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Our friends at the Kokomo Tribune’s “Left Eye” feature were at it again last Sunday, and caught the eye of a couple of our listeners.  Here was one email I received about the public interest blurbs written by Tribune reporters Scott Smith and Ken de la Bastide:

Hey Peter, don’t know if you saw Scott and Ken’s “Public Eye” this week or not, but it was a perfect indication of why you so appropriately call it the “Left Eye.”  Three stories and every single one was carrying water for the Democrats in their last submission before the primary election.  The first one wove lies and deceptions about Mourdock’s stance on the Chrysler bailout (the classic, “5,000 Kokomo citizens would be without jobs if Mourdock had his way” routine).  Then the second one was pretty much a callout for more Democrats to run for office, as well as a shameless plug for name recognition of the Democrats who are competing for office this year.  The last one took on the issue the local Democrats had with one of their voter registration officer doing Get Out the Vote work while on the taxpayer clock.  But, surprise, surprise, rather than comment on that shady practice, Scott and Ken decided to get their panties in a bundle and point at the Charlie White fiasco and scream, “But, but, Republicans do it too!”  Why does the Tribune continue to run this nonsense?

Well, let’s address each of these things in turn:

1. Yes, the “Public Eye” feature is certainly left-leaning.  Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but I think it’s better to call it the Left Eye so at least folks are aware of what they’re getting when they start reading.  Objectivity is not the name of the game for that feature.

2.  Just anticipate the Mourdock distortions to get worse – much worse – now that he has won the primary and he is facing off against one of the Left Eye’s favorite sons, Silent Joe Donnelly.  I imagine we’ll be in for a treat when it comes to the reporting of what Mourdock did with the Chrysler lawsuit.  We’ve gotten into it before and explained it in detail.  But suffice it to say, the Obama administration was violating two centuries of debtor law to play political favorites with his bankruptcy deal for Chrysler.  It threatened the pensions of teachers and state police officers, so Mourdock defended the law.  The Chrysler purchase by Fiat was not in jeopardy by that move because Fiat would have been fools to walk away from what was a ridiculously good deal they were getting.  Joe Donnelly and Evan Bayh pranced around pandering to Chrysler union employees by pretending to “stand up” for them against Mourdock’s evil scheme.  The truth is, when we abandon the rule of law, it doesn’t benefit anyone in the long run – not even newspaper reporters.

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3. As far as the rest of it, par for the course.  It is what it is.  Although I agree it is humorous that when Republicans are corrupt there is no such effort by the media (national, state or local) to fall all over themselves to remind everybody that the Democrats have their issues too.  I suppose that’s what we’re for on this radio show – the major difference being that I’m willing to acknowledge my program is a conservative program.  To this point, I’m yet to see such an admission from our friends at the Left Eye.

4. Finally, in terms of why the Tribune continues to run the feature, I’m guessing it’s well read and popular.  A lot of people on the left asked why the Tribune would run my column all those years with as annoying as it was to them.  It’s the nature of freedom of the press.  Of course, they don’t run my column anymore, but you get my point – the fact that you’re complaining about it is proof that you are reading it.  There’s your answer.

All that to say, the positive thing is that you easily identified the liberal bias inherent in the piece.  All you have to do is spread the word and the impact of the bias is neutralized.  That’s the beauty of free speech.  The distortions of the left can be overwhelmed with conservative speech.  Thanks for doing your part.