Liberal Media, huh?

May 10, 2003 7:25 AM

As you may have heard, long term FBI Agent and Chinese double-agent Katrina Leung was charged yesterday. What you might not have heard, if, say, you only read the CNN story, was that Leung was a prominent Republican, who probably did a good bit to subvert the campaign finance reform effort. However, this isn't being covered by ABC, CNN, Newsweek, the New York Times, or pretty much anyone with any name recognition, as TalkingPointsMemo reports. Funny how potential sabotage isn't worth mentioning in these fast times full of SARS and terror, no?
posted by kaibutsu (32 comments total)

Yeah, I realize this may be newsfilter, but it's also about this whole damned liberal media myth that is so pervasive in the American conservative mythos. It's a perfect example of the conservative slant of these news sources, which isn't really being reported anywhere because, well, the newsies aren't going to be reporting on their own heavy-handed bias.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:27 AM on May 10, 2003

hell. at least my bias is obvious.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:29 AM on May 10, 2003

um, google results in page after page of references to her being a prominent republican, many from the outlets that you list.
posted by probablysteve at 7:38 AM on May 10, 2003

didn't clinton and gore get in a heck of a lot of trouble for the chinese funds that they raised?

what's the deal with clinton getting into trouble for everything he did, and bush (well, republicans) getting basically a free pass?

damn that liberal media bias.
posted by graventy at 7:41 AM on May 10, 2003

probablysteve: Yeah, of the Google batch, we have the follwing:

An excellent piece from the Philly News which goes into the full implications of all of this, also linked from TPM.

This CNN article is particularly interesting. It lists Leung as a "Republican activist" without making any mention of her contribution activities, but goes on to talk about the PRC scandal with the Democrats, naming names and sums contributed. Not that that's misleading or anything.

The Washington Times does make mention of campaign financing, but not 'til the last paragraph of the article, though it makes a good show of the Democratic scandal further up. Better than CNN, but still kinda dancey...

The TPM links are pointing to this story: everybody but FOX (surprise) is reporting that she's a Republican, but noone bothering with her political activites or fundings, or making the connection to the Democratic scandal. (Which, yes, was also bad.)

[ok, not posting anymore; let thread go where it will, yeah?]
posted by kaibutsu at 8:04 AM on May 10, 2003

TinfoilHatFilter!
posted by shadow45 at 8:27 AM on May 10, 2003

This is a valid beef -- stories all over the place are omitting her Republican ties, including today's ABC News report.
posted by rcade at 8:31 AM on May 10, 2003

Criticalthinkingfilter!
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 9:05 AM on May 10, 2003

VastRightWingConspiracyFilter!
posted by gyc at 9:13 AM on May 10, 2003

Conservatives have always clamed the media has a liberal bias. The liberals have always claimed the media has a conservative bias. Any time the media says something one group doesn't like they blame it on the other group. This goes for other extremes too.

This isn't about bias. It's about incompetence, and present day media is very incompetent. They're also very short-sighted, in that the media caters to the capitalism carrot at the end of the stick. The media reports what it thinks the consumer wants so that the consumer will tune in, see commercials, and the advertisers will continue paying the media. If you wanna look for a conspiracy, that's where you should go. Follow the damn money. Dems or Reps, Libs or Cons, apples or oranges it's all immaterial to the good old American dollar, and hey that's the American way so what's everybody whinin' about?
posted by ZachsMind at 9:24 AM on May 10, 2003

joshmarshallfilter ! :) props to josh.
posted by specialk420 at 10:50 AM on May 10, 2003

Criticalthinkingfilter!

VastRightWingConspiracyFilter!

Same diff.
posted by goethean at 11:00 AM on May 10, 2003

"She gave thousands of dollars last year to gubernatorial candidates Richard Riordan and Bill Simon, and they thanked her by name in speeches and on Web sites. U.S. Rep. David Dreier liked his San Marino constituent so much that he recently appointed her as a voting member on the state party's central committee."

Bill Simon, favored candidate of American Presidents and Chinese spies. Truly a uniter, not a divider.
posted by homunculus at 11:05 AM on May 10, 2003

Every article about this story that I have come across on my own has mentioned the fact that Yeung is a republican.

:tinfoilhat:
posted by syzygy at 11:54 AM on May 10, 2003

Please replace "republican" in my above post with the more accurate and relevant "prominent republican fundraiser."
posted by syzygy at 11:59 AM on May 10, 2003

syzygy: ":tinfoilhat:"

Tin foil doesn't work. It's a ruse by aliens. Didn't anyone notice that tin foil wasn't invented until after the Roswell incident, when an alleged space craft discovery turned out to be what people later compared to be tin foil? I believe it was a republican who found it. My point is that Terran tin foil was based on alien technology, and therefore doesn't deflect the rays from space satelites which are slowly liquefying our grey matter.

This is why derbies are coming back into style.
posted by ZachsMind at 12:50 PM on May 10, 2003

Yeah, lead helmets work MUCH better.

Is the "there's no liberal slant to the press; there's actually a conservative one instead" the product of observers who are to the left even of the liberal press, such as yer average MeFi'er?

Just wondering.
posted by alumshubby at 1:33 PM on May 10, 2003

IMHO, the average Metafilter member probably thinks the media is incompetent more than anything else. Just think of how us geeks cringe everytime the mainstream media puts out a piece on technology and how much they get it wrong. Now just imagine all the other stuff that we're not experts on that the media reports on.
posted by gyc at 2:30 PM on May 10, 2003

Leung's story shouldn't degenerate into a fight between Democrats and Republicans, and anyone with any intergity should want every detail of this story exposed, regardless of their party affiliation. For example, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin wrote about it in April and didn't pull any punches. But the mainstream media are primarily entertainers, and they don't want to risk alienating their audience by offending anyone. Thankfully we have people like Malkin and Marshall who stick to their guns.
posted by homunculus at 3:03 PM on May 10, 2003

Michelle "Xenophobe" Malkin? Please.
posted by owillis at 3:08 PM on May 10, 2003

Something also should be noted. As a spy, the #1 thing you should do is NOT act like a spy. So, how much of her daily activities were devoted to legitimate, or at least legal stuff?

