1. Gardner Selby (Austin American Statesman)- man behind the bogus biased PolitiFact that has been debunked so many times it is amazing there are any beds left in the entire state of Texas. It's not just the bias... and the bias is palpable and offensive... it's the way Politifact Texas holds itself up as the final arbiter of truth. Some of the biggest doozies include saying it was "false" of Rick to claim that 70% of all jobs in America had been created in Texas over whatever time period... a claim that was absolutely true and verifiable by the official federal government data available to everyone online. Rick may have even been understating his claim just to be safe... but Gardner Selby determined this claim was false because he said so. More than even their findings, PolitiFact runs into the problem of selection bias. Which statements to fact check... which to ignore...
2. Wayne Slater (Dallas Morning News)- probably even more overtly biased than Gardner Selby, but he comes in second place because he is really more of a trashy gossip columnist and Maddow/Olbermann suck up than someone holding himself up as the pinnacle of objectivity. Slater has an unhealthy obsession with Karl Rove... but over the past couple of years he has become a little bit single white female about Rick's every move.
3. Elise Hu (Texas Tribune)- played the race card when Rick's peeps used a stupid looking picture of shorter than average Bill White standing next to Yao Ming. Elise is not as bad as some ranked further down on the list, but playing the race card earns you big negative points in my book. Elise also gets points taken off for using the Burnt Orange Report as a major source when Rick's webcast was hacked a year ago...
4. Joe Holley (Houston Chronicle)- Joe Holley consistently slants his stories, but one in particular bothered me more than others. Joe wrote an entire article about how "GOP stalwarts" are planning to vote for Bill White... only it turns out most of his examples were big Democrat donors in the past.
5 (tie). Gromer Jeffers (Dallas Morning News)- for writing articles about how Bill White is winning over Republicans en masse using easily verifiable activist Democrats as his "Republican" examples, Gromer makes the list.
5 (tie). Dave Montgomery (Fort Worth Star Telegram)- for writing articles about how Bill White is winning over Republicans en masse using easily verifiable activist Democrats as his "Republican" examples, Dave Montgomery makes the list. Dave would usually be nowhere near this list, but blame it on age, blame it on naivety, but he really screwed up.
There are dozens of others who nearly made the list for various journalistic crimes against the truth and integrity... but I had to pick 5. Technically I guess I chose 6...
Who really knows the other biases happening quietly behind the scenes. Think about all the bad stories about Democrats that get killed by reporters who don't want to hurt their preferred candidates... think about all the positive stories about Republicans that get killed because they
The accumulation of bias is the problem. Letting Democrats have a quote bashing Rick in a bio piece, but not letting Republicans get a chance to shoot back at Bill White in his corresponding fluff bio piece... this is often the fault of the editors not the reporters... because different reporters sometimes write parallel stories like that... that accumulation of bias is subtle but makes a bit difference.
Still... reporters have an obligation to preserve the integrity and viability of their field. The liberal bias in journalism has undercut their credibility and basically killed newspapers... the most liberal newspapers are failing faster than the so called conservative papers... reporters should take on other reporters for their bias... call out Wayne Slater for being a trashy sensationalistic gossip columnist... call out Gardner Selby for false fact checking...
If reporters want to preserve their profession, they need to preserve the integrity of their profession. They need to move away from the far liberal left where they reside now... they need to open their minds by consuming more "conservative" media and not just to sneer at it. There are a lot of conservative bloggers out there, but the liberal "journalists" mostly just read the liberal blogs, so those are their sources... official sources as well as sources of story ideas...
Right now in Texas there is a lot of bias on clear display... and probably a lot not on display...
There's also a boogie-man under your bed.
ReplyDeletePhillip, these folks were in the tank for KBH in the GOP primary and once Perry ate her alive and spat her out in March, these same IDIOTS bolted to liberal Bill White, who is desperate for attention.
ReplyDelete