355 Partisanship in the news

Partisanship is in the eye of the beholder and Peter Johnson of USAToday doesn't see his own. If we were talking splinters and planks here the way the Bible does, he'd be writing in Braille.

Today (June 9) he reports that Fox cable news is partisan because 52% of its viewers consider themselves to be conservatives, compared to 36% of CNN viewers.

But that would make 48% of Fox liberal (or some mix), and 64% of CNN liberal (or some mix), and he doesn't say CNN is liberal, only that Fox is conservative. The audience is certainly more balanced at Fox, even if the news isn't.

I think the figures came from a Pew study, however, Editor and Publisher website presents a different set of statistics also from that study, so who knows?

Political Slogans

I heard a political slogan on the radio today, a joke I assume, that went something like, "George W. Bush wants to buy your vote by doing good things for the country. Don't be fooled."

Also, heard comments on the PBS coverage of the Reagan years which apparently had some footage of protesters and pols after Reagan's get tough, evil empire speeches. The commentator said that if you put Kerry's face on Mondale, who was saying we needed to cooperate with other countries and negotiate, they would have been interchangeable. Also the protestors gathering in Washington appeared to be the same folks as today. Maybe they are.