MUSINGS FOR A SUNDAY EVENING - THE BIAS OF THE MEDIA

By now all of us have heard over and over again about the bias of the liberal media. I often think about it and wonder if there is anything we can do to correct the problem, or to at least begin to take some positive steps to counteract this unfair bias. Today I read an article in Newsbusters.org that has caused me to take a fresh look at the issue of the media bias.

Time magazine is carrying a story headlined “Was John Paul II Euthanized?” In and of itself, that’s a pretty outrageous headline. As a Catholic, it sure got my attention. Then I began to read the article and I became outraged. The gist of the story by a reporter named Jeff Israely cites “a provocative article” in the Italian media that an intensive-care specialist concluded that John Paul’s death was caused by what the Catholic Church itself would consider euthanasia. She bases this conclusion on her medical expertise and her own observations of the ailing pontiff on television.”

As Newsbuster correctly points out, this sounds really familiar doesn’t it? It hasn’t been that long since Senator Bill Frist was savaged by all of the liberal media for his comments in the Terri Schiavo case. You all remember the Terri Schiavo case don’t you? I sure do. I live in Florida and it was in the newspapers down here for months. Everyone had an opinion. Believe me, there were no undecideds in Florida on the Terri Schiavo case. Just to refresh your recollection, Terri Schiavo was the unfortunate young lady who had suffered a massive brain injury and had been in a nursing home in Florida for years. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, who had already moved on with his life, had a girlfriend and children to his girlfriend, wanted to remove the feeding tube from Terri, to take away all substance with the inevitable result of ending Terri’s life.

The problem in this case was that Terri Schiavo’s parents and siblings claimed that she responded to them, and that she was not in a persistently vegetative state, as her husband insisted. Now, it doesn’t really matter which side you agreed with. That isn’t the purpose of this article. What does matter is that reasonable people could and did differ about Terri Schiavo’s situation. Everyday Floridians got involved on both sides of the debate. The Florida legislature tried to intervene. Governor Jeb Bush tried to get involved. The Florida Courts eventually ruled in favor of Michael Schiavo, prompting Terri’s parents and siblings to turn to the Federal government. Congress, led by Senator Frist and Congressman Tom DeLay passed legislation asking that Terri be kept alive while further studies were conducted. The President rushed back from Texas to sign the bill.

Here is where the media really got into the act, and in fact, took over the whole matter. Senator Frist, a prominent heart and lung transplant surgeon, made a speech on the floor of the Senate, and said that he had reviewed a video tape of Terri Schiavo for approximately an hour, and based on his observations only, questioned whether she was in a persistently vegetative state. The media blasted him, time after time.

Now let’s compare what Jeff Israely said as he begins his article

“In a provocative article, an Italian medical professor argues that Pope John Paul II didn’t just simply slip away as his weakness and illness overtook him in April 2005. Intensive care specialist Dr. Lina Pavanelli has concluded that the ailing Pope’s April 2 death was caused by what the Catholic Church itself would consider euthanasia. She bases this conclusion on her medical expertise and her own observations of the ailing pontiff on television, as well as press reports and a subsequent book by John Paul’s personal physician.

Here is what Charles Babington of the Washington Post said about Senator Frist’s speech on the floor of the Senate in the Schiavo case

“Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."
"I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."

Not much difference between what Dr. Pavanelli and Senator Frist said is there? But, wow, what a difference in how the media handled it. Jeff Israely, in the Time article about Pope John Paul II, according to Newsbusters, “ takes care to provide the Vatican counterpoint to Dr. Pavanelli, and in fact concludes the article by suggesting that the Vatican’s opponents have a small problem in doing TV diagnosis, but with a distinct effort to blur the question into a question, and make no negative judgment of the TV doctor.”

But what did the media say about Dr./Senator Frist after his statement in 2005. Certainly Time never suggested that there were reasonable differences of opinion on the Schiavo case. In fact, Time called Frist “an unhinged dodo.” Here are the six instances in which Time questioned or flat out insulted Dr. Frist:

1. April 11, 2005 issue: Time’s Joe Klein said “Bill Frist’s ridiculous videotape diagnosis of the stricken woman, ….

2. April 18, 2005 – Time reporter Massimo Calabresi said about Frist “But recent political losses—like his clumsy handling of the Terri Schiavo case—leave him a long way from presidential stature.

3. June 27, 2005: Time’s Verbatim section mocked Frist “I never, never, on the floor of the Senate, made a diagnosis, nor would I ever do that.” BILL FRIST, Senate majority leader defending comments he made in March about Terri Schiavo’s condition.

4. December 5, 2005: In reviewing the Year in Medicine, Time’s Jeffrey Kluger lamented: “ Senate majority leader and heart surgeon Bill Frist "spent an hour or so" viewing a widely circulated videotape of Schiavo--but never examined the patient--and pronounced himself unconvinced that she was irreversibly brain damaged.”

5. April 3, 2006: In an article on Frist’s presidential ambitions and his hopes to pass an immigration “reform” package, Perry Bacon Jr. warned: But last year, while Frist tried to both manage an unwieldy Senate and prepare for a 2008 presidential run, he often sounded off-balance -- as when he inserted himself into the Terri Schiavo controversy, boldly but mistakenly arguing that her doctors misdiagnosed her vegetative state.

6. April 10, 2006: This cycle of Time reported in a column by Joe Klein: Why would a man universally described as kind and intelligent suddenly start acting like a dodo? Presidential ambition, of course. Frist's descent began a year ago, when he destroyed his reputation for medical probity by announcing, on the Senate floor, that he had seen the videotapes of Terri Schiavo, "and from my standpoint as a physician, I would be very careful before I would come to the floor and say this ... Based on the footage provided me ... she does respond."

My point in listing all of these articles is the same as the point made in Newsbusters. If the liberal MSM is so concerned about scientific hypocrites, where is the outrage over the Italian doctor who’s diagnosing the Pope’s death from videotape? Or is this a standard that only applies to Conservative Republicans. As Newsbusters says “Being an opponent of pro-lifers means never having to say you’re sorry.”

I have felt for many years, really going all the way back to the days of Watergate, and the disrespect of Dan Rather for President Nixon, that the MSM was out of control, waging a guerilla war on all manner of Republicans and Conservatives. Nothing I have seen in the last thirty-four years has changed my mind on that issue. Who can forget the media’s outrage at the impeachment of Bill Clinton over issues of obstruction of justice and perjury? They tried every way that they could to spin that story to just a sex issue, unrelated to any official duties. They continue to try to spin every story that they can in the way that is most unflattering to the Republican Party.

But the real problem as I see it is that the Conservative media and the Conservative Bloggers are almost like piranhas, preferring to eat their own, rather than joining the battle. Until we begin to unite and fight the liberal media, we have no hope of stopping the kind of savage attacks that very well may have ended the political career of a good citizen like Senator Frist. I’m not saying that we should look the other way when something outrageous occurs within our own party. Of course we should not. But we should be much more united in attacking the hypocrisy of the Democrats. Where is the conservative media outrage over the Norman Hsu fraud, or the MoveOn.Org ad defaming General Petraeus. It is no longer enough to let the politicians speak for us. We must defend our party.

Time is short, the battle is long, and victory is vital.