In other words, if most of her fundraising "middleman" activities were illegal *solely* because of her being a spy, it generally exonerates both the actual givers and the receivers of any intentional wrongdoing, unless they *knew* she was a spy.

So, since her support for *people* was for republicans as a whole (unless she showed favoritism to particular republicans), the issue should be "what *issues* did she support?" In other words, think of her as a hidden lobbyist for the PRC.
What does the PRC want, as far as US legislation, and why?
posted by kablam at 3:25 PM on May 10, 2003

Michelle "Xenophobe" Malkin? Please.

I disagree with her about almost everything, but I'm a sucker for consistency. And cuties.
posted by homunculus at 3:31 PM on May 10, 2003

Michelle "Xenophobe" Malkin? Please.

If regarding American immigration as a privilege and not a right, tightening security at the borders and strictly enforcing visa regulations and violations is "xenophobia" then count me among them. It's not as if *legal* immigration is impossible.

How many terrorist attacks (including Malvo, in the U.S. illegally, but released by immigration) could have been prevented and lives saved if these simple steps had been observed?

Every other country on the planet does it.

I disagree with her about almost everything

I'd be hard pressed to find a single subject upon which to disagree.
posted by hama7 at 7:51 PM on May 10, 2003

Actually, I shouldn't make such broad sounding statements since I rarely read her columns and don't know her positions very well. When I've encuntered her in the past I've usually disagreed with her, but I respect her consistency on this issue. I'll have to go read more of her columns before I decide.
posted by homunculus at 9:49 PM on May 10, 2003

after seeing pictures of her, I just want to know how she seduced anyone. those FBI guys must be hella hard up.

now, that Michelle might be another story...
posted by badzen at 11:46 PM on May 10, 2003

If regarding American immigration as a privilege and not a right, tightening security at the borders and strictly enforcing visa regulations and violations is "xenophobia" then count me among them.

That's certainly not what Malkin suggests. Her comments are more along the lines of Coulter's "lock up the swarthy men" harangues without the inflammatory language. She's shown a strong anti-immigration bias (fyi folks on the right: immigration made this country as great as it is), which is on the funny side of ironic considering Ms. Malkin's heritage (I expect that kind of xenophobia from the Eva Braun/Coulter wing of things).

I must admit though, unlike Ms. Coulter - Malkin is actually attractive.
posted by owillis at 12:19 AM on May 11, 2003

Owillis, statements such as "immigration made this country as great as it is" strike me as being somewhere between unthinking/facile and propagandistic. It's one of those mantras that isn't really true, but it's very PC and if repeated enough, will (and probably already is) accepted uncritically as fact by most.

Many things worked together to make the US as great as it is. Immigration, while an imortant component, certainly shouldn't get all of the credit. What about our geographical isolation from major enemies, making direct attacks against us difficult? What about our Constitution and its Bill of Rights?

Even more important is the fact that what was good for our country at a certain point in our history may not always be good for our country. Just because immigration played an important positive role in our country's early history, there's no guarantee that its effects will always be as positive.

So, we basically have a statement that's untrue and largely irrelevant at the same time, but thanks for the fyi.
posted by syzygy at 2:08 AM on May 11, 2003

which is on the funny side of ironic considering Ms. Malkin's heritage

I think the fact that she is a child of *legal* immigrants speaks volumes to the accuracy of her observations. Legal immigration is not the problem.
posted by hama7 at 3:40 AM on May 11, 2003

Good point, kablam. I kind of wonder what the breakdown of party affiliations of high-salary F.B.I. agents is like: it could be that support for Republicans was a good way of blending in. Or, on the other hand, maybe not. More investigation is certainly called for.

(fyi folks on the right: immigration made this country as great as it is)

You know, whenever I hear this particular saying uttered, I think back to starving and hopeless Irish farmers, throngs of indentured servants, a million dead chinese spike drivers, and illegal Mexican immigrants working in sweatshops. It's kinda like saying that the Jews made the pyramids great, and that's why we should respect them.
posted by kaibutsu at 4:16 AM on May 11, 2003

The media reports what it thinks the corporate owners wants so that the consumer will tune in, see commercials and Wurlitzer propaganda, and the corporate owners will continue paying the media. If you wanna look for a conspiracy, that's where you should go. Follow the damn money.

Edited for accuracy. ;-)
posted by nofundy at 4:19 AM on May 11, 2003

"You can always count on the uncompromising liberal media!"
posted by homunculus at 8:15 PM on May 11, 2003

Immigration, while an imortant component, certainly shouldn't get all of the credit. What about our geographical isolation from major enemies, making direct attacks against us difficult? What about our Constitution and its Bill of Rights?

Nobody said it should get all the credit. But I seriously doubt that a group of people all of the same racial and ethnic background working in concert would have created as great a melting pot as we have now. I mean, Germany tried it, but it didn't work out so well.

Legal immigration is not the problem.
No, it isn't, but Malkin and her ilk have continued a xenophobic agenda of cutting out the rights and priveleges of people who have come to this country in a legal manner. It parades as "fighting terror", but it's Pat Buchanan dressed up in drag.
posted by owillis at 10:13 PM on May 11, 2003