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Dave said:
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That argument isn't sound because that statistic proves nothing. You simply can't derive a direct correlation between the way every newsperson votes and the they report news, all you can do is suggest. Plus, Reagan won, so either the bias really didn't show in the reporting, or it didn't make a considerable enough difference to cause worry.




Well put, and a good catch.

If there was liberal media bias, and it did make a difference, the US public wouldn't have voted for 4 Republicans as opposed to 2 Democrat presidents over the past 35 years.

Getting back to the issue, I was watching something on BBC last night about the evolution of rap music. It plainly credited Reaganomics with the feeling of anger, powerlessness and disenfranchisement felt amongst black Americans in the 80s.

Anyone got any comments on how minorities fared under Reagan?





Just because liberal bias hasn't been successful in turning public opinion, doesn't mean that liberal bias doesn't exist. It only means that bias hasn't been successful.

I would argue that the liberal bias is much stronger and more vindictive since November 2000, and that as close a race as this one is, that bias is strong enough to shift the balance in favor of the Democrats.

That is certainly the intention.

~

Regarding allegations of a minority persecution under Reagan, I dispute that. The first black managers I worked under were during the Reagan years.

There's a difference between subsidizing minorities and pandering to them (which Reagan did not do),

And simply treating minorities like equals and giving them the same shot at careers and success as everyone else (which Reagan did do).

I've seen a number of articles about how black immigrants from places like Africa, Jamaica, Haiti and the Bahamas achieve a much higher rate of career success and education than do American blacks. So the question is:
Is this "racism"?
Or is it, more obviously, a poisonous belief system in the American black community, that convinces many African Americans not to even try?

I feel that the perception of discrimination, and the resultant attitude of a large percentage of blacks about race, was a regressive and destructive pandering to black fears and phantoms of past racism, by black politicians trying to spread/preserve their powerbase at the expense of the country, and by black musicians and other artists manufacturing rage as a gimmick to sell albums, movies and plays.

Speaking for myself and the blacks I worked with in the early, mid and late 80's, it was a fun and optimistic period, and I felt good about having black managers and co-workers that I could bond so well with. We had a lot to talk about. We enjoyed the same music. We'd all go out and eat and drink together. And in that time, I felt good about being part of an America that had emerged from the 60's and 70's and was increasingly uniting as one nation.

I saw rap and Spike Lee and exploitative reporting as manufacturing an artificial rage that kept memories of 60's discrimination alive.
And I was saddened after a number of years (particularly 1992) to see that the liberal perception of race projected in the popular media had begun to sink in, and had fragmented America into ethnic camps. Where America remains.

But there's hope. And black Republicans.