judicial system. No one can deny Fox New’s success. But why? It’s simple. For as long as I can remember the media was not only dominated by liberal bias, it had no competition in that regard at all. All news came to us through the lens of liberal bias. It’s not that they didn’t try to be fair. Sometimes they really did. But when your world view is shared by everyone you work with, and they went to the same schools that taught the same world view, you can’t help but be influenced by that.

20 years ago I was complaining about this to my brother. He suggested I listen to this guy on the radio that was conservative. His name was Rush Limbaugh. So the next day I turned the radio on in the car and listened. It was like coming home. It’s not that I agreed with everything Rush said or how he said it, but I finally I heard someone who believed in this country as I did. Obviously I wasn’t alone. This is why Rush is so successful. The half of this country that are conservative were being ignored by the media. Rush changed that.

But Rush wasn’t the news. We still had to watch ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN to get the news. Only those of us who suscribed to National Review were able to get “the rest of the story” for any particular issue.

Then Fox News came along. What conservatives always wanted, was not news from a conservative point of view, but simply unbiased news. Now, I realize that Beck, Hannity, and O’Reilly, are all conservative. They are opinion shows. But the hard news on Fox News is the best out there. It truly is fair and balanced, no matter what Jon Stewart or anyone else says. I dare Stewart or anyone else to point out bias from Brett Baier, Chris Wallas, Shep Smith, or any of the daytime anchors. They cant. They are the best out there. And considering that Chris Wallace and Shep Smith are Democrats (I have no idea what Baier is), I think they keep things pretty fair.

What Fox News did was level the playing field. That is why their opinion lineup is solidly conservative. Where else would find conservative opinon shows? All this has made them number one. It drives the left and this administration batty. I’ve never seen a President go after a network before like Pres. Obama has. It was embarrassing. But that is what happens when someone steps on the turf you think you own.

So you might look at Fox News as the product of Affirmative Action of network news. Conservatives didn’t have a chance in the media (except for a few dry shows like “Firing Line.”) until they came along. Lucky for us the government didn’t have to force this. The marketplace gave us Fox News.