MSM: We're not biased, but the perception of bias is a problem.

Newspapers are losing readers, some have gone out of business, the NY Times is essentially bankrupt, and the solons at the media are beginning to notice that one of their problems is that at least half the country hates them. They are the only major industry that actually insults its customers and asks them to pay for the pleasure.

Like the sclerotic leaders of the Soviet Union, some are beginning to pay heed, but they are still in denial.

From Extreme Mortman:
Tom Rosenstiel –

“a former political reporter who directs the Project for Excellence in Journalism:”

“The perception of liberal bias is a problem by itself for the news media. It’s not okay to dismiss it. Conservatives who think the press is deliberately trying to help Democrats are wrong. But conservatives are right that journalism has too many liberals and not enough conservatives. It’s inconceivable that that is irrelevant.”

How to respond to so much denial packed into so little space? It’s merely the “perception of bias” that’s the problem? You mean lots of people are deluding themselves about bias in the MSM? The word perception is a code word that is meant to imply that reality and perception are two different things. So Rosenstiel is still in denial about bias.

Then there is the statement that “Conservatives who think the press is deliberately trying to help Democrats are wrong.” How stupid does Rosenstiel think his audience is? If the press is composed of 80+% percent Liberal Democrat, does Rosenstiel think that the press is “accidentally” trying to help Democrats rather than “deliberately”?

No reporter, no human being, is going to make a case for a proposition which he believes to be wrong. He is going to help people who he believes are doing the right thing and hinder people who he thinks are doing the wrong thing. It so happens that the members of the press believe the Democrats are on the right road and the Republicans are wrong. So of course the press is going to help the Democrats.

If he really believed that the press is not deliberately trying to help Democrats, why add that journalism has too many liberals and not enough conservatives? Why is the mix NOT irrelevant if the people in the press are not trying to help Democrats? The logical inconsistency of Rosenstiel’s argument is mind-blowing.

And Deborah Howell is nattering on again about examples of Liberal bias in the Washington Post and ends with this howler:

After Obama is inaugurated, he will be the authority the news media challenge. It happens in every administration.

Haaaah Haaaah! Oh Deborah, you kidder you. You kill me.

Some comments from the folks at FreeRepublic:

“We are not sinking. It is the perception of water that is the problem.” - Last Words of the Captain of the Titanic

Like every failing enterprise they blame their problems on their customers.

Right. It's not you, it's the tens of millions who perceive you incorrectly.

Your Honor, How can my client get a fair trial with all this evidence against him?

Ted Bundy was not a serial killer, but all those women he killed sure created the impression he was.