(no subject)

[razorjak]

"I'm interested in writing as a career, but not in journalism because I'm not a liberal."

I love these asshats who try to claim everything involved in the media is run by the liberals and that they are fighting the minority fight trying to get their word out.

Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, The Drudge report, Fox News, etc etc etc ... the list goes on.

Sheesh.

Comments

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I was talking to somebody this weekend who works as a reporter. She said, "If there is a liberal bias in the media, it's probably because reporters tend to be better informed about current events than the average person."

[montieth.livejournal.com]

I actually think that you tend to draw more liberals to writing and more conservatives to technical jobs. There's a large number of folks at CNN that hunt and own guns, they're just in the IT departments. There's probably not a single hunter in the newsrooms. It's not a calculated thing, rather just what tends to happen.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You know, I honestly couldn't figure out what you were talking about until I realized that you were equating "likes guns and "hunting" to "votes conservative", which I'm not convinced is necessarily the case.

IME - and I realize this pattern may be very different in your country - people who don't like guns are more likely to be urban. And although there may be more liberals in urban centres, it's not a one-to-one map.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

By and large, gun ownership and urban setting depends heavily on the region. Gun ownership in the Urban South is higher and heavier than it is in the Mid-East.

By and large however those folks that I mention on the techie side also tend on the conservative side of politics. Some are very moderate centrists (like myself), others tend towards more conservative stances on a lot of issues.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting. In my experience techies tend to be very liberal.

One of those things that I don't even realize has regional differences until it comes up in conversation.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Many tend to be liberal in that they're liberal about a lot of things. ie Permissive. Not "Liberal" (note the case) as in people need to be protected from themselves and each other. I am liberal about most laws, ie they should be permissive. However, I'm Conservative when it comes to gun laws because Liberals believe people shouldn't be allowed to own firearms (not very liberal).

You'll find that there are lots of Geeks with guns. I'd say that More than 1/2 of the technical staff at CNN have or do own firearms. Some hunt.

say, what?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Dude, where the hell are you getting your definitions?

Re: say, what?

[montieth.livejournal.com]

lib·er·al     P   Pronunciation Key  (lbr-l, lbrl)
adj.
Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.
Liberal Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism, especially in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.
Tending to give freely; generous: a liberal benefactor.
Generous in amount; ample: a liberal serving of potatoes.

Thus, if one didn't know anything about our political system, one would expect that liberals would be:
1. Pro choice
2. Pro Rights (all of them)
3. Pro minimal laws

The basic issue is that Liberals (note the case) ie Left leaning Democrats are big on certain things up to a point where it becomes less permissive. You can't do that because it's dangerous and you might hurt yourself or someone else (Fire Works, firearms, paintball guns, BB-guns, lability waivers, seatbelt laws, helmet laws, how you paint your house, how you arrange your yard, etc). Modern day Liberalism is antithetical to a laissez faire attitude of the old days whereby the state generally left you alone, many would argue its about being a busy body that involves itself in all aspects of your life.

By the same token the Conservative (note the case) view is less conservative in some cases and more so in others depending on what is being looked at. The term conservative of course means that one tends to be averse to change. Compare that to Conservatives that want to Abolish the IRS, that's a major change, liberal in attitude but Conservative in political stance.

Get what I'm driving at here?

Re: say, what?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I think there are a ton of assumptions there. For example, I think your dictionary definition leads to conclusions 1 & 2, but not necessarily to conclusion 3.

It also confuses the matter when you define certain kinds of "liberals" and Liberals, because that is an actual political party here.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

There's a large number of folks at CNN that hunt and own guns, they're just in the IT departments.

I think that's more a product of your location than anything else. Everywhere else I know techies, they're more liberal than not.