Recount: A Magazine of Contemporary Politics

Accuracy GOOD, Bias BAD

By Dana Lerner | Nov 18, 2004 Print

“I don’t believe in the so-called separation of church and state, that’s an old myth set up by the Constitution.”

So said Cliff Kincaid, as he scanned his home office to describe it in a phone interview from his home in southern Maryland. The early morning sun shines on the bookshelf, which is overstuffed with well-thumbed volumes, among them Jed Babbin’s Inside the Asylum: Why the United Nations and Old Europe are Worse Than You Think, Oriana Fallaci’s ,The Rage and the Pride and a biography of John Kerry by Boston Globe reporters. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Kincaid left the midwest for college, where philosophy took precedence to his education in journalism. Now age fifty, Kincaid lives with his wife and three sons, and when he’s not watching Jeopardy to cheer on million-dollar winner Ken Jennings, he is analyzing the media.

Kincaid is the editor of Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report, a conservative non-profit grassroots watchdog organization, where print, television and radio broadcasts are scrutinized for evidence of what AIM believes is their liberal bias, which they believe results in political partisanship and lack of objectivity. During the presidential campaign, Kincaid’s main interest was “to monitor partisan bias and unfair attacks.” As a member of a regulatory news organization, Kincaid is constantly being criticized for his strong views and right wing opinions.

To sum him up, Kincaid is a traditionalist, in many ways outdated and old-fashioned. He believes a media critic “must try to maintain old-fashioned values of objective news reporting.” Kincaid’s philosophy is that the media act as an authoritative organization to serve the public’s interest. Media should therefore function with precision. Kincaid insists that the media be held to a standard as high as the media insist from the government.

Kincaid, of course, is a Christian, and lately the Christian religion has seen quite a lot of attention in media on both sides of the political divide. Fundamentalist Christianity played a crucial role in the 2004 election, shaping the agenda of the Republican Party and possibly winning the election for George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress. Polls conducted on Election Day show a plurality of Bush supporters were cited as “values voters” – voters who saw moral values as the most important issue. Kincaid and many fellow right-wing Christians believe they should not have to leave their beliefs at the door when it comes time to vote, a privilege not extended by Kincaid to journalists.

As for his undoubtedly controversial stance on the importance of keeping religion and politics separate, Kincaid does not back down. In an article entitled “Media, God and Government” (see www.weholdthesetruths.org), Kincaid argues that the Maryland Constitution’s Declaration of Rights of 1776 provided an article requiring “a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion for all state officers.” He wrote, “Instead of using Bibles and hymnals, some schools today depict homosexuality as a legitimate alternative lifestyle and ‘gay’ student clubs are encouraged. But this is not a scandal for journalists who would prefer to write about the so-called ‘separation of church and state.’”

In fact, Kincaid argues, the mainstream media rarely cover religious issues. Attending annual meetings at companies such as the Washington Post and USA Today, Kincaid heard a common complaint. “These papers are failing to cover the religious views and sentiments of the people,” he said. “The papers do not regularly cover religious holidays or their significance. And I think that reflects the fact that so many reporters today of mainstream media are themselves very liberal and secular, which according to polls, (they) don’t go to church.”

Kincaid’s family goes to church every week. “I’d call myself a religious man,” he declares.

Detractors may question whether Kincaid allows his political and religious affiliations to factor into his criticism. To some, this would be viewed as Christian conservative propaganda.

For his part, Kincaid says his interests stem from the fundamentals of philosophy, as he believes “learning to think has to precede learning to write.” Reed Irvine, founder of AIM, took Kincaid into the organization in 1978 as a critic, and stimulated his evaluation of media and perception of objectivity in news reporting. In addition to AIM, Kincaid is the president of a public policy organization called America’s Survivor, Inc., which focuses on global issues. Kincaid’s experience as a media critic has been chronicled in numerous pieces inside and outside mainstream media. “Major media tends to focus on pro-homosexual rights, and leans more toward a socialist view in terms of favoring more government programs to solve social problems,” says Kincaid of media’s progressive biases.

