MoveOn.org, The New York Post and Media's Double Standard

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Perhaps the press is busy thumbing through their encyclopedias to recall who Goebbels and his henchmen were.

There was no such hesitation in their castigation of MoveOn.org. Taking their cue from RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, who falsely accused the activist website of 'sponsoring' the two ads in question, The Wall Street Journal joined Bill O'Reilly, Matt Drudge and many others to demand apologies from MoveOn. In a piece that was subsequently carried by dozens of news outlets, the Associated Press picked up on the story, quoting Gillespie's characterization of the MoveOn project as 'the worst and most vile form of political hate speech.' Gillespie, has since been welcomed by nearly every TV talk show in Washington to rail further against the group.

MoveOn.org did not 'sponsor,' edit, or willingly publish the Hitler-Bush ad segments. The group has since removed the ads, which weren't among the 15 finalists chosen as part of their political advertising competition. MoveOn.org founder Wes Boyd released a statement in which MoveOn members admitted their mistake, agreed that the two ads in question were in poor taste and regretted that they slipped through the organization's screening process.

The New York Post, on the other hand, did commission, edit and willfully publish Peters' diatribe, and in doing so they condoned Peters' slanderous tactics. And yet the Murdoch-owned daily newspaper remains immune to the type of media lynching that has been lowered upon MoveOn.org.

There is still no admission of regret or error from the editors of the right-leaning daily. Worse, no other news organization, including those that so eagerly reported on the MoveOn.org misstep, have cared to cover this serious transgression at the hands of The New York Post.

Who said there is a liberal bias in mainstream media? It appears that the only bias mainstream media have is towards protecting their own.

Ask your favorite news outlet to explain the double standard. And contact the editors at The New York Post (letters@nypost.com) to demand a higher standard of journalism in 2004.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print