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The Axis of Liberalism Marches to Re-elect Obama
Townhall.com ^ | October 11, 2012 | Larry Elder

Posted on 10/11/2012 5:30:49 AM PDT by Kaslin

"I just thought it's too difficult. And you're not going to like this, but my gut feeling is that all the media is against George, Republicans, any Republican." -- Former first lady Barbara Bush, who said she was surprised when her son won the presidency in 2000.

The Axis of Liberalism -- the other AOL -- is the media, academia and Hollywood.

First, the media.

About reporters' reaction to the 2008 Obama campaign, Joan Walsh, editor of the left-wing Salon.com, said, "I was struck, when I got to Iowa and New Hampshire in January, by how our media colleagues were just swooning over Barack Obama. That is not too strong a word. They were swooning." (Emphasis added.)

The Washington Post's ombudsperson, Deborah Howell, examined her own paper's 2008 coverage of the McCain-Obama race. To her credit, she admitted that the Post's reporting and analyses dramatically favored Obama: "The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces about McCain, 58, than there were about Obama, 32, and Obama got the editorial board's endorsement ... .

"Stories and photos about Obama in the news pages outnumbered those devoted to McCain. Reporters, photographers and editors found the candidacy of Obama, the first African American major-party nominee, more newsworthy and historic. ... Some readers thought the Post went over (Sarah) Palin with a fine-tooth comb and neglected (Joe) Biden. They are right."

What about The New York Times, America's most influential newspaper?

The New York Times' ombudsman, Arthur S. Brisbane, also admitted that his paper was biased to the left: "Across the paper's many departments ... so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism -- for lack of a better term -- that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of the Times. As a result, developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage seem almost to erupt in the Times, overloved and undermanaged, more like causes than news subjects."

Most people still get their news from national and local television, and from their local newspapers. Virtually all of the editorial pages of the major newspapers are liberal, and reporters self-describe as liberal far more often than they self-describe as conservative.

The second leg of the AOL is academia.

The American Enterprise Institute examined the political registrations of professors at 20 colleges and universities, representing a cross-section of higher education -- public and private, big and small, in the North, South, East and West. By a more than 13-1 margin, the profs were registered with a party of the left. Many departments had no professors from a right-wing party.

How out-of-touch is academia? Most Americans, for example, oppose reparations for slavery. Not so in academia. Luntz Research Companies polled a cross-section of social science and liberal arts Ivy League professors and found that while only 11 percent of Americans support reparations, 40 percent of Ivy League profs approved.

The California division of the National Association of Scholars recently released a report accusing the University of California of pushing liberalism rather than providing students with an education. Liberal profs, says the NAS report, have turned the UC campuses into "a sanctuary for a narrow ideological segment of the spectrum of social and political ideas."

Brian McHale is an Ohio State University English professor. A senior professor at this publicly supported school, McHale sent an email to fellow profs asking them to allow Obama campaign staffers to come to class and "make a pitch to your students about registering to vote." He added, "If you were willing, the volunteers could also take a couple of extra minutes to see whether they could interest any of your students in volunteering for the Obama campaign themselves."

Look at political contributions of those in the education field. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 82 percent of the donations ($200 or more) to federal candidates and PACs from primary to graduate school educators (not including teachers unions) went to Democrats in 2008.

The third leg in the Axis of Liberalism is Hollywood.

Of the entertainment industry's total contributions of $200 or more, $9.7 million went to Obama in 2008, versus $1.2 million for McCain. DreamWorks mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg has single-handedly raised nearly $7 million for Obama's campaigns and super PACs in the last five years.

Ever wonder why so few sympathetic portrayals of conservatives on the large and small screens? MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, a former Democratic senator's legislative aide and a "West Wing" television show writer, said: "You'll never, ever, get the Republican TV show. The Writers Guild of America, my union, is at a minimum 99 percent leftist liberal and, like me, socialist. And we don't know how to write it. We don't."

Some Republicans wonder why, given this tepid recovery, Romney is not doing better. Given the Axis of Liberalism's power and its hostility toward "the right wing," it is a testament to the strength of ideas that Republicans ever win.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hollywood; liberalism; obama; obamamedia

1 posted on 10/11/2012 5:30:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

They seem to be pretty proud of their lack of integrity.


