By unpopular demand, I will write a long post about why I hate standup comedy. In the meantime, though, for purposes of lighthearted fun, I present to you the views of a "moderate Republican," on the issue of ideological media bias.
I do this because I am fair-minded. Below, I accuse the right of not knowing how to tell jokes that have funny punchlines. But I was wrong. I must "give it up" for this. First, the set-up:
Perhaps both conservatives and liberals are correct in their complaints about media bias.
A closer look at the raft of studies on both sides shows an important difference — studies that find conservative bias look at opinion outlets (e.g. talk radio, Sunday morning talk show guests, op-ed pages) while studies that find liberal bias look at news stories and institutional positions (e.g. editorial boards, college faculty).
This indicates that both sides might have a legitimate beef about being marginalized in important sectors of public discourse. And, of course, few on either side will ever admit to even the vaguest possibility of legitimate complaint from the other side. It therefore falls to those individuals who seek non-partisan and non-dogmatic understanding of important issues to self-consciously diversify their sources.
And now, the punchline.
Liberals should seek out and listen to the saner elements of conservative talk radio and conservatives should read the New York Times in addition to the opinion pages at Townhall.com.
Yes, to find sanity in this crazy mixed-up world of ours we must strike a balance, with Townhall and conservative talk radio on the one side, and the New York Times on the other.
Right.
My fourth Iron Law of the Internets: If you look through the Overton window and see Rush Limbaugh's red, nekkid ass, shut the fucking drapes as soon as you can before you go blind.