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Rush, Newt Push Media to the Right

They're mainstream while progressives are ignored: Dionne

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 4, 2009 9:15 AM CDT

(Newser) – Media coverage of Barack Obama is closed-minded and biased—in favor of conservatives. "Rush Limbaugh's sneezes or Newt Gingrich's tweets" circulate like wildfire, but criticism of the president from the Democratic left goes unheard, writes EJ Dionne of the Washington Post. The result is a skewed picture in which "Obama is regularly cast as somewhere on the far left end of a truncated political spectrum."

"Democrats are complicit in building up Gingrich and Limbaugh as the main spokesmen for the Republican Party, since Obama polls so much better than either of them," Dionne acknowledges. But the media bears much of the blame for treating far-right views as mainstream while dismissing criticism of the administration even from elected Democrats. The left may find them shrill, but "by dragging the media to the right, Rush and Newt are winning."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, right, talks with Rush Limbaugh in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speaks during a conference on health care reform in Columbia, SC. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain, File)

Barack Obama speaks at Cairo University in Cairo, Thursday, June 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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Why are the left's voices muffled when they raise legitimate concerns, while Limbaugh's rants get amplified? Isn't Afghanistan a more important issue than a single comment about the relative wisdom of Latinas? - EJ Dionne, Washington Post columnist

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Rush, Newt Push Media to the Right