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Newsbusters scrapes the bottom of the barrel

July 27, 2009 12:08 pm ET by Jamison Foser

Newsbusters' Brent Baker provides still more evidence that the conservative media critique is fundamentally absurd.  Baker is upset that "Time magazine's online staff certainly undermined any notion of impartiality in how they littered the posted version of this week's cover story, 'Inside Bush and Cheney's Final Days,' with the links they chose to display between paragraphs and at page breaks of the article."

Baker's first example?  

Others, however, reflected hostility and/or derision toward the two key players in the story, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, starting with "Visit RottenTomatoes.com for reviews of W., Oliver Stone's 2008 portrait of George W. Bush" and "Read 'Leahy's Plan to Probe Bush-Era Wrongdoings.'"

Wow.  That's Baker's strongest evidence that Time's link package demonstrated liberal bias?  The fact that a Time article about Bush mentions the fact that the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering investigations into Bush-era wrongdoing?  A link to a movie review web site?  Pretty weak stuff.  But Baker's argument gets weaker from there:

The "See the top 10 unfortunate political one-liners" link goes to a collection which includes George H.W. Bush's pledge to not raise taxes: "Read my lips: no new taxes."

Baker forgets to mention this, but the list also includes two Bill Clinton quotes and one each from LBJ and Jimmy Carter.  What the heck is Baker's point?

Baker:

The link for "See pictures of polarizing politicians on LIFE.com" brings readers to a collection which has Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Al Sharpton, but also George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani and Ronald Reagan.   

OH MY GOD!  THE BIAS!  IT BURNS!

Wait.  Uh ... what?  That's an "Anti-Bush and Cheney Potshot Link"?

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    • Author by magnolialover (July 27, 2009 12:39 pm ET)
         
      They really will basically make anything up to show an alleged "bias" won't they?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by shaggles (July 27, 2009 12:46 pm ET)
      1 1
      I thought Newsbusters was the bottom of the barrel?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by seeryer (July 27, 2009 1:00 pm ET)
      1 1
      This idiot probably never even saw Stone's W. It was a puff piece that treated W with kid gloves. I liked the movie because I love the genre but I thought Stone was very respectful of Bush. The movie basically makes the point that W was driven to run for office to prove his Dad wrong and once he got there he seemed to let everyone else make the big decisions. Nothing was W's fault, it was the fault of all those around him. Barf.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by shaggles (July 27, 2009 1:25 pm ET)
           
        That's what I heard about it too. I haven't seen it but I assumed it to be true based on the fact that the right wing media wasn't hyperventalating over it when it came out.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (July 27, 2009 3:03 pm ET)
          1  
          The link for "See pictures of polarizing politicians on LIFE.com" brings readers to a collection which has Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Al Sharpton, but also George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani and Ronald Reagan.

          This is, in a nutshell, what many conservatives in the media (as well as posters at this site) consider liberal bias. Anything that criticizes both the left and the right.

          Once the brain has been conditioned to think that a "news" network that's a 24/7 infomercial for the GOP is "fair and balanced", it can be made to believe all kinds of crazy stuff.
          Report Abuse
      • Author by MickD (July 27, 2009 3:04 pm ET)
           
        I found Stone's "Nixon" to be much better but with "W." I didn't think Stone had any focus. He let the events unfold and the rehashing of major events were rather sad than polarizing, but there wasn't much meat for anybody in that picture.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by seeryer (July 27, 2009 4:18 pm ET)
             
          Nixon is probably my favorite movie. I wish Stone would have let time pass and really dug in to W like he did Nixon. Millhouse was Stone's W, meaning, he was much more suspicous of Nixon due to his own experiences. Maybe in 20 or 30 years a man or woman effected by the so called war on terror will sink their teeth into W like Stone did Nixon. However, Nixon was a much more complicated and historic figure than Bush has been. Stone may have hated Nixon's politics but he was certainly fascinated by the man. I don't think he feels that way about Bush.
          Report Abuse
    • Author by LIBERTY OR DEATH (July 27, 2009 2:23 pm ET)
         
      Time magazine is a waste of time.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by open_mind (July 27, 2009 3:34 pm ET)
      1 1
      To Newsbusters it has been clear for quite some time that anything not taking as its premise that George W. Bush was chosen by God to be our President and Savior is "anti-Bush".
      Report Abuse
    • Author by garcut (July 27, 2009 3:36 pm ET)
      1  
      This is funny, Media Matters criticizing a conservative site for doing the same thing they do on a daily basis. Ever hear the saying, the pot calling the kettle black. This site twists things so often there is not enough time in the day to point out every distortion they use to make everything democrat good, republican bad.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by historygeek001 (July 27, 2009 3:51 pm ET)
        1  
        You really have trouble reading context, don't you? MMfA thoroughly documents their pieces. When you claim that they're doing the same thing that Newsbusters does, you 1) admit that Newsbusters twists facts and 2) reveal that you don't want to face facts you don't like. Follow the links on MMfA; they document what they say and post the quotes in context. That's not twisting the facts, that's pointing them out. The fact that you don't like them doesn't have any bearing on reality unless you honestly believe that facts have a liberal bias (in which case I feel sorry for you and hope your doctors are quite skilled).

        Next, look at the mission statement for this site. They ONLY correct conservative misinformation; they're not a news site. I'll repeat it in case you didn't understand: MMfA exists to point out news items that were not presented accurately. This site wouldn't exist without neocon dishonesty.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by steeve (July 27, 2009 7:09 pm ET)
           
        No examples. Again. Shove off.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by mrhebert74 (July 27, 2009 11:40 pm ET)
           
        Understand you're talking to a conservative here. In his (or her) mind, if Newsbusters SAYS the media have left-wing BIAS, that is the same as DOCUMENTING instances of right-wing MISINFORMATION. You see, to the conservative, it amounts to the same thing: X says Y is bad. Note that it doesn't even matter whether one is false and one is true.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by bilbo_dies (July 27, 2009 4:56 pm ET)
         
      Since I didn't code the Time website I can't answer for them but; normally most of those links are autogenerated. They use key words out of the article to generate associated links to different sites and advertisers. With the way web pages are today you can't afford the time to decide which links/ads goes where, so you do it through coding. Does it sometimes come up with some unfortunate links? As Palin would say: "You Betcha!"

      If you want to test, pay attention the next time that you follow a story link and see what all the associated links and ads show.
      Report Abuse

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