That would seem to be the case if the coverage of Al Franken’s rumored run for the U.S. Senate and columnist Mollie Ivins’ death due to breast cancer is concerned.
Neither the AP nor the Minneapolis Star-Tribune used the word “liberal” in their stories about Franken (though a headline writer for the Star-Tribune did see fit to put it in the subhead). That’s akin to the MSM running a story about Jesse Helms and not using the word conservative, which, of course, never happened. Usually they put the dread “arch” in front of conservative.
In Ivins’ case, she was always identified as a “columnist” when she was interviewed in all of the George W. Bush profiles in the runup to the 2000 election. The viewer was left with the impression that she was an unbiased Texas observer who just happened to think Bush was an idiot. She was never called a liberal ? until today.
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins, the
sharp-witted liberal who skewered the political establishment and
referred to President Bush as “Shrub,” died Wednesday after a long
battle with breast cancer. She was 62.
