Mika Brzezinski: The Media Does Have A Liberal Bias — “That’s Why We Have Fox”

by Rachel Sklar | 1:38 pm, January 19th, 2010

» 20 comments

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski was a guest on Julie Menin’s Give & Take and she had a lot to say about the opinion media — that is to say, the media who pretend they’re not the opinion media. Said Brzezinski of the media establishment: “I will say what people aren’t saying: It’s got a liberal worldview.”

Brzezinski said that though “there are great people working at the networks,” who work hard to remain objective, they are mostly Democrats — and it shows. “The balance is not there within the objective mainstream media. It’s not. It is not.” Brzezinski drew a distinction between those well-intentioned, if biased, colleagues and the “cartoonish” figures on the right and the left of the cable news divide, saying that she and her colleagues at Morning Joe make an effort to avoid those one-dimensional characterizations: “We try to be transparent about who we are and where we come from, and what our worldview is and what our knowledge base is on every issue. And we are not trying to be anything more than what we are. And that is extremely honest.”

When asked by host Julie Menin if liberal bias was “seeping into the coverage” Brzezinski said emphatically that yes, it was, and suggested that journalists should declare their political affiliation — and who they voted for in the last election. “Come on, are you telling me that a reporter for a great news organization does not have opinions?” said Brzezinski. “Every reporter, every anchor, every human being that is a personality on television has opinions, and has a worldview and has a slant.” Brzezinski said that audiences would appreciation the media rejecting the pretense of objectivity and declaring bias, saying “We have [to] know that the viewer’s smart about that, and if you are fair and you are looking for the truth, you can be trusted. And you’ve got to be honest.

“The reason why we’ve got these extremes is a reaction to the “objective” mainstream media, that is so not objective when you have most of them being Democrats, or liberals, running it. That’s why we have Fox. Because it wasn’t honest. And because there was a reaction out there to this.”

Julie Menin’s Give and Take airs on WNBC’s new 24-hour news channel, New York Nonstop, on Sundays at 7pm Eastern. See Mediaite’s Rachel Sklar on Julie Menin’s Give and Take here.

Julie Menin, Julie Menin's Give and Take, Mika Brzezinski Julie Menin, Mika Brzezinski Liberal Bias, Mika Brzezinski Media Bias, Mika Brzezinski Morning Joe

http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

Alllllright, Mika! YOU GET IT! Or, I should say, you’re honest about it — I’m sure many more than you get it, but don’t have the guts to say it (primarily your MSNBC colleague David Shuster, busted on live TV in front of you by Joe Scarborough). I’m sure you remember this moment, you looked VERY uncomfortable.
blueblogger

Mika is brainwashed by her friend Joe S. I used to watch Joe when he had his own show on MSNBC but his ego has grown so big it takes all of the air out of the room in the morning. He has become just another loud mouth on TV. I agree that most of the media has not been objective. The answer to this however, is not FOX News. Fox is less objective than any other media or should I say entertainment (news) networks.
dhg

She’s closer to real than some but not enough.She suggests Democrats and MSNBC has less bias and “cartoonish” people than Fox right after Olbermann makes cartoonish look sane and normal.she suggests her own network is less biased than Fox when even dayside with the likes of Schuster et al is biased and unapologetically so.No journalist at a biased network is truly unbiased and unaffected by their own network’s bias.No biased reporting is truly justifiable and acceptable.No reporter’s opinions should be a part of the story or BE the story.
http://trickletown.vox.com/ Trickletown

@blueblogger…you completely missed Mika’s point. She didn’t declare FNC the “answer” to anything. She simply stated the obvious truth. FNC exists because the MSM is completely driven by a leftward leaning ideology. Mika brainwashed by Scarborough? Not a chance. Mika has my respect.
m

Well. It took Fox News 12 years before they conceded the fact that they were a conservative media outlet. They still use the slogan “fair and balanced”. I don’t consider them a good example of any form of “balance”.
liberalontogeny

Fox has bias, so does MSNBC. WSJ has bias, so does NYT.

Fox has bias, of course but not “less” objective than any other media or “entertainment news networks. I don’t think Mika was stating Fox was the answer to non-objective media. Believe she’s stating that media in general bias to the left and thus left open the opportunity for Fox News to offer a conservative bias for those that wanted that.

Up to President Obama’s election, Pew stated Fox more objective than MSNBC in covering the two Pres candidates. But both had bias. The 1st chart summarizes:

MSNBC vs. Fox
63% say news orgs inaccurate in their news coverage

Other recent Pew studies on cable news:

74% say news bias to a political side
63% say news orgs inaccurate in their news coverage

Demographics of who watches which cable news show. Fox high in republican viewers, MSNBC high in democrat viewers.

cable news demographics
germ

Wow, that first graph really does say it all.
Fidoohki

I’ve always said Foxnews is the ‘fairest and most balanced’ of the lot. Also I’m glad Mika is telling like it is.

