Keith Olbermann Destroys the Myth of Liberal Media Bias

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Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:05 pm

On his MSNBC program Countdown host Keith Olbermann got on the subject of liberal media bias while discussing Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly’s outrage at being mentioned on Law and Order: SVU. Olbermann said, “There is no liberal media. The media which is after all owned by corporations naturally leans to the right.”

Here is the video:

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While talking about Andrew Breitbart’s new site, Olbermann said, “Let me give him two windmills to tilt at to start with. There is no liberal media. The media, which is after all owned by corporations, naturally leans to the right. Corporations by definition lean to the right, towards the status quo. If an American media outlet presents a progressive point of view, the right will exploit the media’s tendency to desperately seek balance. If the progressive says Obama was elected president last year, they will mindlessly put in a clip of somebody from the right saying no he wasn’t, it didn’t happen.”

Later Olbermann hammered his point home, “And to paraphrase something from the web from several years ago written by a fellow identifying himself as Bartcop, if Mr. Beck disagrees, or Mr. Goldberg disagrees, or Mr. O’Reilly disagrees, or Mr. Breitbart disagrees and think they are being crushed under the weight of this vast left wing conspiracy, they can go on the Orly Taitz Limbaugh show where Orly will insist that conservatives have no voice in the media, or go on the Sean Hannity show will Sean will insist that conservatives have no voice in the media, or go on Cluster Fox and Friends where Brian Kilmeade will insist that conservatives have no voice in the media, or go on Mike Huckabee’s show, where Mike will insist conservatives have no voice in the media, or go on G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show where G will insist conservatives have no voice in the media, or go on Michael Medved’s show where Michael will insist conservatives have no voice in the media, or go on Mark Levin’s high pitched radio show where Mark will insist conservatives have no high pitched voice in the media, or go on the Neal Boortz show where Neal will insist conservatives have no voice in the media…”

Olbermann goes on for a few minutes to mention every major national conservative voice in the media who will ironically enough all suggest that conservatives have no voice in the media. I don’t buy Olbermann’s claim that Beck, Limbaugh, and O’Reilly incite violence, but he did deliver the best description of why the right wing’s liberal media bias claim is total nonsense.

The whole myth of liberal media bias has been passed down in conservative circles for decades, and like anything else there could have been some truth to it way back when, but in 2009 conservatives dominate the media. One would think that the liberal media bias argument would fall apart simply based on the huge number of conservatives in the media.

However, the right wing always needs to feel persecuted, so they continue to ignore the fact that they control the media, while ranting and raving about the few liberals who left on the media landscape. Olbermann did a great job of point just how quickly this myth falls apart when facts start to be introduced.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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