Podcast #15 is out! Mike Finnigan Busting the Myth of Liberal Media Bias

Skewz Podcast #15: Mike Finnigan Busting the Myth of Liberal Media Bias

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We had an entertaining conversation with Mike Finnigan of "Mike's Blog Roundup" of the site CrooksandLiars.com. Mike actually helped to come up with the name for the site. Some years ago, Mike used to have a personal distribution list called Crooks and Liars that was inspired by what he perceived as the many con men on the right. When John Amato started his site, he worked with Mike and used the Crooks and Liars name with Mike's blessings. Crooks and Liars pioneered the use of video snippets early on before it became easy and in vogue to do so. That innovation really generated loyalty within the liberal corners of the blogosphere.

Mike reviews a variety of sites regularly to come up with his blog roundup which chronicles the best liberal blog commentary on the Internet. Mike's scan ranges from the large blogs to more issue specific sites such as the pumphandle (at http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com).

Mike spoke with us extensively about the myth of liberal media bias. He suggested that the media just peddles the lowest consumable crap and that's the only true bias. He points to the allegedly liberal New York Times Iraq war coverage prior to the invasion, the paper's treatment of Al Gore in 2000, and other anecdoates to illustrate that the paper is not as liberal as some would like to suggest. Mike points to the Daily Howler for a good review of media quality (at: http://www.dailyhowler.com). Mike also discusses the rise of right wing think tanks and AM talk radio as exclusive bastions of right-wing thought. He feels that once the Fairness Doctrine evaporated, so did a lot of good journalism.

Mike also suggested a couple of books to check out. They are:

Neil Postman's How to Watch TV News and Amusing Ourselves to Death. Both can be found at Amazon.com.

You can check out Mike's Blog Roundup at CrooksandLiars.com
We hope you enjoy the conversation with Mike as much as we did.

Comments can be sent by email to blog@skewz.com

Or you can drop us a voicemail at 646-495-9203 extension 62526.

If you don't have time to download the podcast and would like to listen to it over the phone (and if you have an unlimited plan or plenty of minutes to burn) you can dial 712-318-9952 (not a toll-free number) to listen in.

And remember...to get all sides of the story, visit SKEWZ.com

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A Romp Through The History of Media Bias with Warner Todd Huston of Newsbusters.org

Skewz Podcast #14 is now out!

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We had an interesting conversation with Warner Todd Huston of Newsbusters.org. Newsbusters.org is a well known media bias watch dog site that focuses on liberal media bias. The site is part of the Media Research Center. Newsbusters.org is an outgrowth of other long standing media projects. Warner has been blogging for newsbuster.org for some time and has a great deal of insight on how the media has evolved in the US since the inception of the Republic. We talk about the early days of the pamphleteers to the modern concept of 'objective jounalis' which gained popularity only after World War II. Warner notes that we may now be going back to an era where the media is more in its natural state. We also discuss the declining quality of journalism...and, of course, we discuss how the media is covering the presidential campaign.

You can check out some of Warner's work at:

www.newsbusters.org
We touched on the following topics which, for those interested, can be further investigated at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine

Warner likes the following sources:

powerlineblog.com
hotair.com

Comments can be sent by email to blog@skewz.com.
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Great Discussion with Kevin Williamson, Media Blogger for the National Review

Skewz Podcast #13: A Discussion with Kevin Williamson, Media Blogger for the National Review

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We had an insightful conversation with Kevin Williamson of the National Review. Kevin has been a media blogger with the National Review since the beginning of 2008. Kevin talked to us about the causative factors of media bias. Some of the ideas he described are surprisingly simple but nonetheless powerful. He explained how many journalist simply have similar backgrounds and are based in similar social circles which reinforce established thinking. this thinking is often upper middle class and skewed leftward. We also discuss areas where the media just gets in wrong in terms of trying to interpret events or subjects with a significant lack of expertise. This issue is especially relevant with regard to topics such as economics. We also explore how the US media attempts to cover international news and often fails to detect trends and provide insights on emerging patterns that the US public never gets the chance to examine.