2 posted on 10/11/2012 5:38:28 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To the left the truth looks like Right-Wing extremism.)
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To: Kaslin

The wife and I were talking about this agin last night. She thinks it is a huge issue, but I don’t. Anyone who at this point is still depending on the Brown SHirt Media for information is a clueless moron.


3 posted on 10/11/2012 5:40:56 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Kaslin
The Axis of Liberalism -- the other AOL -- is the media, academia and Hollywood.

There are more legs.. one we barely escaped it in 2000 -- thanks to of all people Al Gore himself.

This is 2012 and Barack Obama is no Al Gore.

Frum's "Gore Speaks" 19 Nov., 2002 column

KARENNA GORE: [Ms Gore describes the "right wing" crowd outside screaming things like "get out of Vice President Cheney's house"] And my whole attitude was, like, "We've got to fight back harder. And where are our crowds?" And my dad, I'll never forget his response. He said, "We have to do what's best for the country, and it is not good for the country to have this kind of divisiveness.["] And he was on the phone, really calling off the dogs. There were people who wanted to fan the … the flames of the racial issue and have real unrest. And he was on the phone asking them not to, because of what was best for the country not because of what was best for him politically. And that's really who he is.

[Her father Al Gore] was on the phone, really calling off the dogs. There were people who wanted to fan the … the flames of the racial issue and have real unrest. And he was on the phone asking them not to . . . .

What the hell else could that mean? The 1960s Marxist-Alinsky campus radicals (psycho spoiled brats), et al stirred up many a riot in the 1960s. And they have had control of the Democratic Party since the 1970s. Many are on the streets already as OWS.

4 posted on 10/11/2012 5:41:28 AM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: TangoLimaSierra
They seem to be pretty proud of their lack of integrity. "

This describes how the rats look at any election and any opponent daring to challenge them!

"

5 posted on 10/11/2012 5:44:53 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (We are the 53%, who pay taxes and keep this country going inspite of the 47% rat moochers!)
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To: TangoLimaSierra
They seem to be pretty proud of their lack of integrity. "

This describes how the rats look at any election and any opponent daring to challenge them!

"

6 posted on 10/11/2012 5:45:05 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (We are the 53%, who pay taxes and keep this country going inspite of the 47% rat moochers!)
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To: Grampa Dave

The law of the land misused and abused will be replaced by a resurgence of the Law of the Jungle to tip the justice scales back to correct weight


7 posted on 10/11/2012 5:47:34 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

Gore put down the public display but the underground tremors to destroy any opposition to the ‘Progressive’ agenda grew strength from the controversy of Bush v Gore.
We, here, know that human nature will not accept the demands of the ‘Progressives’. There aren’t that many martyrs for their cause in this society. Socialism/Communitism is not for the elite.


8 posted on 10/11/2012 5:57:20 AM PDT by griswold3 (Big Government does not tolerate rivals.)
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To: Kaslin

The liberal controls over entertainment, education and media are right in line with George Orwell’s Prolesec, from 1984.

They indoctrinate the masses on the benefits of liberal government, of their intelligence, while hiding all their deadly results.

Good Article, Larry!


9 posted on 10/11/2012 5:58:25 AM PDT by Loud Mime (arguetheconstitution.com)
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To: wastoute

It IS a huge deal. You don’t know folks who only get their news from TV and newspapers? The world is full of them. Your wife is right :(


10 posted on 10/11/2012 6:14:32 AM PDT by bboop (does not suffer fools gladly)
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To: TangoLimaSierra

They are “lying for justice”, as the practice is known on the left.


11 posted on 10/11/2012 6:47:22 AM PDT by oblomov
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To: bboop; wastoute

I agree. Your wife is right. If the media was not left-wing, Obama would not poll above 30% and would lose in a massive landslide on election day because the media would out the Democrat party vote fraud machine.


12 posted on 10/11/2012 6:55:39 AM PDT by KansasGirl ("If you have a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."--B. Hussein Obama)
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