An Extraordinary Interview
Driving home tonight, I listened to Hugh Hewitt inerviewing Mark Halperin, political director of ABC News. Since then, I've reviewed the entire transcript here. I would urge you to read the interview, or track down Hugh's podcast of it when it appears at TownHall. It was one of the most remarkable interviews I've listened to in a long time. Remarkable, in part, because Halperin came across very well. He was promoting a book, The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008. But the conversation ranged far beyond the usual book-plugging discourse, and Halperin was much more than a reluctant foil for Hugh's questions.
In fact, on one basic issue that Hugh and Halperin batted back and forth, I'm on Halperin's side: Hugh, as I've said before, is of the view that there is no such thing as unbiased reporting, and so we should all declare our biases and have at it. Halperin defended the more traditional view, with which I agree, that unbiased news coverage (as opposed to commentary or opinion journalism) is an honorable if never fully achievable goal.
Beyond that, though, one stiking feature of the interview was Halperin's ready admission of the liberal bias that pervades old media. Here are a few exchanges; there were more to the same effect:
MH: You’re asking me should people be skeptical? I think anyone who’s conservative should be skeptical of anything the old media does. ***HH: But the old media is overwhelmingly liberal, correct, Mark Halperin?
MH: Correct, as we say in the book.
HH: And so everyone that you work with, or 95% of people you work with, are old liberals.
MH: I don’t know if it’s 95%, and unfortunately, they’re not all old. There are a lot of young liberals here, too. But it certainly, there are enough in the old media, not just in ABC, but in old media generally, that it tilts the coverage quite frequently, in many issues, in a liberal direction, which is completely improper. And it goes from the big and major like CBS’ outrageous story about President Bush’s draft record right before the 2004 election, to the insidious and small use of language describing Nancy Pelosi’s liberal policies and ideas different than they would Newt Gingrich’s conservative ones.
HH: And these liberals…you know, Terry Moran on this program said…Terry Moran on this program from ABC, your colleague…MH: Right.
HH: …said that the media hates the military, has a deep suspicion of it. Do you agree with that?
MH: I totally agree. It’s one of the huge biases, along with gays, guns, abortion, and many other things.
MH: First of all, I never say MSM, because I don’t believe the old media is mainstream. They’re out of the mainstream on most of the issues I’ve been referring to. So I don’t use that phrase. I believe that as I’ve said several times, happy to say again, that anyone who’s conservative in this country has every justification to be skeptical about anything, an internal memo, or product that goes on the air, from the old media, because of a forty year or more history of liberal bias on a range of issues. And after what CBS News did in 2004, regarding the President’s National Guard record, I would be…I am thankful that any conservative looks to us ever for news and information, given how outrageous what they did was.
That kind of honesty deserves to be applauded. As I say, I found Halperin likable and intend to buy his book. Check out the entire interview; it is fascinating and intelligent. The latter quality is especially welcome in the last days of what has mostly been a dispiriting campaign season. I'm reminded once again that the most interesting, informed and entertaining discussion of the day's issues takes place on Hugh's show, Bill Bennett's show, Laura Ingraham's, and a handful of others--maybe even including the Northern Alliance. If you're not listening to these folks, you're missing out on the best dialogue modern political life has to offer.
