Partisan Media?

Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan and I were guests today on KWMU, which is hosting us to do part of NPR's special election coverage. A lot of the callers asked about whether the moderation of the debate would be fair; whether the moderator (Gwen Ifill) would, due to the questioning of her wisdom of doing a book on politics in the age of Obama, over-compensate and give Governor Palin a free ride; and whether the media was fair at all.

Later I was sitting watching former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw give some express straight talk on both the government and the media. He called Congresspeople "almost genetically incapable" of dealing with the nation's problems; and said that he was "staggered" by the pandering and partisanship he sees in journalism.

I was a young star-struck CNN political analyst in '96. During one of the conventions, someone asked me for an autorgraph. I gave it. Bernard Shaw was right by me, and the same people asked him for an autograph. He said no, and then he said (in a pointed aside) that the reason he didn't give autographs was because he was a reporter, not a celebrity.

Bernie was grim faced-on air. He was followed by current CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, who sported a furious smile. Dobbs said that Governor Palin was the victime of "a character assasination attempt by the national liberal media."

We journalists report; the citizens decide. How do you grade the media?

Farai Chideya

6:00 PM ET | 10- 2-2008 | permalink

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