How The '90s Boom Was And Wasn't Covered

Former Reagan press secretary Larry Speakes identified the importance of repetition as a propaganda technique when he said, "If you tell the same story five times, it’s true." This propaganda technique is still in force as conservatives keep pushing the tired myth of a liberal media.

Ironically, the supposed liberal media has cooperated fully, giving conservative media critics such as Ann Coulter and Bernard Goldberg widespread attention for flimsily evidenced diatribes about 'liberals' like Dan Rather and Katie Couric tilting coverage to suit their personal beliefs. Meanwhile, this same supposedly liberal bastion has somehow ignored the substantial critiques of the media from writers such as Norman Solomon, Mark Crispin Miller and Robert McChesney, who document the increasing pro-corporate tilt in media coverage and ownership in recent years.

If anything, watching Wall Street’s ongoing meltdown and our shrinking net worth should help us recognize that the glaring bias in news, especially on economic issues, is a conservative one that allowed the current financial crisis to simmer below the surface until it boiled over into its current chaos.