Warner Todd Huston
Top ten most left-biased American journalists: #10 = Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times
By Warner Todd Huston
Over the next ten we will present to you America's top ten journalists that are most biased to the left.
On this list you will find denizens of the Old Media that just can't seem to help themselves from delivering the news with a leftward tilt, journalists for whom balance means to condemn all Republicans and conservatives, folks that never met a righty they could like much less agree with or even report upon fairly.
This list will be peopled by journos that, in true Kealian fashion, simply can't understand those Republicans and/or conservatives. After all, these journalists never met anyone that would support a conservative so they just don't understand how conservatives could ever stand for truth. These are folks that just don't "get" that there is any other side to a story but that of their own ideologically leftward political bent.
This list will be restricted to working journalists (or one who just retired in the case of number one), so biased old hacks like Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite or Walter Duranty will be excluded even as we take their leftism for granted. Also you will not find those whose career is but a cartoon of journalism. People such as Keith Olbermann, John Stweart, Rachel Maddow, Maureen Dowd, or Chris Matthews do not belong on a journalist list, even one highlighting left-wing bias. Such people are simply too silly even for a list such as this.
The biggest problem is arriving at just ten. There are dozens of worthy nominees, we all know. Singling out so small a number from such a large field presented a challenge, for sure.
So, onward with the countdown and starting with the 10th most biased, congratulations goes to...
Number 10: Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times
As a citizen of the state with one of the worst economic climates in the country, one with an ex-governor in jail and one headed that way (to add to the other two that once sat behind bars), and the state with the worst budget crisis in the nation, I have to nominate at least one Illinois journo to the list of most left-biased. Naturally, there are several from which to choose.
There's the lightweight Richard Roeper whose prosaic columns appear in the Chicago Sun-Times. It was Roeper who once said, "I just couldn't shake hands and smile with President Bush," and who has reveled in attacking Sarah Palin. Two more Sun-Timesians in the running would be the angry Laura Washington who never met a man or a white person she seems to like and the equally race-baiting Mary Mitchell who finds a way to make every story of the day about how racism or sexism still pervades all aspects of America. The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn must also get special mention for being pleased that the modern media wasn't around to hound Teddy Kennedy off the public stage for killing Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969.
But the king of left-wing lunacy in the Windy City has to be Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Steinberg is a dogged abortion advocate, supports Mayor Richard "King" Daley's unconstitutional gun ban, and has a real affinity for slamming conservatives. In short he believes in every left-wing trope in the book. And he seems to really dislike tea party folks, too.
Last August, for instance, Steinberg charged that tea party attendees and anti-Obamacare activists were a "kind of fifth column, an enemy within trying to undermine the operation of our government." He maintained that folks on the right were just "bitter McCain backers" that "oppose Obama at every turn" apparently out of pure, racist spite. Steinberg obviously cannot grasp that there are real American principles behind opposition to Obama's wild expansion of big government.
Also, in April of '09, Steinberg claimed that tea party protesters were not speaking out against an out-of-control government, but were instead "speaking out against our military and our vets."
Warming to his point, Steinberg misleadingly claimed that more than a quarter of our federal budget "supports our military and takes care of aging vets." However, at the time of his column, only 9% of the budget went to the Dept. of Veteran Affairs to support "aging veterans." One had to add the 16% of the federal budget that went to pay for the military itself to get that 9% anywhere near the 25% Steinberg was touting.
But even if his numbers were right, the fact is that tea party activists are not protesting ALL government spending. They are protesting illegitimate government spending. Few tea party goers are against military spending.
All this moral superiority about caring for the little people, fairness, and women's rights is interesting from a guy that was arrested for domestic battery in 2005 after an altercation with his own wife.
Typical of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do liberalism.
Steinberg's columns are always filled with a general, textbook leftism that is as predictable as it is hardcore. Neil Steinberg definitely belongs on any list of biased journos, and so he pops in on my unscientific list at number 10.
