Inside the Bubble

Kerri Miller of tax subsidized, objective, and non-ideological Minnesota Public Radio, asking Desmond Tutu about the upcoming Presidential election in the United States:

The US presidential candidates look very different this year with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as democratic contenders. Do you think we Americans can put the past behind us and support an African-American or a woman president?

In other words, are we going to elect the Democrat candidate for president or are Americans still a bunch of racists/misogynists?

Look for this characterization of the choice we have in this election to launch into high gear once the Democrats finally decide on their identity candidate of choice. Is America good enough to elect Hillary/Obama? That will be the siren song given to impressionable voters from the commercial broadcast outlets. It's all the more galling coming from the government broadcast entity supported by money forcibly removed from our paychecks.

Any chance that Americans won't support this particular African-American or woman because they happen to be lousy candidates? Because their opponent is a far better option? Because, despite its flaws, Americans can proudly embrace their political heritage and need not run from it or seek redemption by voting for a person based solely on their race or gender?

Assuming these notions never entered the mind of this MPR reporter, I take this as an example of the cultural bias which exists in the media, described by former CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg as:

These people live in a bubble, they live in a bubble with like-minded people who think the same way they do about all the big important social issues of our time. Not talking about politics, I'm talking about feminism, gay rights, race, you know, affirmative action, abortion. All the big issues of our time. And because they're in this bubble, it would be incredible if they didn't come out as biased as they are. *****

Here's what happens: They don't think that their positions on the most controversial issues of our time are liberal positions. They think they're mainstream positions, because all their friends in the bubble think the same way as they do. They think everything to the right of center is conservative. Correct. And everything to the left of center is moderate and mainstream. That's how crazy it is.

And that's why you can go up to these people and say, 'Well, there's a liberal bias.' And they'll say, 'No there isn't. And anybody who says there is, is a conservative ideologue and that's the only reason they're saying it.' They don't look at themselves because it's as if you asked a fish what it's like to be wet all day. And the fish says, 'What do you mean wet? What's wet?' The fish has no concept of wet because he has no other frame of reference. Well, these people live in the same type of environment. And that's why--that's why fixing the problem themselves is so incredibly difficult.

I can think of one way to start fixing the problem. Stop giving our tax dollars to a culturally (and politically) biased news organization.

BTW, getting back to Miller's mindset, have "we Americans" ever been given a chance to show we have "put the past behind us"? There has never been an endorsed major party candidate for President with the Kerri Miller approved demographic characteristics to test this hypothesis. Maybe we Americans put the past behind us in say 2004? 1996? In 1968? In 1868 (OK, unlikely!)?

How would we know? Those apparently racist/misogynist activists picking candidates for the Democrat party all these years never saw fit to let the true nature of we Americans shine through!