Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The Unbearable Burden of Brent Bozell

Brent Bozell is a conservative media critic, which is not a fun thing to be these days. A conservative media critic believes that conservatism is the right answer. A conservative media critic, therefore, believes that a fair and accurate repetition of the facts will provide evidence that conservative principles work and liberal principles fail. So when the news fails to provide this; he naturally is upset at the news for lying.

This is far more than simple bias; Brent Bozell believes, as do many on the right, that America's news organizations are systematically lying to the American people in order to hide the success of conservatism.

Bozell's latest article talks about why President Bush hasn't gotten a lot of credit for having saved us from Terrorist attacks since September 11th.
Perhaps the results are less important than the question. It recognized a fact that no one in the liberal media wants to acknowledge above a whisper: Doesn't Bush deserve some measure of credit for how or why the country has not been attacked again on his watch?
He does deserve a measure of credit; I put it at approximately two and a half tablespoons; but I'm naturally generous. In the long run, however, his steps in invading Iraq may create increased danger rather than lessened.

The underlying critique of the media, however, seems strained. I gather that Bozell would like the news presented in such a way as to underline how we are safe thanks to President Bush. For an example, the question "Do you approve of how President Bush has handled the war in Iraq?" is not as good a question as "Given that we have not been attacked by terrorists since September 11th, 2001, do you approve of how President Bush has handled the war in Iraq?" The second question underlines how President Bush has worked to keep us safe.

But with mountains of evidence piling up against how President Bush has run this country, and with the American people increasingly aware of how things are going; well, it's harder to convince people these days.

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