Foley Scandal - Liberal Media Bias Myth, Part 473

While I find the Mark Foley scandal to be a distraction from the real issues facing this country, the media coverage of the lurid affair is in full GOP-spin mode and seems to be providing that side of the story, baseless as it is, without any reference to the known facts. Media Matters for America has a page dedicated to the scandal here, and at last count, there were 55 items listed. Jamison Foser’s weekly Media Matters column also has an excellent analysis of CNN’s performance covering the Foley affair.

Let’s look at a few salient facts in this scandal that seem to go unreported whenever any republican/conservative blowhard or politician is allowed to speak on this topic.

Fact: The original source of the e-mails was a former GOP aide who has been characterized as a “longtime republican” by both The Hill and ABC News.

Fact: The e-mails were first published on a website dedicated to stopping sexual predators.

Fact: GOP leadership has known about Foley’s behavior for some time, but never addressed it.

Even though these facts are well established, the media continues to allow conservatives like Dennis Hastert to push conspiracy theories stating that the scandal has been orchestrated by Democrats and possibly financed by George Soros. Hastert even invoked the name of Bill Clinton, the right’s favorite punching bag, and suggested that people associated with him might have had something to do with the disclosure of the e-mails. These claims are baseless and false, yet the average American might not know that if his source of news was CNN or Fox. Even this Reuters story is heavily slanted toward the GOP spin: Many conspirators seen behind Foley scandal.

Where’s that liberal media bias when you need it? Of course, it doesn’t exist, unless your definition of bias is the reporting of facts that are inconvenient to the Republican party line. So, in the liberal media bias world (like the one that the Media Research Center lives in), the simple reporting of the facts in the Foley story is evidence of said bias. However, notice how the “liberal” media have turned the story on its head by promoting the story line that Democrats have engineered the scandal during the election season for political gain. Other conservative and religious figures have gone on record blaming our permissive culture for allowing Gay and Lesbians to be accepted in society. Some people have even blamed the boys involved.

This perfectly highlights the difference between the perception of liberal media bias and conservative media bias. Liberal media bias is the reporting of facts that don’t align with the GOP view of the world; conservative media bias is misinformation and lies that are uncritically reported and allowed to stand as truth. You decide which is going on in the Foley scandal.

Last night while driving home, I was searching for traffic reports on AM radio when I came upon one of the least intelligent voices in our media today, Sean Hannity. What possessed me to listen to the man for a few minutes, I don’t know, but here is a recap of what I heard. Hannity’s diatribe was in the context of the Foley scandal and he was referring to a Gay Pride parade in San Francisco some years ago when a controversial leader in the Gay Community, whose name I didn’t quite get, was marching. Apparently, this particular man is an advocate of older men having sexual relationships with teenage boys, so presumably Mark Foley’s behavior wouldn’t be offensive to this person. Well, also marching in this particular Gay Pride parade in San Francisco, and apparently in relative proximity to the aforementioned controversial figure, was California Representative Nancy Pelosi.

At this point, Hannity stated something to the effect of “I wonder if the media are going to report this” with that tone of his indicating that he knows full well that they won’t. So, Nancy Pelosi was marching in a parade with a man who endorses sexual relations between older men and teenage boys. In Hannity World, this must mean that:

a) Nancy Pelosi endorses Mark Foley’s behavior.
b) Mark Foley is a Democrat (as mis-identified by both Fox and AP!).
c) Mark Foley is Nancy Pelosi in disguise.
d) All of the above

Is Hannity this much of a simpleton? Well, yeah, but that’s not my point. Just because one appears at an event with other people doesn’t mean that one assumes and endorses the views of everyone at that event. If David Duke appears at a Republican event, is every Republican at the event a racist who endorses the KKK? No, and Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have any culpability in the Foley scandal no matter how much the intellectually challenged Sean Hannity wants to try and suggest it.

The most glaring omission in media coverage in this affair is the questioning of Republicans over why they didn’t do anything about Foley when they have known about his behavior for years? The answer to that question is rather simple, yet repugnant. The Republican Party isn’t about doing the right thing – it’s about doing whatever it takes to stay in power. The Foley scandal is just the latest example of that mission in action. It’s too bad that the mission to stay in power is incongruent with doing the right thing.