What liberal media?A…

What liberal media?

ABC News correspondent John Stossel, the co-anchor of 20/20, said most mainstream journalists, including those at his network, are leftists who view conservatives as “selfish and cruel” for embracing capitalism.
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Before adopting a skeptical view of the government and public-interest groups, Stossel was an enterprising consumer reporter. He won 18 Emmys while exposing shady business practices. But since realizing that more regulation might not be the answer to the world’s problems, Stossel said he has observed changes, and he has only won one Emmy in that time.

“Leftist thinking is just the culture that I live in and the culture the reporters who populate the mainstream media live in,” he said. “Everybody just agrees – more safety regulation, gun control, higher taxes. Who could not want that? Everybody around here wants that. Anyone who disagrees is seen as not just wrong but selfish and cruel. If I try to discuss this with my peers, I get blank stares.”

He added, “The press is so filled with hatred for capitalism that someone who advocates for free markets rather than government control is a conservative and a problem.”

Some might say that Stossel’s very existence on 20/20 proves that ABC is balanced. Not necessarily.

“ABC, God bless them, they don’t always agree with me,” he said, “but they let me do most of the things I want to do.”

Stossel passed up the opportunity to talk about the work of other ABC News journalists, including World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings. The Media Research Center, the parent organization of CNSNews.com, has criticized Jennings for biased reporting on the Bush administration and the Iraq war among other issues.

“I think as long as ABC is paying me,” Stossel said, “they have a right to have me shut up about my opinions about what other people at ABC are doing.”

One John Stossel does not balance all the other bias out. In fact, being able to count the number of conservatives or libertarians at ABC News on one hand actually proves that point.

How does this bias become media-wide?

“The reason the [New York] Times, and to a lesser extent the [Washington] Post, are so important, and they are, is because the TV and radio – all of the media – copy it sycophantically,” he said. “That’s how bias at the Times becomes bias in other media.”

A herd mentality, but for independent thinkers like Stossel. Media objectivity? Give me a break!

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