The Press Does Not Have a Liberal Bias

(note: I'm finishing up some pre-mobilization training and will soon be blogging from Title 10, Active Duty.)
So, on to today's business. Dan from Schadenfreude is, like me, flabbergasted with Newsweek's wanton disregard for journalistic ethics. (if that is not an oxymoron, I don't know what is)

Now don't go mistaking incompetence for malice aforethought, folks. Newsweek is not purposely trying to undermine America and the Bush Administration. . . they're just trying to make a buck or two like everyone else in the news business.
Said another way, I don't believe that the Fourth Estate has a liberal bias. I think that they are a shining example of capitalism and are just greedy bastards like every other businessman who has to put food on the table for his family. Don't get me wrong, I love capitalists. As my good friend Gordon Gecko once said, "Greed . . . is good. Greed Works."

The news business is just that: a business first and foremost. Whomever sells the most papers or advertising time wins. As the old editor's saying goes: "If it bleeds, it leads." Where are all the embedded reporters now? They are either safe back in North America or holed up in secure hotels in Baghdad. War in March/April 2003 was "sexy" enough to risk reporters' lives over, but the real tough battles going on these days building schools and sewers is just not worth it. Sewers aren't sexy, so they don't get press coverage. (except for the Army Times, of course. See the May 09, 2005 edition.)

If the story isn't interesting or emotion-provoking, the press doesn't care about it. Right-wingers are just as upset with the press's handling of Bush these days as the left-wingers were during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. The press hasn't changed, just their targets. The press would be just as happy to topple a Republican administration as a Democratic administration.

As my good friend Don Henley once said in his song "Dirty Laundry":

The bubble-headed-bleach-blonde comes on at five.
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam In her eye
It’s interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry
. . .
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry

Yes, Newsweek caused irreperable damage with their sloppy reporting. No, they are not part of a vast liberal consipracy.