Not just all across the nation, but all around the globe, untold thousands of people came together today to speak out against the corrupt system that benefits the wealthiest 1% (or less) at the expense of the masses.

Their message is clear: “We are the 99% and we’re not going to take it anymore!”  People are protesting out of their deeply held belief that the governments and economies of the world must be run for the benefit of the people of the world.  People are protesting because the banks got bailed out, the hedge fund managers made off with the billions, and we the people have been told to accept poverty, endless unemployment, backbreaking debt, and austerity galore.

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NPR’s Conservative Bias

A detailed analysis of political coverage by National Public Radio reveals a distinct partisan bias.  The following article provides irrefutable numeric evidence to support this conclusion.

While biased news coverage is commonplace in today’s media, most of us have come to expect better from NPR, which strives to garner paid memberships through its open-minded capacity to “consider all things” as it were.  We expect National Public Radio to make a conscious effort to provide nonpartisan news coverage.  Indeed, most people, if asked, would probably say that National Public Radio is subject to a liberal bias.  But numbers don’t lie; and the numbers say that NPR’s coverage of politics is heavily slanted in favor of the conservative viewpoint.  If you don’t believe my calculations, I invite you to visit NPR’s online archives, create a spreadsheet, and draw your own conclusions.  The data is there for anyone who wishes to parse it.

Requests for Comment

I contacted NPR’s Talk of the Nation repeatedly with requests for comment for this story, but they chose not to respond.  After several days I then went over their heads and contacted NPR’s corporate office directly; but NPR corporate likewise did not respond, much to my disappointment.

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At first I was happy to hear about the advent of the Tea Party, because of their potential for splitting the Republican vote and therefore guaranteeing that Democrats will retain control of the Presidency in 2012.  However, this group of right-wing extremists has become such media darlings that I now feel compelled to rebut their ridiculous slogans that pass for arguments.  The mainstream media is offensively captivated by the Tea Party, to the point where it has apparently lost all perspective.  It is lamentable that the media is demonstrating such an overwhelming lack of capacity for critical evaluation, but these are the days we are living in.

One might ask, why does the Tea Party get so much more attention from the media now, than the anti-war movement got in 2003?  The answer is simple: money.  The Tea Party is very well-funded by sponsors with deep pockets.  The media loves money.  The media is not interested in a movement without money, even if it is a movement that includes millions of voters and activists.  Money buys airtime: it’s really that simple. To their shame, the mainstream media refuses to ask any tough questions, so it falls to small blogs like Self-Directed Society.  And the question of the day is this:

Do the Tea Party loudmouths have a double standard, or are they simply hypocrites?

Wherever they are coming from, it is finally time to put a lid on all the hot air spewing forth from the Tea Party wingnuts.  Their arguments are self-contradictory; their principles evaporate in the face of their self-interest.  Their little costume party is too loud for our residential neighborhood of democracy, and they don’t listen when we politely ask them to take it back inside.  It is time to file a noise complaint.

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The extremist conservative agenda strikes again. As most news-aware Americans have heard by now, the Texas School Board has issued its own ideologically driven “standards” for school textbooks. These standards rewrite the Social Studies and American History curricula to stress the conservative viewpoint. For example, these standards delete Thomas Jefferson from the history books.

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