I'm feeling the sting of media's lefty bias
A recent Gallup poll says nearly half the country believes the media are biased left, and this poll proves one thing: The people who told the pollsters that are smarter than I am.
For most of my journalistic career, I did not believe there was institutional bias in the media. I felt there was exclusionary bias. That is, certain opinions and issues simply were ignored. I worked for two network news companies, and the only time you'd hear an anti-abortion opinion would be if some nut blew up an abortion clinic.
But I've learned the hard way that liberal bias is a way of life at many media organizations.
Over the past few months I've been smeared and pilloried, primarily by leftists who do not approve of my commentary.
I'm not whining, I'm reporting. To put things into perspective, what actors Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger recently have suffered at the hands of the left-wing press makes my situation look like an episode of "Happy Days." These guys have been viciously attacked; even their fathers have been used against them.
In my case, the attacks are personal but designed to advance the far-left agenda.
Item: When my new book, "Who's Looking Out for You?" hit No. 1 on The New York Times best seller list, it was called an attack vehicle. In reality, it is a primer for everyday Americans on how to achieve success and stability. In the past decade, only two people have had three No. 1 nonfiction best sellers on the Times list: Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward and your humble correspondent. Yet somehow the Times has not gotten around to reviewing any of my books, while tomes by the liberal "satirists" are given major exposure.
Item: People magazine assigned a man who loathes me (I know, I know it's hard to believe) to review "Who's Looking Out for You?" News flash - he didn't like it.
Item: A National Public Radio interviewer insisted on reading that People magazine review on the air during her chat with me. When I suggested she read the very positive review in Publisher's Weekly magazine as well, she refused.
Item: Matt Lauer on the "Today" show sat smirking as one of the far-left "satirists" defamed me. When my publicist called the show asking for a chance to respond, the program turned me down.
To be fair, Barbara Walters gave me fair play on "The View" and did challenge the "satirist," so we're not talking about a left-wing monolith here. But no question, many left-wing press people have emerged from the closet and are out for blood, just as hard right-wing ideologues were during the Clinton administration. But the hard right did not have access to the elite media.
The assault from the left is a direct result of the unprecedented success of Fox News Channel. Perceived by the "progressive" community to be conservative, the network drives the far left crazy. That politically correct bastion CNN has been trounced in the ratings by FNC, and traditionalists finally have a place on television to express their views. Of course, liberal voices get the same opportunity on Fox, but that doesn't matter to far-left ideologues. For decades, they controlled the agenda on TV news. That's over.
So, they're counterattacking. My name is no longer Bill O'Reilly. It's "gasbag," "bully," "liar" and "blowhard." Those descriptions are not confined to opinion pieces but are used in hard news stories as well. There's good news, though. Never again will some news organizations be able to claim fairness or nonpartisanship. They've been exposed for all to see. Excuse me for a moment - something just went whizzing by my head.