You can check out some of Kevin's works at:

http://media.nationalreview.com

Kevin refers to a few subjects that may be of interest to listeners:

Pakistan's ISI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_Services_Intelligence

United States-India Nuclear Deal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States-India_Peaceful_Atomic_Energy_Cooperation_Act

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Podcast #12 is out! Conversation with Mike Hendrix of Coldfury.com to get a solid conservative perspective on things...

Skewz Podcast #12: A Discussion with Mike Hendrix of ColdFury.com With A Perspective on Media Bias

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We discussed a range of topics with Mike Hendrix of ColdFury.com. Mike lives in Charlotte, NC and started the blog right after 9/11. In fact, he registered the domain name on the 9/14/2001. Mike used to live in New York City and is a professional writer. He was a self-professed liberal through college and up to the first Gulf War after which he started to share more in common with the conservative perspective of politics. We talked to Mike about what he likes to read to better cultivate his opinions and what he finds too biased.

Mike gave these recommendations for sites to check out for a conservative perspective:

windsofchange.com

instapundit.com

conservativehq.com

pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon

He sometimes also checks out Andrew Sullivan's blog though he believes Sullivan has moved too far away from traditional conservative perspectives.

Mike espouses a 'conservatarian' philosophy which is a libertarian world view with a conservative lean.

You can check out Mike's entertaining and insightful writing at:

coldfury.com

We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

Comments can be sent by email to blog@skewz.com.

Or you can drop us a voicemail at 646-495-9203 extension 62526.

If you don't have time to download the podcast and would like to listen to it over the phone (and if you have an unlimited plan or plenty of minutes to burn) you can dial 712-318-9952 to listen in.

And remember...to get all sides of the story, visit SKEWZ.com

Follow Skewz at Twitter.com/skewz to get live updates of show releases

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Podcast #11 is out! A great foreign policy discussion with Andrew Bishop and Matthew Eckel

Skewz Podcast #11: Discussing Foreign Policy with Andrew Bishop and Matthew Eckel - How the Media Covers It And What Issues Are Really Important

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We had an incredibly interesting conversation with both Andrew Bishop and Matthew Eckel. They both cover US foreign policy and global affairs and are fairly well versed on the subject. Andrew is an American in Paris studying foreign policy. Matt is a New Englander living in DC whose been following foreign policy thinking for several years now. They are both bloggers and met through discussions within foreign policy blogging circles.

We got some great insights as to why they started blogging and the particular areas they've decided to focus on. Matt focuses on the Middle East and the Islamic World along with Global Identify Issues. Andrew focuses on how different vantage points (such as country of residence as one example) shape foreign policy perspectives.

You can check their sites out at:

Andrew Bishop: http://whatyoumustread.blogspot.com/
Matthew Eckel: http://fpwatch.blogspot.com/

We covered media coverage of foreign policy as part of our discussion. We also came away with a good list of recommended sites to check out to become more conversant about foreign policy topics. These include:

The World Politics Review at Slate.com

The American Enterprise Institute: http://www.aei.org/

The Heritage Foundation: www.heritage.org/

The Brookings Institute: www.brookings.edu

The Council on Foreign Affairs:www.cfr.org/

Other interesting blogs to check out:
Moderatevoice.com
pakistanpolicy.com

Additional resources of interest:

Ethnicity and its effects on foreign conflicts: http://whatyoumustread.blogspot.com/2008/04/can-ethnicity-explain-anything.html
Parag Khanna (from the New America Foundation): http://whatyoumustread.blogspot.com/2008/04/parag-khanna-is-typically-kind-of-guy.html

worldmeets.us - great site with translations of articles from foreign countries about the United States

We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

Comments can be sent by email to blog@skewz.com.

Or you can drop us a voicemail at 646-495-9203 extension 62526.

If you don't have time to download the podcast and would like to listen to it over the phone (and if you have an unlimited plan or plenty of minutes to burn) you can dial 712-318-9952 to listen in.

Follow SKEWZCAST on Twitter.com to get live updates of show releases

And remember...to get all sides of the story, visit SKEWZ.com Theme music by 2012 Sphere: Related Content