POLITICS: Frustrated and Dizzy.(presence of conservative media bia)

'The media is kind of weird these days," said Al Gore. Let us interpret that for you: There are some conservative voices getting through, and that's not at all what Gore and other liberal Democrats are used to. From birth, they expected a thoroughly liberal media: It was an entitlement. And now there are all these . . . interlopers (or "fifth columnists," about which more in a minute). In the weeks following the Republicans' surprise victory in the November election, there's been a whole lot of whining going on. Pardon us if we don't get teary-eyed over these charges of conservative media bias.

The former vice president went on to list "Fox News Network, the Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh -- there's a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media." As WFB has pointed out, "Non-wealthy billionaires are presumably too busy trying to become wealthy billionaires to give much time to politics." Continued Gore, "Most of the media has been slow to recognize the pervasive impact of this fifth column in their ranks." No one could have said it more revealingly: that non-liberal media constitute a "fifth column," that is, a secret group of collaborators with the enemy, subverting the nation from within.

Tom Daschle, too, revealed his frustration, now that he has been returned to minority status. He went for a familiar Democratic target: Big Bad Rush, scourge of the Republic (though not of the Republicans). Daschle accused Rush Limbaugh of inciting crazies against him and other Democrats, comparing him to fundamentalist zealots abroad (you-know- who). You will remember that Bill Clinton, as the Oklahoma City federal building lay in ruins, took the occasion of a collegiate address to blame conservative talk radio for creating a climate in which mass murder can take place. It may have been the lowest moment of the Clinton presidency -- ...