Signed Fidoohki
one year Morning Joe watcher and going!
The Real Royal King

Brzezinski’s concern is not really the programming slant, but the lack of disclosure. I think that’s a phantom problem. We’ve known the slant since programming began. We know to compensate. What I find so terribly amusing has been FOX’s insistence on its fairness and balance. FOX has an inherent inferiority complex, it is apparent. Rather than simply confess it is America’s rightist news outlet, not a dishonorable thing in the least, FOX turns this all into a very poor joke. FOX has a pronounced rightist tile, MSNBC has progressive leanings. Good. We’re richer for it. CNN is, more or less, pure news oriented, NPR, PBS, BBC World, more so. All is well. Better is FOX dropped the laughable and unnecessary pretense.
Facebook User

Joseph Holmes: I don’t care what team you like or what political party you belong to. I don’t care if you are the biggest Yankee fan in the world or if you hate the brunins. We must tip or hats to the people of Massachusetts for taking the first step in taking back our country!!!!!!!!
thelowedown

Well, for the media to be “fair & balanced” and objective we can’t have “right-wing news” or “left-wing news.” What we have to have is reporters and journalists that seek out facts, regardless of how they think. A perfect example of the personal views seeping into coverage is all of the human interest and soft stories. Always full of opinions. Democrat, Republican, conservative, or liberal, a reporter can be aggressive with reporting and not let their beliefs slip into stories and become biased. What happens is so-called reporters just want to push the ideology whenever they can. O’Reilly, Olbermann, etc. Hannity & Maddow who pose as commentators but love running hit job “journalism” pieces. FNC is not a reaction to the liberal media, it is a home for conservative media. The charade of fair and balanced was always wrong the way they presented. Yes, they balanced out the rest of the media, but they were far from fair or balanced. What we need is not a fairness doctrine type situation, but smart, intelligent, entertaining people who aren’t afraid of others opinions. That is one reason I always liked watching Tucker on MSNBC. Al Sharpton, Marion Barry, Lanny Davis, Ed Schultz, etc. were regular Tucker guests. Tucker always had a fun time and a great debate. I heard everyone’s opinions and everyone wasn’t full of hot air. Those are the types of shows we need.
sarainitaly

tellin’ it like it is, GO MIka! I always liked her. Didn’t always agree with her, but I like her. And I like Joe. I love the Morning Joe program, I just wish they streamed it live on the internet.

I have been saying the same thing for 2 years now.

I used to HATE FOX, but that was before I watched it. I just listened to what the left said about FOX. Now I watch it, and I found out most of the trash talk is total BS.
http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

blueblogger wrote:

Mika is brainwashed by her friend Joe S.

Wow! What an amazing job Joe has been able to do, taking the daughter of Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor and turning her around!

Not being a daily Morning Joe viewer, I can’t rule that out, although IMHO she’s always been more fair than the median MSNBC personality Watch this, and see her at 3:28.
blueblogger

Well LNS you should watch some morning and just take note of how Mika googles her eyes at Joe. Like he is her hero. Her mouth says one thing and her body language completely gives all of that away. Yes, I know who her father is and maybe that is why she likes Joe so much!!! Big time DADDY issues. Ehhh maybe brainwashed was a little over the top now that you mention it but certainly something isn’t right there. I watched Mika way before Joe and she is a different person.
Fidoohki

I started watching Morning joe after the 2008 elections. That week before the election on Fox and Friends left such a bad taste in my mouth I couldn’t watch them anymore. I was at the point where I was wondering when they were going to say that Obama kicked puppies and kittens then tore the tags off of mattresses! After that
I watched Morning joe until 8am ever since. After that .. The west wing!:)
blueblogger

Fidoohki the West Wing. Now that is a very telling statement. I live in Florida and we are still wondering what happened to that woman found dead in Joe’s office when he was a politican. Yes, it has been years but people still talk about it.
http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

Mika serves a PURPOSE — to sit there and spout her LIB NONSENSE until Joe Scarborough finally has enough and says, “SHUT UP WOMAN!!1″ And then lays the TRUTH SMACKDOWN on her!!1 Actually Joe is much too LIBERAL for my tastes … he actually FINDS FAULT with the Bush Administration and occasionally SUPPORTS the decisions that “our” SOCIOFASCIST Kenyan Muslin president makes!!1 But he’s a tiny RAY OF SUNSHINE over there on MS-PEE-ON-ME!!!11
blueblogger

Oh my Karl you are a tuff one. I guess you don’t think he is YOUR president?? I think you are one of the posters that like to come on and think you are getting people all stirred up. Most of the posters are too smart to fall for you routine.
sarainitaly

i skip them…
Fidoohki

blueblogger says:
January 19, 2010 at 6:25 pm

I admit I have never heard about that. As for the West Wing, I loved that show. While I disagreed
with some of the potrayals and views there, it was an incredable drama. It also had some brilliant
insights into the nature of our country.