Washington Journal caller asks for Brian Lamb's resignation

[AmerDem]

It happened on today show about 2hrs15min-2hrs30min into the program. During a round table discussion with past political correspondents a caller said Lamb should resign for taking C-Span to rightwing of the political spectrum. He said Lamb does it both subtley and directly. Lamb tried to laugh it off but he was pretty much speechless, turned red and tried to get off the subject as soon as possible.

It was great seeing this sly biased asshole called out!


http://www.c-span.org/Search/basic.asp?BasicQueryText=washington+journal&SortBy=date



edit: update link

[grasswire]

1. ha

sorry I missed that.

[bushwakker]

2. I have always thought he was subtley playing to the rw crowd

can't stand lamb and his alleged neutrality.

[agingdem]

3. Have to remember...

C-Span was Newt"s favorite "station".

[izzie]

10. I do not think it was for the programs but how Newt came to power.

He was on the flour of the House for hours talking and it had to stay on.

[Mojambo]

4. I've never noticed a bias one way or the other with him

I'm not a regular watcher though.

He's had Chomsky on multiple times and gave a very good interview with Eric Alterman who praised him for his unbiased interview style.

[AmerDem]

8. Wrong, Alterman gave him a subtle jab

about his bias. As Alterman was describing how so many talking heads show their biased up front, he turned to Lamb and said, "you just disguise yours better"!

[Leilani]

12. Alterman said how many times to Lamb

my books got their first airing here...

Alterman loves Lamb, it was obvious.

[AmerDem]

13. That was in discussion about "Booknotes" coming to an end!

Many have praised it and have said they wish it wasn't going off air.

[librechik]

5. Near the end Brian looked around at the panel of retired journalists

who were on and said, woth some surprise, "Oh well, I guess you'd have to say that ALL of us kinda lean to the right. Ha ha ha ha!"

and they all laughed along.

Isn't that special?

[EST]

6. Yeh, I saw that this morning.

Was good for s chuckle. I hope it helped the caller's peace of mind. Ihave written Mr Lamb on several occasions, with a(in my opinion) well reasoned discource on my own suspicians of the same thing, but to no avail. He has his stock-in-trade answers, and to all appearances allows of no questioning of his baser motives. Powerlessness and helplessness are so angrily frustrating!

[Leilani]

7. He also got a call saying he was way too liberal

The calls balanced out & the panel had a good laugh.

Also, remember 90% of the callers say C-Span is great.

C-Span is our only station uncontaminated by corporate greed, political pressure, completely devoid of ads, money influence.

Sometimes it seems because of guests, it swings right, sometimes left.

Who showed the conventions gavel-to-gavel, no commentary?

Who showed the ENTIRE peace march in NYC during the convention, which was a big boost for us watching?

Where are you getting to watch Kerry speeches in their entirety?

[AmerDem]

11. I love C-span

So much so my new C-span coffee mug is on the way....LOL, Anyway, Lamb is a biased bastard. The thing that gets me about people like him is they try to sway others without being over the top like so many of the talking heads today.

[Mojambo]

14. Again, I've never noticed him trying to sway a guests opinion.

It's about as unbiased an interview as I can find on TV.

That may speak more to the awfullness of the Hannity/O'Reilly crowd though.

I really think there are far more heinous media targets than Lamb. It's not like he's shouting people down.

I shouldn't really engage too deeply in the debate however. I'm sure others have viewed the show much more than I.

[AmerDem]

15. Well, I suggest you watch more often.

I'm not the only one here who has spoken out about his bias. Watch and you will see. As Alterman says, he disguises it well!

[Mojambo]

16. Disguise it well

That's all I ask.

Interviews shouldn't be done from a partisan standpoint. If Lamb's are not then (as Alterman suggests) he's doing a great job.

[AmerDem]

19. you miss the point

but frankly, I don't care enough about Lamb to go into it any further.

[Mojambo]

25. If you're not willing to make the point then why post?

It's not nice to tell someone they're wrong and then refuse to discuss why.

My position is that we don't get to pick the political leanings of those who bring us our news. We do have a right to demand that they try (and that's all anyone can do - try) to hide those political leanings as best as possible when they are functioning in their professional capacity.

Lamb does this better than most IMO, but he's certainly not perfect. I generally only watch the show if it's a guest that I'm interested in so maybe that makes a difference. He has always treated the ideas and opinions of those guests quite well.

If he's good enough for the foremost media critic in America then he can't be all bad.

