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Go Home In Which I Agree With A Charge Of Liberal Bias

THE STUMP MAY 10, 2012

In Which I Agree With A Charge Of Liberal Bias

BY ALEC MACGILLIS

Most of the time, I have very little patience for reflexive cries of liberal bias in the media. In fact, I am very firmly in the camp that believes that the threat of such unfounded charges has forced much of the press into a cramped position that wrongly elevates supposed neutrality and "balance" over accuracy, fairness, intellectual honesty and truth-telling.

But I have to say I'm with the bias-criers on their howls about the first sentence in today's New York Times lead story on Barack Obama's historic shift on gay marriage:

Before President Obama left the White House on Tuesday morning to fly to an event in Albany, several aides intercepted him in the Oval Office. Within minutes it was decided: the president would endorse same-sex marriage on Wednesday, completing a wrenching personal transformation on the issue.

Look, I have no doubt that Obama thought long and hard about this. I also think the decision carries with it more political risk than many in Acela-land assume. But neither the twinkle in Obama's eye, as he chalked up his conversion to his daughters' modern sensibility, nor the timing of the announcement, coming just a few days after his vice president "got out a little bit over his skis," suggested a man who had undergone a "wrenching personal transformation" back to the position he had held on this issue in 1996.

follow me on Twitter @AlecMacGillis

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5 comments

I'm not spotting the liberal bias. Isn't the NYT story just showing a bias toward dramatic personal narratives?

- Fishpeddler

May 10, 2012 at 1:25pm

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Would you accept "wrenching political transformation"? As for what constitutes a "brave" political stand, Republicans re-defined "brave" a long time ago to include support of tax cuts; if offering tax cuts to voters is brave, then offering them tax increases must be pandering.

- rayward

May 10, 2012 at 1:51pm

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How come, when Romney Etch-A-Sketches his position from Conservative to the point where he's SUPPORTING CLINTON for heaven's sake, people just nod and say "how interesting". But when Obama 'evolves' his position from "I'm not sure" to "Okay", it's somehow a "wrenching personal transformation"? What, because Romney does it so often, no wrenching or transformation is involved? Frankly I'm getting motion sickness just trying to follow Romney's positions.

- AllanL5

May 10, 2012 at 4:25pm

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Your problem is with the second sentence, no? Hard to find the bias in, "Before President Obama left the White House on Tuesday morning to fly to an event in Albany, several aides intercepted him in the Oval Office." (Don't mind me. I'm just being a dick.)

- AaronW

May 10, 2012 at 7:59pm

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I'm with fishpeddler here. Sounds like the "bias-criers" are just crying "wolf" to me.

- GSpinks

May 11, 2012 at 12:45pm

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