Why Does the "Liberal Media" Love Bush?

It is a foregone conclusion in the minds of many people, Republican and Democrat alike, that the media is dominated by liberals. People who look to find fault in the government, who seek to undermine presidential and congressional authority, flock to the media, which then becomes their personal mouthpiece for dissent and displeasure with whoever is in charge, or so goes the current wisdom. Why then, whenever there is a discussion in the mainstream media about national security and politics, is there an implicit assumption that Republicans have the edge in any political contest where this is an issue? Is the media merely reflecting what society already believes? Or are they just hopelessly out of touch with reality?

Earlier this year, NBC's Matt Lauer suggested that President Bush's unpopularity was a good thing for Republican candidates this fall, because it meant they could run against an unpopular president. Of their own party. With whom they agree on virtually every major issue.

Just last week, the Republicans' relentless assault on the media was touted as an opportunity to fire up their base by running against the media. The Washington Post reported that Bush "rallied Republicans with another attack on the media," while NBC's Tim Russert said, "It is something that resonates with the organized Republican conservative base: taking on the media, the liberal media."

And, of course, to the journalist/pundit crowd, Republicans are always lucky to be able to run against those bumbling political amateurs, the Democrats, whom the media are all too quick to deride as "unable to get their act together" -- despite a healthy lead in generic ballot polling.

All told, the Republicans' great good fortune is that they get to run against Democrats, the media, the Supreme Court, and President Bush.
So why is every setback a good thing? Why should every real life failure translate into a political success, at least according to the media? The article goes on to cite a litany of public opinion polls that show just how incredibly out of step the notion of a Republican superiority on security-related issues is with people's actual thoughts on the issue. And yet we hear from the media how having the public despise Bush will benefit his congressional lapdogs when they seek reelection in the Fall. Of course, the ultimate test will be the actual election results, and maybe the media will somehow be vindicated. But on the surface at least it appears that they're bending over backwards to be extra nice to the Republican party.

Conservatives continue to spout off about the liberal media despite significant evidence to the contrary. But no self-respecting rhetorician ever took evidence to heart, and it seems to me to be the continued and relentless browbeating that the media has received since the Reagan years for its supposed liberal bias that has caused this bizarre backlash. While members of the media continue to self-identify as liberal they're also the ones who bought the Iraq/WMD connection in the buildup to the war, and awarded the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush before the votes had been counted. So perhaps it is the fear of being labeled liberal that is causing them to overcompensate and give Republicans the benefit of the doubt when they don't always deserve it.

This whole discussion would be academic if it didn't have real life consequences. While it's difficult to quantify the effect of the endless, repetitive paeans to Republican power and leadership by the media, people are obviously influenced by what they see and hear on television (if you believe that, ask yourself why companies spend billions each year on advertising.) In their zeal to appear "unbiased" in the eyes of conservative commentators (ironically, something which will never happen, because the bogeyman of the "liberal media" is far too useful to give up) journalists could be helping to shape reality in ways that benefits those same conservatives.

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