There simply are too many better targets of media bias then to waste time on Lamb who often gives voice to many people you'd never find on any of the cable opinion channels (FOX,CNN,MSNBC...)

Anyway, we can let it drop.

[AmerDem]

30. I'm not here to convince you of anything!

I posted what happened on todays show. I then gave my opinion of the repuke. You know how you feel about the guy so keep it and move on.

[Mojambo]

26. dupe

Sorry, duplicate post.

DU is killing me today.

[Eloriel]

23. C-Span has definitely shifted right and Lamb is definitely biased

towards the right -- all of which says NOTHING about the other points you made. It's still great, it still covers things other stations do not, etc., etc., etc.

ANd it's still subtly biased.

[Cheswick2.0]

9. Did he tell him we call his show Fascist Fridays?

There is a reason for that, you know Mr lamb!

[cheshire]

17. I disagree, some see anything less than total pro lert or right as biased.

I like the truth and if they say something that's not 100% my way I do not think that is going over to the other side. I think some Dems are as far left as some Pubs are far right. They can't stand to hear anything that hints of against their side.

[KT2000]

18. Yes - Brian needs to decompress

because he is allowing his partisanship to show. When callers criticize Bush - he many times has a retort using Kerry.

EX: This morning a caller was talking about the presidency of Bush being so secretive and said that he did not have news conferences - Brian said - Kerry hasn't had a news conference since Aug., does that bother the caller?
The caller explained he wants to know what our government is doing from the president.

Anyway, Brian is in the habit of challenging criticisms of Bush but I don't see much challenge to criticisms of Kerry.

Brian is losing his ability to be objective and needs to take a break. Glad the caller was able to get through and call him on his partisanship.

[AmerDem]

20. he mentioned that more then once.

How the hell can anyone compare our president having 12 news conferences in 4 years ( when Clinton had something like 65 and poppy Bush had something like 120 ) to a candidate who hasn't had one in a lil over a month. It just boggles the mind!


That is a pure repuke talking point there!

[indepat]

21. Does Brian really deserve to be called anything as nice as a sly

biased asshole for, were he only a sly biased asshole, I wouldn't almost puke at the mere sight of him? But then of course I'm prejudiced.

[Sparkle]

22. It's unbelievable how you guys accuse Brian of a right wing bias.

That station tries very hard to be neutral. Of all those moderators, the only one that shows his bias is that clean cut looking one (can't remember his name) but the others you can't tell and they want it that way. I watch washington journal nearly everyday and they get accused from both sides. I'm sorry, I love Brian Lamb. He's the best. CSPAN is the best.

[grasswire]

24. I'll never forget his segment with ...

...Lucianne Goldberg. He twittered with her as if she were the best of pals, flirting and laughing at her disgusting attacks on liberal Americans. It was obvious that they are friends. From that, I learned all I needed to know about Brian Lamb.

[AmerDem]

27. now that is scary

and nauseating all at once!

[Laughing Mirror]

28. Were it not for Brian Lamb, there would be no C-Span

He, practically single-handedly, created C-Span. So please do remember that.

[AmerDem]

29. were it not for his rightwing bias

people here wouldn't be bringing it up!

[Laughing Mirror]

32. One must watch C-Span aware of that bias

But it still does not rule out the fact that C-Span is Bryan Lamb's baby, a somewhat eccentric adult now, granted. I think that Lamb must be surprised what his baby turned into and that a majority of the people who tune in regularly are more to the left. He has said this on the air, and I believe him. That is why they generally split the callers into the two parties, because otherwise the Democrats (the majority of the viewers) calling in would drown out the Repubs (who are vastly outnumbered).

Brian Lamb can be whatever he wants to be, as far as I'm concerned, so long as C-Span stays on.

[Bandit]

31. I think Brian Lamb is indeed a Republican but he has credibility

He has shown himself to be quite fair at times. Granted he has also shown some bias but name one news anchor that hasn't. I am grateful for him even if he makes me angry at times. We could do one hell of a lot worse believe me. What if Limbaugh were somehow to gain control of C-span? There is tremendous balance on C-span and much is shown that you would never see or hear about in any other format. Let's fight the battles that really matter.

[immoderate]

33. I don't see it.

I often marvel at how studiously neutral Brian Lamb and his flock are. I have seen many WJs. Lamb occasionally challenges callers. I have seen him do it to all sides. I don't keep score.

But I don't see how they could be much more neutral. More than that, I particularly remember Brian's conversations with Marge somebody, who was their services director, as being models of civility.

Remember the job of journalists is to be somewhat adversarial. If they're not we can't show our stuff.

--IMM