Fraters Libertas

There He Goes Again

Today, St. Paul Pioneer Press entertainment columnist (and liberal media bias denier) Brian Lambert gets on his high horse once again to denounce conservative talk radio and its listeners. This time in regard to the firing of one of KSTP’s morning hosts, John Wodele.

Lambert interpretation of the firing is that Wodele was too “reasonable” and “respectful” to live up to the listener’s expectations for the genre. Using a professional wrestling metaphor, here’s Lambert’s characterization of Wodele’s short lived career behind the mic:

"It's science fiction to think he's going to convince his opponent, the oiled, 400-pound simian in the executioner's mask, the posse of strippers and hucksters hanging on the ropes, or any of the shrieking, drooling fans to stop for a moment and consider a more reasonable argument. Quite simply, the shtick has nothing to do with reasonableness, civility or logic."

Remember, Lambert’s not a political columnist. His job is to write about Twin Cities entertainment and media. And he’s the only one the newspaper offers on these topics. Unlike the editorial pages (at least those from respectable newspapers), there isn’t a conservative also reviewing these same issues and presenting a more conservative (shall I say more “reasonable”) viewpoint. He’s all we got.

Given the fact that he’ s just admitted he thinks of conservative broadcasters as “400-pound simians in executioner’s masks” and the listeners of these programs as “shrieking, drooling fans,” any chance he’s going to be fair minded in reporting the issues surrounding these shows? Any chance he’s even going to duely respect the fact these programs dominate the ratings for their time slots?

Lambert’s motives for not being able to report objectively are revealed in the above comments. And the smoking gun proof that he doesn’t report objectively can be found in almost every column he writes. No matter what the topic is, he’s able to slip in a slur against conservatives, sometimes subtly sometimes not. All the while blithely denying from his bully pulpit that there is such a thing as liberal media bias.

For example, take his his column from last Wednesday (please). In his review of the upcoming PBS National Geographic special on the FBI, he sprinkles in this objective observation:

"Because it's the National Geographic, and not, say, Fox News or al-Jazeera, "The FBI" gets relatively unique access to FBI director Robert Mueller."

Then there was his column from Friday. The topic was the controversy surrounding a local reporter’s plans to work as a policewoman during the Minnesota State Fair. Mr. Lambert takes a brief detour from his central point to dismiss even the possibility of liberal media bias, characterizing the accusations as:

"...the exploitative hammering the mainstream press regularly takes for bias and sloppiness from self-serving conservative interest groups."

In the past few weeks I’ve done numerous posts on the hypocritical bias of Brian Lambert and if necessary I could do twice weekly updates on it. But I suspect the interest level for this type of thing is limited among our national readership (and by that I mean you, Maria Ibanez in Davis, CA. Orale chica!).

Plus, to take the time to publicly expose Lambert on every column he writes means I would have to read every column Lambert writes. I don’t think even I deserve to suffer that much. (Plus, I read the City Pages almost every week, and that’s enough suffering for anyone.)

Yes, I admit it is fun to occasionally check in with Mr. Lambert and see how many paragraphs and how many twists and turns from the subject it takes for him to work in an unjustifiable slur or elitist barb in one of his reports. But do I really need to keep exploitively hammering him for self serving purposes in the forum of the conservative interest group that is Fraters Libertas?

Probably not. If the world is willing to stipulate that Brian Lambert’s writing is ridden with liberal bias and his denials of such are disingenuous and hypocritical, then my work here is done. We can all move on with our lives and focus ourselves on more productive pursuits.

And by that of course, I mean the extreme liberal bias present in Al Sicherman’s “Mr. Tidbit” column. Here’s the lede from his Thursday column:

"Apparently the wave of cute miniature cookies that appeared in the early 1990s is returning in force."

Al Sicherman - get ready for a war!!!!