In Re Rather: The Target Is Journalism

the liberal media by Eric Alterman
In Re Rather: The Target Is Journalism

[from the April 11, 2005 issue]

That the resignation of Dan Rather from his CBS News anchor job is a humiliation for the so-called liberal media (SCLM) is taken as a given across the conservative and mainstream press. An unsigned Wall Street Journal editorial crowed of "A Media Watershed," celebrating "the end of the liberal monopoly." In a piece headlined "It Is Watergate," New York Post pundit Eric Fettmann announced, "Those who have long been convinced of a liberal bias in journalism have found their smoking gun." But it's not merely right-wingers who've jumped on this bandwagon. Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff observed that "one consequence of the CBS debacle here is that it's going to take the sting out of the liberal charge that there's a conservative propaganda machine exemplified by Fox News." "Oh, absolutely," cooed an appreciative Bill O'Reilly in response.