An e-mail arrived from a fellow named Richard O'Neill after my
column lamenting the fact that all too many Americans consider the
likes of Rush Limbaugh and his imitators news programs.

"We listen to Rush because media such as The Capital Times, Dan Rather,
Peter Jennings, etc., are so blatantly biased and won't tell us the truth," he said.
Yes, the big lie, repeated often enough, has indeed become "fact" with people like O'Neill.

The lie is the so-called "liberal" bent of the "mainstream" news media.
It's utter nonsense and anyone who takes the time to take a good look at what is being
printed and broadcast in this country is trying to pull a fast one if he claims it is so.

O'Neill, for example, claims that the "mainstream" media never reported that George Bush
has a bachelor's degree from Yale and an advanced degree from Harvard and that all Al Gore
has is a bachelor's degree. Nor, according to O'Neill, did it report that Bush founded an oil and
gas exploration company, as well as being one of the managing partners of the Texas Rangers,
while all Al Gore was was an investigative reporter in Nashville.

It makes me wonder if my e-mail pal can read.

Limbaugh and his right-wing followers always complain they are besieged,
that conservative candidates are always demonized by the "establishment press."

Perhaps some of these conservatives ought to ask Al Gore or Bill Clinton about
being demonized in the mainstream press. Perhaps they ought to look at who
three-fourths of America's 1,400 newspapers endorsed for president in 2000.

Maybe they ought to count the editorial page columnists and see how many papers
carry a Molly Ivins versus a George Will or an Ellen Goodman versus a John Leo.

Have any of these poor besieged conservatives flipped through their cable channels?
Are they blind or do they see Bill O'Reilly and a dozen other clones savaging anyone
who dare call himself or herself left of center? Have they taken a look at the political
leanings of the radio talk show hosts who have virtually taken over the AM dial?
Are they deaf, too?

Conservatives currently control both houses of Congress plus the presidency.
They have made inroads in state houses across the country.
Their corporate sugar daddies virtually call all the shots on important economic legislation.
One of their favorite organizations, the NRA, controls politicians everywhere.

Yup, this liberal media really has clout.

The real truth, Richard O'Neill, is that it has none, because it doesn't exist.
But your buddy Rush won't tell you that.