THE FIFTH COLUMN: That's Al Gore's description of some conservative-leaning media outlets. Here's the quote:

The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party. Fox News Network, The Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh — there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media ... Most of the media [has] been slow to recognize the pervasive impact of this fifth column in their ranks — that is, day after day, injecting the daily Republican talking points into the definition of what’s objective as stated by the news media as a whole.

I think what he means is that conservative political bias is anathema to good media (implying, I think, that only liberals can be good journalists). He names names. He accuses individuals of being traitors to their own vocation. Now you'll recall the hubbub when I suggested over a year ago that some politically leftist enclaves might at some point launch "what amounts to a fifth column" in the war on terror. I named no names; I made sure to qualify my remarks; even so, the hatred of the United States that worried me then has since flourished in several places, especially the academy. Still, that one sentence of mine was described in the New York Times as a "disgusting diatribe." Eric Alterman even attempted to insinuate that I had described all New Yorkers or blue staters in this way. So I'm waiting for these same sources to denounce Gore for saying something far less nuanced or careful. He even insinuates that being Republican in the media is to represent a "fifth column." And he does so long after the immediate emotions after 9/11 have subsided. Again, I'm waiting ...

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2002

Answers

as long as he's just waiting and not holding his breath.

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2002