Directions
-Read the excerpt below from the "Best of the Web" post by OpinionJournal.com's editor James Taranto.
-Read "Types of Media Bias" in the right column. Then answer the questions.
Question(s)
1. E.J. Dionne is a columnist for the Washington Post. As a columnist, he does not report the news, but instead comments on the news (gives his opinion). Although he is a columnist, do you think holding a double-standard between the election results for President Bush and President Obama is biased? Explain your answer.
2. Mr. Dionne appears sincere. Why do you think he views similar election results differently? Explain your answer.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.
Excerpt
From a post by OpinionJournal.com’s editor James Taranto (original post date 11/8/12):
Here’s a note of caution for President Obama and the Democrats: “Begin with the facts: A 51-48 percent victory is not a mandate.” Surprisingly enough, the source of this warning is E.J. Dionne, the Washington Post’s perennial liberal triumphalist.
It gets less surprising when you realize he wrote that in 2004: “Two nearly equal sides are engaged today, as they were on Tuesday, in a long-term struggle to make inroads into the other’s patch. . . . On Wednesday [George W.] Bush told those who voted against him: ‘I will do all I can do to deserve your trust.’ Mr. President, I truly hope you realize how much work you have to do.”
You won’t be surprised to learn that Dionne is taking the opposite tack today: “Now Obama will have the strongest argument a politician can offer. Repeatedly, he asked the voters to settle Washington’s squabbles in his favor. On Tuesday, they did. And so a president who took office four years ago on a wave of emotion may now have behind him something more valuable and durable: a majority that thought hard about his stewardship and decided to let him finish the job he had begun.”
