All of us, the media and the newspapers have our own bias. I'm always learning about my own bias, trying to understand it, and questioning its validity. I read different journals and newspapers with an understanding of their bias. I'm a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal, but on occasion want to absolutely scream about their bias and political agendas. A Wall Street tool is one thing, but . . . well, you finish the sentence. It does keep me up on the smart conservatives as well as the political stooges (its section on the arts is superb, and book reviews can be useful).
However, I always watch for Thomas Frank's column in the Journal. Frank is a student of culture and ideas, a PhD in history, but never reads like an academician (I think that's a good quality). He brings a lot of moxie and a lot of smarts to his column, and is the resident progressive for the Journal. For that I commend Murdoch.
Like a smart, UChicago student of American intellectual history (he's not from the Friedman economics department), he can really dissect the noise. Today's article is exceptionally useful for it's ability to parse the language of the right wing crazies (don't be too harsh on my bias, I'm liable to talk about left wing crazies in another post). In his discussion of how certain conservatives use their supposed suffering at the hands of liberals in order to mine the airwaves and book publishers, I think he's got it all spot on. You may want to think about what he has to say the next time you blunder onto the cable.
Here's the article: Conservatives and the cult of victimhood: when will the GOP stop whining about the 'elites?'
