Liberal Media

"Those who still doubt the press needs fresh, preferably conservative, blood, should consider these numbers: In 1999, 12 percent of journalists said fairness and balance were a big problem for the media. Now, in the Pew survey, only 5 percent say so--this, after further proof of liberal dominance and noisy debates about liberal bias. And in 1999, 11 percent said ethics and standards were a major concern. But after high-visibility scandals involving fabricated stories and controversies about plagiarism, only 5 percent agree today. The case for ideological realignment of the media is closed."

Liberal Media Evidence, 5/28/2004
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/143lkblo.asp?pg=1

I've been debating how I am going to get any helpful critique advice atleast on the concept of my work in this class. When I first began exploring this topic, all I saw was a divide between what I continued to see in the Media and what I passed every day when driving around. The media continues to try to convince us that the world is crumbling and we will all be living on the streets tomorrow, however there is a new BB&T branch that just opened on Staples Mill, investors are stepping in and buying up troubled property in huge numbers with new construction going up in Short Pump, and the price of gas is back to $2 a gallon with SUV's still on the lots of the expensive real estate along Broad street.

However during my critique, all I could here on the content was more of the media's side. I didn't think of it as a political topic until they started bringing up what they think as the reason's for the current economic slowdown. The class refered to "the last 8 years" and "yadda yadda failed politics". Without getting into it too much, the current slowdown is obviously caused by banks being forced to hand out high risk loans to unqualified candidates. The government began forcing the banks to do this during the Carter administration with the "Community Reinvestment Act", which was dramatically stepped up during the Clinton administration. The loans that are failing today are failing because the Arm payments are beginning to increase. Meaning they were written 5-10 years ago. Either during the Clinton years or in the first few years of the Bush Administration. Bottom line this is not some new problem that came about from some failed policy in the last 8 years. Either way it is interesting how political I see my prints after the critique.