Recently, AIM investigated the scandal involving Dan Rather’s broadcasts on CBS’s 60 Minutes where phony documents were created to question President Bush’s service in the National Guard. AIM, along with www.FreeRepublic.com, held a protest on September 20, 2004, outside of CBS studios in Washington, DC, calling on three CBS workers to be fired: Dan Rather, producer Mary Manes and CBS News president Andrew Heyward. AIM’s website made a recommendation to the news anchor. “Rather: Put on your pajamas, become a blogger and take Journalism 101.”

Kincaid argues that Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), another media watchdog organization, which tends to reflect a more liberal platform, is focusing too much on documentation, not enough on CBS. Launched in 1987 by Jeff Cohen, FAIR was created in order to counteract what he and progressives saw as a media dominated by corporations.  The left-leaning organization believes the media slight certain groups—the poor, women, people of color, and environmental and consumer rights voices. Because the media adopt the values of their corporate parents, corporate unfriendly voices are silenced or muted.

“FAIR is still defending CBS for using these documents, not on defense that these documents are real but that the information is somehow legitimate,” Kincaid said. “We are not accusing the liberal media of brainwashing anyone, but certainly in this case CBS news was trying to discredit a Republican president during an election campaign with dubious documents.” Kincaid thinks that FAIR should not defend the use of these documents, and insists this case proves there is a vast conspiracy against conservative politicians.

FAIR and critics are angry, Kincaid said, because AIM successfully documented the problem, which threatens the liberal media; as he believes, a pull to the right is a pull towards the center.

Steve Rendall, senior analyst for FAIR and co-host of Counterspin (FAIR’s national radio show), believes there was a “catastrophic breakdown of journalism in that case.” He defends the media coverage of CBS as not just another episode or example of liberal media bias. “That makes no sense,” Rendall said in response Kincaid’s conspiracy theory. “FAIR is among a small group of individuals or organizations that are at the vanguard of a movement, leading a media democracy movement. When FAIR was founded, people on the left largely looked at media as a neutral conduit, as not being a player in politics. That’s not true,” he said. Rendall asserts that progressives see the media as having a filtered agenda.  The media do not give a voice to the broad spectrum of American opinion. Television debates on broadcast and cable television reveal that the right is debating the center, and the liberal voice is left out. 

But Kincaid insists that there are many left-leaning media outlets. “All the surveys have shown a liberal bias, there is no disputing that anymore. CBS is evident of an attempt by this major news organization, which I think demonstrates partisan liberal bias, to try to discredit a Republican president. This is a culture at CBS News. We are calling for at least three people to go.  Dan Rather has to go. He has a partisan political bias and to put it bluntly he just doesn’t like Republicans,” Kincaid said.

According to Rendall, the voice of the conservative movement dominates the media. He cites Laura Ingram, Rush Limbaugh, George Will, William Kristol, and Bill Safire as examples of right-wingers in the media spotlight. “I could name about four dozen. I would love to challenge Cliff Kincaid to think up a similar list on the left,” Rendall said.

Kincaid was unwilling to respond to this challenge.

Rendall explains that besides 60 Minutes, there were three other major stories--in Associated Press, the Boston Globe and U.S. News and World Report--that questioned President Bush’s military record. These stories had authenticated documents, and these stories were flushed out of the limelight by the Rather scandal.

“When I hear people on the right saying that the CBS story is just another episode showing how we have a liberal media, I have to laugh,” said Rendall with a cackle. According to FAIR’s website, two weeks before Rathergate broke, these three stories appeared in national media across the United States. Bush’s military record was no longer in question. These stories had authenticated documents and reflected very badly on George Bush’s conduct in the National Guard. Rendall believes if liberal media bias exists, it would hardly spend time discussing questionable documents.

Still, as a conservative and traditionalist, Kincaid believes the media have no right to exercise a political agenda with social authority over the government’s political and moral authority. Kincaid does not believe in placating critics. He encourages the development of more media watchdog organizations. He thrives on controversy. “In this business you make a lot of enemies, he said. “What we document we stand behind.”

Dana Lerner can be reached at drl250[AT]nyu.edu

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