Around 10 years ago, on the heels of the GOP impeachment witchhunt of Bill Clinton and subsequent rigged election of George W. Bush, I started to turn away from the traditional media and embrace alternative views and sources of news on the internet.
At that time I had no clue what a "blogger" was, nor did I have any inkling that I would one day become one myself. Nevertheless, as I surfed the web in those depressing days, anxiously trying to find political viewpoints other than the full of shit pap I was getting from the mainstream print, television and radio news, I ran across a couple of blogs called Media Whores Online! (MWO) and bartcop.com. MWO went away (mysteriously?) after a couple of years, but bartcop soldiered on - giving voice and empowerment to we liberals who were forsaken and wandering the political media wilderness.
I remember distinctly one of the very first posts I ever read on bartcop was bart's The Myth of the "liberal" media rant. It was sweet music to this forlorn liberal's eyes and ears to see someone express in writing every thing I always knew, but never heard anyone dare say, about the state of the media in America.
I was smitten.
10 years later I still have that bartcop page bookmarked in my various web browsers, even though I have probably gone through a dozen computers during that time. It is a Picassoesque masterpiece, and the fact that Keith Olbermann recently gave kudos to this inimitable bartcop screed on his MSNBC show, underscores the importance of it's content and the relevance that it has to what is going on in America today.
Therefore - as a one-fingered (stated with liberal brotherhood in mind) salute and with much deference I offer this revised, updated version as a symbol to bartcop of this one reader's devotion to the man and his modest, albeit noble, mission statement:
WELCOME TO BARTCOP.COM: A modem, a smart mouth and the truth
Bart - please forgive me for taking liberties with your proprietary material. It is done to honor your contribution to the good side of the cause - nothing more, nothing less.
And without further adieu -- here is my updated version of bartcop's The Myth of the "liberal" media:
The Myth of the "liberal" media:
Let's do a "what if" so I can make a point. I think it's a good one.
I think it's so good, I'd like to hear from anyone who disagrees.
What if a show like ABC's Nightline did a "hatchet job" on Sarah Palin? It wouldn't have to really be a hatchet job, but any honest appraisal of that idiot's qualifications would prove conclusively that she's a non-thinking, out of touch extremist - and that's all. But honestly - what would happen if Nightline did a deliberately unflattering, mean-spirited portrait of Palin?
I'll tell you what would happen:
Rush Limbaugh would spend days on his radio show saying it wasn't true and offer hours of rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Bill O'Reilly would spend at least two hours on both his radio and television shows saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Sean Hannity would spend at least two hours on both his radio and television shows, saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Glenn Beck would have a stroke spending at least two hours on both his radio and television shows, saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Megyn Kelly would spend at least an hour on her show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Greta Van Susteren would spend at least an hour on her show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Neil Cavuto would spend at least an hour on his show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes would spend at least an hour on their show saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Brit Hume would spend at least an hour on his Sunday show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Juan Williams and Mara Liason would cower like the phony liberals they are saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
John McLaughlin would spend at least an hour on his syndicated show saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Chris Matthews would spend at least an hour on his show, with his hand in his lap, drooling over Palin and saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
G. Gordon Liddy would spend at least three hours on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Fox and Friends would spend at least an hour on their morning show saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Michael Medved would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Sam and Cokie would spend at least an hour on This Week
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos would spend all morning swearing that it wasn't true, and offering rebuttals as to why Nightline was lying.
Bob Schieffer would spend at least an hour on his show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
David Gregory would spend at least an hour on Meet the Press
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Dennis Prager would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Michael Reagan would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Larry Elder would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Mike Gallagher would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Oliver North would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Larry Kudlow would spend at least an hour on his CNBC show giving shitty financial advice and saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Michael Savage would spend at least an hour on his radio show curb stomping puppies and saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Ann Coulter would spend at least an hour on whatever Fox News show she could get her suspiciously masculine adam's apple on saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Still with me? We're close to the end...
Brian Williams would spend at least an hour on his news show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Katie Couric would spend at least an hour on her news show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Andrea Mitchell would spend at least an hour on her news show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Wolf Blitzer would spend at least an hour on The Situation Room saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Candy Crowley would spend at least an hour on The State of the Union saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
Bill Schneider and Candy Crowley would do an hour special on CNN
saying it wasn't true, and offering rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.
John Stossel would have an hour long special on Fox: "Is lying OK for liberals?"
Howard Kurtz would write a column and spend 30 minutes on Reliable Sources asking if the media wasn't being too hard on a simple, decent, down-to-earth hockey mom.
CNN would re-hire Rick Sanchez, make him apologize to the Jews, then let him spend an hour on his new/old show offering rebuttal as to why Nightline is lying.
Armstrong Williams would accept a $240,000 under the table payment to promote legislation that is designed to ensure that Congress never, ever again takes up debate on The Fairness Doctrine.
Newt Gingrich would start a PAC by exhorting donors to fund his television and lecture appearances to offer rebuttals as to why Nightline is lying.
Andrew Breitbart would publish a deceitfully edited video of some of his hired thugs posing as reporters and purportedly getting Nightline producers to admit they were lying and every mainstream media outlet would play it without rebuttal or question.
Michelle Malkin would write a book condemning Nightline.
Dinesh D'Souza would write a book condemning Nightline
Ann Coulter would write a book condemning Nightline.
Charles Krauthammer would write a book condemning Nightline.
Kathleen Parker would write a book condemning Nightline.
Laura Ingraham would write a book condemning Nightline.
Peggy Noonan would write a book condemning Nightline.
Andrew Sullivan would write a book condemning Nightline.
Ross Douthat would write a book condemning Nightline.
Jonah Goldberg would write a book condemning Nightline.
Glenn Beck would write a sappy soft porn fiction novel with a storyline condemning Nightline.
Every single regional AM radio station would put their 24x7 right wing, screeching talking heads to work on their talk shows offering rebuttal after rebuttal after rebuttal as to why Nightline is lying.
Karl Rove, Dick Armey and Glenn Beck, funded by millions of unreported dollars from Texas oil billionaires, will form a 3rd political party which they claim is motivated only by patriotism and love of the constitution, call themselves the Tea Party, field extremist, fundamentalist nutcase candidates and convince Idiocracy Americans to vote for these lying, fascist fuckers entirely against their own economic interests and they would cow the execs at ABC to have Nightline removed from the air.
OK, we're going to call the above "Exhibit A."
Now, everyone on that list has done at least a dozen hit pieces on a major Democrat.
My question is ---- Where is "Exhibit B?"
When all of those conservative hacks and media outlets attack Democrats, who in the mainstream media does the rebuttal for the Democrat?
Even you sloth-brained right wingers have to admit that nobody on that list has fucking EVER - EVUH! defended a fabricated lie against a Democrat.
There is no "Exhibit B," because there are so few liberal/progressive voices on television and radio. The closest you can get is Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and Bill Maher for a few months out of the year on HBO. But, undeniably, there is barely a liberal whisper on television or radio, because the fact of the fucking matter is that most of the public airwaves airtime is hogged up by DOZENS & DOZENS of bloviating, lying, right-wing, misinforming, apologist shows whose sole livelihood is making shit up about and smearing liberals and Democrats -- and always cowardly un-rebutted!
I am unflinchingly confident that you conservative zombies cannot offer a truthful explanation to this mind-numbingly obvious, eyeball melting double standard.
Many thanks for doing what you do bart and keep that big, beautiful, fucking mean ass, Knuckledrag USA hammer pounding.
----k
