"Working the ref"

When the manager of a baseball team comes out of the dugout to remonstrate with the umpire about a call, the manager knows that the call won’t be changed.  It is the same when a quarterback argues with the referee about failing to throw a flag on a late hit.  What they are doing is trying to influence the next call.  By making the official aware of their unhappiness, they may get more favorable treatment the next time.  It’s called “working the ref.”

When conservatives attack National Public Radio or the New York Times for bias, those media outlets may feel the need to prove their fairness.  News stories that could remotely be  construed as liberal are toned down; conservative journalists or columnists are hired. 

The reality is that conservatives dominate American media, and I am not only referring to Fred Reinhart’s Times News and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox.  The Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at the content of 11,500 media outlets and found stories that were critical of President Obama outnumbered favorable ones by four to one.  Even during the week Osama bin Laden was killed, the press was unfavorable to the President.  

Over and over we keep hearing about the “liberal media.”  I’d like to find out where they are hiding.