• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

This really is a full service blog.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Sensible Analysis

Sensible Analysis

by John Cole|  August 5, 200310:26 pm| 3 Comments

This post is in: Politics

FacebookTweetEmail

Kevin Drum has the most sensible analysis (ignore the comments section) of this Michael Tomasky study:

In another sense, however, I have a hard time taking Tomasky’s study seriously. It’s not that there’s any problem with his methodology, it’s just that I don’t think it addresses the real issue that conservatives claim to have with the media: not political bias, and not editorial page bias, but the default assumption of socially liberal values in the news columns. Eric Alterman was honest enough to address that issue in What Liberal Media?, and his conclusion was, basically, that conservatives probably had a point. Not as big a point as they complain about, but a point nonetheless.

Now, needless to say, social bias in news stories is so subtle that it’s probably impossible for any study to ever draw any firm conclusions about it. But even so, I think that’s the primary point of contention, so while Tomasky’s study is interesting it doesn’t really address the core issue of media bias. That, I think, will probably continue to remain happily in the realm of fact-free ranting.

He has it nailed. Also, as I have stated before, I don’t think that the newsitorials are always a product of intentional liberal bias, but rather the product of laziness and deadlines. There is a reason the thought pieces in bi-monthly and monthly political magazines are almost always vastly superior to newspaper coverage.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Pot…. Kettle…
Next Post: Why Immigration Is Good »

Reader Interactions

3Comments

  1. 1.

    Kevin Drum

    August 5, 2003 at 11:31 pm

    I’d also be careful not to overplay this. I imagine there’s bias out there, but I also suspect it’s really not as bad as conservatives claim it is.

    (FWIW, when a blog claims bias and I go read the story, the complaint almost always turns out to be fairly trivial, or sometimes just flat wrong. Claims of bias are often just indications of bias from the complainer.)

    And yes, deadlines are a problem, but it’s not really fair to complain about that. It’s just the nature of the medium.

  2. 2.

    Moe Lane

    August 6, 2003 at 7:57 am

    “Kevin Drum has the most sensible analysis (ignore the comments section) of this Michael Tomasky study:”

    Actually, that particular comment thread seemed reasonably sane, all in all*.

    BTW, good analysis, Kevin.

    Moe

    *Of course, now that I’ve said it, look out… :)

  3. 3.

    Omnibus Bill

    August 6, 2003 at 9:52 pm

    That’s about right. It’s not the Op-Ed page of the NY Times that makes me queasy. It’s the way stories are written — subtle little twists of the knife, always giving primacy to liberal or farther left views, snide little comments, and bowdlerizing if a conservative tries to explain a complicated point. Linda Greenhouse is the best at this. Pretty much singlehandedly, she’s turned Antonin Scalia into the dumbest man in the land. Hard to do considering his intellectual candlepower, but pretty easy if you have a big enough stage and just repeat the lie quietly, over and over again.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - BarcaChicago  - Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters 8
Image by BarcaChicago (7/11/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • WTFGhost on Fox News Friday Open Thread (Jul 11, 2025 @ 7:47pm)
  • TS on Friday Afternoon Distraction Open Thread: Get the Passport Stamped with All the Right Signals… (Jul 11, 2025 @ 7:40pm)
  • Geminid on Friday Afternoon Distraction Open Thread: Get the Passport Stamped with All the Right Signals… (Jul 11, 2025 @ 7:40pm)
  • Dan B on Fox News Friday Open Thread (Jul 11, 2025 @ 7:40pm)
  • Martin on Friday Afternoon Distraction Open Thread: Get the Passport Stamped with All the Right Signals… (Jul 11, 2025 @ 7:40pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!