The liberal media ain't that liberal

Barack Obama is a crappy bowler, Hillary Clinton is really rich, and the White House thinks it can bypass the Constitution (among other laws) and torture its prisoners at will. Among these recent headlines, which do you think the “liberal,” “Republican-bashing” media chose to focus on the most?

According to Lexis Nexis, the truly pointless Obama and Clinton stories were mentioned more than 1,100 times in the last 30 days, whereas the recent Pentagon torture memo saw fewer than 300 mentions. That just doesn’t seem right, but the truth is that as much as conservatives love to whine about widespread “liberal media bias,” recent events show just the opposite.

Let’s begin with that aforementioned torture-memo, which was released less than two weeks ago and got such little attention. This 81-page legal brief from 2001, written by John Yoo, then-deputy attorney general, is essentially the “smoking gun” document that authorized the U.S. military to begin detaining and torturing prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and black sites prisons across the globe. In the document, Yoo and his justice department colleagues concluded that items like the Fourth and Fifth Amendments (which protect us from warrant-less searches and ensure due process and speedy trials) “had no application to domestic military campaigns” like the ongoing “war on terror.” Furthermore, the memo stated that torture protection offered by the Geneva Conventions should not apply to U.S. detainees, even though the Supreme Court has held that our detainees are in fact protected by the Geneva Conventions.

The ramifications of this type of news story should be taken quite seriously by our media. For example, conservative political observer Andrew Sullivan candidly stated that these revelations mean that John Yoo, among others in the Bush administration, will eventually be tried for war crimes (I would take 10 years off my life to see that happen). However, despite all this controversy and potential political fallout, the “liberal media” has done very little to educate Americans about this important development as indicated by the tepid coverage.

Of course, this media bias, or lack thereof, is not only restricted to the “war on terror” but is also evident in the current presidential campaigns as the media continuously gives John McCain a pass on every issue he faces. Over the last few weeks, McCain, who constantly touts his foreign policy “expertise” as his best asset, has repeatedly said Iran is helping al-Qaida in Iraq. Of course, anyone with half a brain knows McCain’s assertion is impossible given the deep religious divide between Shiites and Sunnis; nevertheless, McCain has made this false claim more than three times since March! In fact, McCain’s Iraq lies got so bad that at one point he needed someone to whisper in his ear on live television to tell him that he was wrong. Sadly, the media’s response to these numerous overwhelming blunders was almost pure silence.

Could you imagine if Obama or Clinton made this type of gaff during a speech? It would be played over and over again, and would likely cost them the nomination. However, when John McCain makes this type of mistake, it’s no big deal. In fact, Fox News, being as “fair and balanced” as they are, excused the gaff as an innocent “senior moment.”

Of course, repeated mistakes on Iran and al-Qaida connections do not qualify as “senior moments.” Instead, this statement by Fox News raises another question that nobody from the media seems to bring up: If McCain’s having “moments” now, what is he going to be like in 2012? I find it stunning that for all the media’s blabbering about whether Americans are prepared to embrace a black candidate or a female candidate, nobody asks whether we’re willing to embrace a 72-year-old candidate in McCain.

Maybe the media doesn’t press McCain about his age because it doesn’t want to appear ageist, but age (as opposed to race or gender) is actually a relevant factor in politics, and concerns many voters. An NBC/WSJ poll recently revealed that more than 70 percent of Americans believe they are ready to elect a black president or a woman president; however, only 60 percent said they are ready to vote for a candidate over the age of 70.

Looking at all these current lapses in coverage, the media clearly needs to stop worrying about being labeled “liberal” or “biased” by conservatives because the sad truth is that they will always be called those things. The reason. It has always been easier for people to pass blame than accept blame. Consequently, the best thing the media can do to help itself is to educate Americans on difficult issues like torture, or hold politicians accountable for their mistakes because facts supersede all political loyalties.

Patrick Molnar is a business junior and a liberal columnist for the Mustang Daily.