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The Vice President has now gone and said what must have been obvious to everyone all along, has said what even the spokesmen for the media do not offer to rebut. Naturally CBS denounced it, and of course NBC said his speech was “an appeal to prejudice,” whatever that might mean; but none of the media spokesmen hazarded anything resembling a rebuttal. None stepped forward to say something like, “Why, the Vice President is simply mistaken; we do present various points of view; though Mr. Brinkley, for example, is a liberal Democrat, Mr. Vanocur is an admirer of Governor Reagan, and if, admittedly, Charles Collingwood is pretty liberal, we also have Marvin Kalb who adores Nixon. Our staff is not only able, it is quite various.”

But of course no such reply was possible. The media are, with few minor exceptions, homogeneously liberal. “That is why,” as Agnew accurately said, “such a great gulf existed between how the nation received the President’s address and how the networks received it.”

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Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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The Vice President has now gone and said what must have been obvious to everyone all along, has said what even the spokesmen for the media do not offer to rebut. Naturally CBS denounced it, and of course NBC said his speech was “an appeal to prejudice,” whatever that might mean; but none of the media spokesmen hazarded anything resembling a rebuttal. None stepped forward to say something like, “Why, the Vice President is simply mistaken; we do present various points of view; though Mr. Brinkley, for example, is a liberal Democrat, Mr. Vanocur is an admirer of Governor Reagan, and if, admittedly, Charles Collingwood is pretty liberal, we also have Marvin Kalb who adores Nixon. Our staff is not only able, it is quite various.”

But of course no such reply was possible. The media are, with few minor exceptions, homogeneously liberal. “That is why,” as Agnew accurately said, “such a great gulf existed between how the nation received the President’s address and how the networks received it.”