Some persons associated with SDP have recently been accused of paranoia because SDP went after David Kranz during the 2004 election. This blog made a case that he was biased, and that may have been a factor when he was taken off the story. Here is Chad at CCK.
The Kranz saga, in particular, is disheartening because I know firsthand the guy is committed to upholding high standards of journalism. The fact that the black helicoptors the right swears are closing in on them took him off the beat of the biggest race of his career is a travesty. He worked his ass off for 30+ years and earned the right to cover that race. If Jon Lauck, Jason Van Beek, the hillbilly, and John Thune are proud of that accomplishment, then I think that speaks volumes about their character.
Now, this story has never been part of my portfolio here at SDP, and I have no strong opinions on it. Chad may be right that the Argus Leader panicked when they took Kranz off the story But I don't think that accusing a reporter of bias amounts to paranoia. Its the nature of blogs to exaggerate the one thing and ignore the other, but with so many of them out there, everything gets out eventually. Kranz's 30+ years of hard work do not isolate him from criticism.
If you want to see what real paranoia looks like, try this piece by Peter Daou. Tom Bevin, at Real Clear Politics has the scoop.
THE TRIANGLE: Matthews, Moore, Murtha, and the Media: What's the common thread running through the past half-decade of Bush's presidency? What's the nexus between the Swift-boating of Kerry, the Swift-boating of Murtha, and the guilt-by-association between Democrats and terrorists? Why has a seemingly endless string of administration scandals faded into oblivion? Why do Democrats keep losing elections? It's this: the traditional media, the trusted media, the "neutral" media, have become the chief delivery mechanism of potent anti-Democratic and pro-Bush storylines. And the Democratic establishment appears to be either ignorant of this political quandary or unwilling to fight it.There's a critical distinction to be made here: individual reporters may lean left, isolated news stories may be slanted against the administration. What I'm describing is the wholesale peddling by the "neutral" press of deep-seated narratives, memes, and soundbites: simple, targeted talking points that paint a picture of reality for the American public that favors the right and tarnishes the left.
Now this is a full-tilt conspiracy theory. Yes, of course 98% of everyone who works in network news has never voted Republican in their lives. But follow the common thread, oh you who grope in the darkness, and the invisible forces will be made visible to you. And if you don't want to look for it yourself, there is a chart:
There's a good reason why Daou needs to believe in a conspiracy. He "directed online rapid response and blog outreach for the Kerry-Edwards campaign." It just can't be that he lost fair and square. The contest must have been rigged! Of course. The scales fall from his eyes.
"Flip-flop" took hold as an anti-Kerry theme because it was repeated ad nauseum in the press. And mind you, reporters are far too sophisticated to simply deliver the meme as an accusation; they frame it as a question, they toss it in as an offhanded remark, they run a caption that says it for them, they use the language of Democratic duality and Republican unity, they use polls for cover, they play false equivalency games, they allow Republicans to repeat the narrative unhindered, and so on. This despite the fact that Bush contradicted himself on major policy issues and was a master ‘flip-flopper’ himself. Had the media fact-checked the assertion every time it popped up and had they called Bush a flip-flopper with the same brutal, methodical intensity, the race might have ended differently. One of the few chances Americans got to test the flip-flop meme was the debates, and we all know how those turned out.
Diabological reporters, those, careful crafting each word to favor the Bushies. That, Chad, is paranoia.
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