I didn’t think that I would get to award another of these so soon, but it just can’t be helped. The Los Angeles Times and it’s columnists Michael Hiltzik and Tim Rutten, along with another Patterico outed comment poster from the Times IP address all combine to be more than worthy.

First, this AM’s Regarding Media Calendar column by Rutten, which is also taken apart extremely well by Hugh Hewitt on his blog where Hugh refers to Tim as “Baghdad Bob Rutten”. Tim seems to take each Saturday as an opportunity to slam bloggers, especially center-right types, and praise the un-biased MSM, especially the LA Times. He seems to revel in stating that he himself has no leftist bias, but his own words constantly betray him on that.

A number of prominent commentators called for jailing three of the [Pulitzer] prize winners.

What’s interesting about these demands is that they didn’t come from people normally dismissed as part of the lacy fringes of the lunatic extreme but from analysts actively involved in the mainstream’s public conversation, albeit from the ideological right.

The targets of their outrage are three journalists who rendered extraordinary public service this year. New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau won a share of the national reporting prize for exposing President Bush’s approval of warrantless domestic wiretaps by the National Security Agency. Dana Priest of the Washington Post was awarded the prize in beat reporting for stories documenting the CIA’s operation of clandestine foreign prisons where terrorists — and those suspected of terrorism — are tortured. [emph mine]

You have to be way left of center to consider that leaking classified information to the press, and the MSM not only releasing, but promoting said classified info to be an “extraordinary public service”, instead of an egregious affront to our national security! But Rutten continues:

In this case, what you have is the latest extension of the right wing’s mantra-like criticism of the American news media. Like the constant hum of traffic, it now seems an unavoidable part of our contemporary life. It’s interesting to recall that it began as a perfectly reasonable — indeed, beneficial — discussion of unexamined bias in newspaper and broadcast journalism and of news outlets’ institutional lethargy when it came to correcting errors. As it turns out, though, addressing those things isn’t what the critics have in mind. They don’t want an unbiased news media, they want a press that reflects their bias.

Actually Tim, “discussion of unexamined bias in newspaper and broadcast journalism and of news outlets’ institutional lethargy” is exactly what we have in mind, and what the MSM seems determined never to do. Why? Because like you, the majority of those that make up the MSM cannot, or will not, avail themselves to become aware of the true nature of their bias. Which is what would lead Hugh Hewitt to make this comment about Michael Hiltzik and his “sock-puppets” that were outed by Patterico this week.

My recommendation: The paper should admit that their journalists are just polemicists who carry their opinions with them into battles they care deeply about. They are as biased as the day is long and getting longer. They aren’t objective, and never have been. They should admit that Hiltzik gave as good as he got, and that this whole Code of Ethics blarney forced him into absurd deceptions because his editors wouldn’t let him swing for the fences.

Let Hiltzik be Hiltzik, and come clean about the paper and its deep commitment to the left and the left’s agenda. It is ex-editor John Carroll who is the embarrassment for spreading that piffle about pseudo-journalists versus the Times. Michael Hiltzik may be the most honest guy at the Times.

Patterico also hammers on Rutten’s column today with Rutten: Hiltzik Critics Can’t Stand the Truth, and then brings to light another very odd occurrence, actually occurrences, of pseudonymous comments to more of his blog posts by someone from an LA Times IP address — someone calling her/himself, Masha.

All of which is much more than enough to earn Rutten, Hiltzik, the Times et all, the not-so-coveted “Head Up The Ol’ Wazzoo Award”! Patterico is an investigative machine! I can’t wait to see what happens next. (db)

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Head Up The Wazzoo Award, Media Bias, Media Doin' It Wrong. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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