Feedback Frenzy

Note: Regular readers of this blog likely know that Judge Richard Posner is a friend of mine. I thought I'd mention it again in case anyone thinks I'm biased. I doubt it makes much difference, though, since, knowing the Judge, I also know that he doesn't mind honest criticism. However, in the present case, I'm generally on his side.

Yesterday (scroll down) I discussed Bill Keller's complaints about Richard Posner's essay on the media. The funny thing is when I first reviewed Posner's review a month ago, I personally thought it would anger the right more than the left. Perhaps it did. But the letters The New York Times Book Review published seem to indicate the opposite--I wonder why?

Anyway, the letters are interesting in that they're all pretty much arguing past Posner. Let's ignore Keller this time, and also Eric Alterman who simply makes the same (bad) arguments he always makes that media bias favors the right.

That leaves letters by a certain Bob Hoffman, a certain Bill Holm, and Bill Moyers, who needs no introduction.

Let me reproduce Hoffman in full:

The photos selected to accompany Richard Posner's essay say far more about media bias than the words do. The conservatives — Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and Trent Lott — look like clowns. The liberals — Dan Rather and Bill Moyers — look serious and intelligent.

This is the NYT's sole representative from the right. Perhaps no one from the right wrote anything lengthy worth quoting. We'll never know.

Meanwhile, Holm is angered at Posner's belief that average citizens are not well-informed regarding political issues. Holm's says he is and I don't doubt him. But Holm's asserts his neighbors, near and far, are just as smart. I wish we could believe him, but the evidence seems better on Posner's side. (There are economic reasons for this in any free democracy, by the way--Posner doesn't have to condescend to the public by buttering them up, but he also doesn't have to feel he's insulting them by telling the truth.)

Finally, let's look at what Moyers has to say, and it's plenty:

Over the past three years, on the PBS series ''Now With Bill Moyers,'' my colleagues and I....laid bare one abuse of power after another — corporate, political and governmental. We reported on the misrepresentation and distortions leading up to the invasion of Iraq. We reported on troops sent to war with inadequate armor, while billions are spent on exotic and expensive Pentagon weapons that don't work. We reported on wounded veterans poorly treated upon their return, on conflicts of interest in the Department of the Interior, on the evisceration of the Freedom of Information Act and on offshore tax havens that enable wealthy interests to avoid their fair share of national security and the social contract. We reported on campaign contributions that skew legislation to deprive regular workers and taxpayers of their livelihood and security. We reported on overpricing at Halliburton, chicanery on K Street and the heavy, if divinely guided, hand of Tom DeLay. And — because what people know depends on who owns the press — we reported time and again on how megamedia companies are driving journalism down the hierarchy of corporate values, silencing critics while shutting communities off from essential information, and secretly lobbying the F.C.C. for deals that could not survive public scrutiny.

So Moyers took the money given him for an informational show on the people's airwaves and made sure it was all left, all the time. Thanks for the admission, Bill.

ColumbusGuy says: LAGuy, you're becoming a positive fiend on this press bias stuff.

LAGuy: That's the irony--this isn't really about press bias, but that's how everyone responds to it.