FoxNews.com, please define “ignored”

One of the reasons right-wing media criticism is often so pointless is that it's so obviously an exercise is partisan propaganda and has so little to do with actual journalism or legitimate criticism. An evergreen tell-tale sign of that is the habitual year-end moaning about beloved right-wing news stories that the press “ignored.” The problem is that in so many cases, right-wingers point to stories that were, in truth, covered incessantly. GOP critics just like to pretend the stories were ignored, which then allows them to mouth more empty allegations about the so-called liberal media.

We already mocked Big Government for claiming last year's ACORN story was “ignored” by the press. (In truth, I found nearly 3,000 “ACORN” news accounts on Nexis.) More recently joining in on the pity party was FoxNews.com, which chronicled the top nine news stories that were “ignored” by the mainstream media. And yes, the massively over-covered ACORN story was among the top finishers.

Also making the list was the Tea Party movement and the rallies that were staged. Yep, according to FoxNews.com, the mainstream media “ignored” the Tea Party story last year. Funny, because if you search Nexis for 2009 you'll find nearly 2,500 Tea Party-related news articles and mentions.

So just between ACORN and the Tea Parties, the mainstream media “ignored” the stories to the tune of 5,500 reports last year.

Good to know.

UPDATED: Also humorous was the the FoxNews.com claim that the liberal mainstream media “ignored” a December study out of George Mason Univ. that indicated more federal stimulus money was being spent in Democratic Congressional districts vs. GOP ones. And yes, in truth the story received just minor pick up. The funny part though, was that among the news outlets that “ignored” the study was the right-wing Washington Times, which apparently is in on the massive media conspiracy to underplay GOP news.

I'm sure glad FoxNews.com outed the Washington Times for its failed coverage.