"What Bias?"

There is absolutely no question that a liberal bias exists in the media. It is estimated that 85% of all journalists are liberal, and their left-wing worldview is perpetually on display in the seemingly non-stop propaganda emanating from ABC, PBS, CBS, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, MTV, NPR, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and a host of leading newspapers in American cities from sea to shining sea. Their job is made easier because there is a never-ending stream of “content” to be gleaned from reliably left-wing bastions such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Teacher’s Unions, the AFL-CIO, the American Bar Association, AARP, and Hollywood.

As if that weren’t enough, we’ve been conditioned to accept polls that have been scripted for a pre-determined outcome as some kind of panacea; a pop culture gospel meant to enlighten the masses via the notion that there is wisdom in crowd-think. My view is that you have to have a literate crowd to begin with, which, evidence suggests, we do not: More of us can name the last four American Idol winners than can name the first four Presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison, by the way).

By parroting, not questioning, their fellow ideologues, the so-called “Mainstream Media” (MSM) continues to build its case (often with “straw” bricks) for a socialist society. And this doesn’t take into account the outright lies that have been passed off as the truth. Or that have been tried to be passed off as the truth.

Can there be any doubt as to the monumental influence this vast propaganda machine has already had on American society, or the impact it will have on the future of America? Let’s take a look at that impact by examining the facts (versus the popular opinions) of some of the things we take for granted with regard to “the historical record,” starting with…

The Great Depression

The myth is that the Great Depression was one long, national nightmare –- and it was; however, a preponderance of evidence suggests that “great” mistakes were made by the Roosevelt Administration that actually prolonged it.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself has been mythologized almost beyond recognition, and why not? There is much that makes him an attractive hero to the Democratic Party and, more importantly, to the MSM: Born into wealth, he lived off a trust fund; he attended Harvard and Columbia, and was well-spoken; he was a distant cousin of Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States; he served as Senator for New York and was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy; he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920. In 1921, he was stricken with polio, but fought against it courageously, turning a potential liability into a yet another political asset. He went on to become Governor of New York before winning the Presidency in 1932, and won an unprecedented four times, leading the nation during times of economic crisis and a worldwide war.

When Roosevelt took office there were millions of unemployed Americans and most banks had closed. He immediately set out to make sweeping reforms in an effort to bring recovery to business and agriculture, and to provide relief to the unemployed. A major part of FDR’s “New Deal” economic stimulus package was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA created jobs designed to put men to work on infrastructure-related activities that, as the New York Times said at the time, could “not be undertaken by private industry.” A second multi-billion dollar project, called the Public Works Administration (PWA) came into being to create even more jobs, constructing schools, swimming pools, and town halls all over America. Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of The Great Depression, gives an inside glimpse into the public-works job culture when describing a model government farm in Casa Grande, Arizona:

“The men were poor, but sophisticated. They knew that the government wanted them to share jobs. But they saw that the only way for the farm to get profits was to increase output and stop milking by hand. Five dairy crew men approached the manager to propose purchasing milking machines to increase output. They even documented their plea with a shorthand memo:
“Milking machine would save two men’s labor at five dollars per day…Beginning in September would save three men’s wages or $7.50 on account of new heifers coming in.”

“You’re fired,” the manager replied when he saw their careful plan. The government man was horrified at the idea of killing the jobs he was supposed to create. “You’re jeopardizing a loan of the U.S. government, and it’s my job to protect that loan. You’re through, every one of you, get out.”

Such was the calculus of an economy based on governmental “make work” schemes that there were few who knew, much less stood up against, what really amounted to a widespread anti-business populism. This is, of course, what ultimately extended the economic depression as the government supplanted private companies and their private investment. New Dealers were essentially competing against private industry, and there really was no “competition,” as the government relentlessly diverted available capital by selling bonds and collecting taxes to pay for their public-works programs. The net result was that private investment during the New Deal was often not merely low, but negative. Remember, without capital investment there are no new businesses, no new jobs, and ultimately no middle class.

Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian, wrote of the cultural and political influence of the New Deal policies that helps us to understand their far-reaching effects:

“A feature of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) which caught the public eye and became nicknamed ‘boondoggling,’ was the setting up of projects to employ artists, musicians, writers and other 'white collar' workers. Post offices and other public buildings were decorated with murals; regional and state guides were written; libraries in municipal and state buildings were catalogued by out-of-work librarians, and indigent graduate students were employed to inventory archives and copy old shipping lists, to the subsequent profit of American historians. The federal theater at its peak employed over 15,000 actors and other workers, at an average wage of $20 a week. Under the direction of John Houseman, Orsen Welles, and others, new plays were written and produced, and the classics revived.”

Author William Bennett notes that “Here, in a nutshell, we see the origins of many of today’s political alignments. Hollywood, academia, the press, libraries, public universities – all are inhabited by tens of thousands of people who could trace the existence of their jobs or their institutions to a federal program begun under FDR.” In effect, writes Bennett, “FDR assured the allegiance” of these folks to the Democratic Party, noting that “One thing can always be assured: If you take from Peter to pay Paul, you can generally rely on the vote of Paul.” This sentiment is summed up by a WPA worker who said, during FDR’s campaign leading up to the 1936 election: “I don’t think it is fair to eat Roosevelt bread and meat and vote for Governor Landon.” And make no mistake: Today's Democratic Party is fully aware of -- and counting on -- this kind of allegiance as they push forward their partisan plan for so-called "universal" healthcare.

What did the American “working man” ultimately get from the New Deal? An up close (and extended) view of what it is like to be utterly dependent upon government largesse –- a view that, not surprisingly, is embraced by many on the Left to this day.

REFERENCES & ADDITIONAL READING

A quote attributed to columnist Mona Charen (“whew…I almost got carried away, there…”) jump-started my thoughts regarding the preponderance of liberal media outlets and their unchecked bias. Here, as above, I refer you to ABC, PBS, CBS, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, MTV, NPR, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post and, chances are, your local newspaper, which undoubtedly uses content from the Associated Press and/or the previously mentioned outlets for the majority of their own content.

As for The Great Depression, these sources were helpful:

“The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression” by Amity Shlaes
“The New Deal Jobs Myth” by Amity Shlaes, The Wall Street Journal, 12/31/07
www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html
“America, the Last Best Hope Vol. II” by William J. Bennett
www.history.navy.mil/bios/morison_s.html