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| 12/28/2005 1:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | A ‘near miss’ and mainstream media
 | Rob Crowe
Columnist
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I worked for several years for a large company that owned several wood products factories in the state. While a good company in many respects, they engaged in some very annoying practices. It was supposed to be understood that if an employee took the time to write up an incident report about a near-miss, there would be no repercussions. One night, a peculiar incident happened to me where a small log that had not been cut to the proper length unexpectedly flipped up and out of a conveyor, over my head and glanced off my hand. I wasn’t hurt to any extent and the safety-minded supervisor suggested I write up a near-miss. I complied and wrote up the incident, but wrote that I was unsure of the sequence of events as is usually the case. To my surprise, I received a reprimand a few days later. Upon inquiry, I was notified that since they had determined that I had made a mistake, (without doing a formal review) I was to be punished. Needless to say, I never again volunteered to write up a near-miss report.
Like my misconception about near-miss reports, it appears there is some misconception out there about what constitutes the mainstream press. For those who don’t know, the mainstream press is generally composed of those news organizations that follow the lead of the New York Times in the content and viewpoint of their news and events coverage. This includes ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, the Washington Post, the LA Times and most of the prominent daily newspapers in the country. The news reporting of these entities is heavily tilted in favor of the liberals to the extent that if a Democratic politician says something, no matter how untruthful or outrageous, it is immediately reported as fact, no checking is necessary. A great attempt is made to disprove anything said by a Republican or Joe Lieberman unless it agrees with what the Democratic belief statement says. Probably all of the organizations do have at least one token conservative like Bob Novak or George Will to throw in the mix, but the overwhelming number of commentators and reporters are decidedly liberal. This local weekly newspaper generally would not be included in the definition of being part of the mainstream press unless you decided that having a token conservative write a semi-weekly column qualifies it. Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the lead author of a UCLA-led study on media bias who made some surprising discoveries on how pronounced the bias in the media is found: “Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left.” Guess I might have to start listening to more National Public Radio. The recent leak case involving a New York Times article underscored how far the major media have fallen in their news coverage. In a blatant attempt to sabotage the president’s ongoing task of keeping terrorists in check and to promote his new book, James Risen revealed that the National Security Agency had been, gasp, listening in on known terrorists communicating with people inside the United States. The rest of the before-mentioned outlets fell into line. They ignored that every previous administration in recent memory had retained the constitutional authority to act in response to a foreign attack and launched their own attacks on the president. These so-called news outlets, previously outraged that non-covert analyst Valerie Plame had been “outed,” suddenly had no interest that crucial intelligence information had been leaked that severely hindered the fight against terrorism. I wonder if we will ever see in print someone wanting the leaker “frog marched in handcuffs” out of the capitol building. Naww ... the before-mentioned entities just want to weaken the president and also our country at any expense. Hopefully, we only have a “near-miss” and will never have to pay the ultimate cost of political victory at the expense of life and liberty. Rob Crowe chairs the Aitkin County Republicans and raises kids and cows on a farm near Hill City.
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