Stay tuned over the succeeding days as we count down to the number one most biased journalist. (Originally posted at BigJournalism.com)
© Warner Todd Huston
July 14, 2010
Over the next ten we will present to you America's top ten journalists that are most biased to the left.
On this list you will find denizens of the Old Media that just can't seem to help themselves from delivering the news with a leftward tilt, journalists for whom balance means to condemn all Republicans and conservatives, folks that never met a righty they could like much less agree with or even report upon fairly.
This list will be peopled by journos that, in true Kealian fashion, simply can't understand those Republicans and/or conservatives. After all, these journalists never met anyone that would support a conservative so they just don't understand how conservatives could ever stand for truth. These are folks that just don't "get" that there is any other side to a story but that of their own ideologically leftward political bent.
This list will be restricted to working journalists (or one who just retired in the case of number one), so biased old hacks like Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite or Walter Duranty will be excluded even as we take their leftism for granted. Also you will not find those whose career is but a cartoon of journalism. People such as Keith Olbermann, John Stweart, Rachel Maddow, Maureen Dowd, or Chris Matthews do not belong on a journalist list, even one highlighting left-wing bias. Such people are simply too silly even for a list such as this.
The biggest problem is arriving at just ten. There are dozens of worthy nominees, we all know. Singling out so small a number from such a large field presented a challenge, for sure.
So, onward with the countdown and starting with the 10th most biased, congratulations goes to...
Number 10: Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times
As a citizen of the state with one of the worst economic climates in the country, one with an ex-governor in jail and one headed that way (to add to the other two that once sat behind bars), and the state with the worst budget crisis in the nation, I have to nominate at least one Illinois journo to the list of most left-biased. Naturally, there are several from which to choose.There's the lightweight Richard Roeper whose prosaic columns appear in the Chicago Sun-Times. It was Roeper who once said, "I just couldn't shake hands and smile with President Bush," and who has reveled in attacking Sarah Palin. Two more Sun-Timesians in the running would be the angry Laura Washington who never met a man or a white person she seems to like and the equally race-baiting Mary Mitchell who finds a way to make every story of the day about how racism or sexism still pervades all aspects of America. The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn must also get special mention for being pleased that the modern media wasn't around to hound Teddy Kennedy off the public stage for killing Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969.
But the king of left-wing lunacy in the Windy City has to be Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Steinberg is a dogged abortion advocate, supports Mayor Richard "King" Daley's unconstitutional gun ban, and has a real affinity for slamming conservatives. In short he believes in every left-wing trope in the book. And he seems to really dislike tea party folks, too.
Last August, for instance, Steinberg charged that tea party attendees and anti-Obamacare activists were a "kind of fifth column, an enemy within trying to undermine the operation of our government." He maintained that folks on the right were just "bitter McCain backers" that "oppose Obama at every turn" apparently out of pure, racist spite. Steinberg obviously cannot grasp that there are real American principles behind opposition to Obama's wild expansion of big government.
Also, in April of '09, Steinberg claimed that tea party protesters were not speaking out against an out-of-control government, but were instead "speaking out against our military and our vets."
Warming to his point, Steinberg misleadingly claimed that more than a quarter of our federal budget "supports our military and takes care of aging vets." However, at the time of his column, only 9% of the budget went to the Dept. of Veteran Affairs to support "aging veterans." One had to add the 16% of the federal budget that went to pay for the military itself to get that 9% anywhere near the 25% Steinberg was touting.
But even if his numbers were right, the fact is that tea party activists are not protesting ALL government spending. They are protesting illegitimate government spending. Few tea party goers are against military spending.
All this moral superiority about caring for the little people, fairness, and women's rights is interesting from a guy that was arrested for domestic battery in 2005 after an altercation with his own wife.
Typical of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do liberalism.
Steinberg's columns are always filled with a general, textbook leftism that is as predictable as it is hardcore. Neil Steinberg definitely belongs on any list of biased journos, and so he pops in on my unscientific list at number 10.
Stay tuned over the succeeding days as we count down to the number one most biased journalist. (Originally posted at BigJournalism.com)
© Warner Todd Huston
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