Our weekly look at the loudest screech from the mainstream media this week features Economist staffer Zanny Minton Beddoes on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher discussing GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
She said, “The fact that you say that you think he might win the nomination completely terrifies me. I mean, how many decades back, how many centuries back does he want to take us? I read a little bit of his book this week, which is terrifying–logical, but terrifying–and there was a review of it, I think it was the Philadelphia Inquirer when it first came out and it said that Santorum would be a fine mind for the 13th Century. And it’s kind of right.”
Brent Baker, Media Research Center’s vice president of research, explains our pick this way: “Terrifying? The level of journalistic hostility to Santorum is terrifying to anyone who expects members of the press corps to be tolerant and accepting of diversity, the very values they condemn conservatives for supposedly not holding. But at least she’s opened a window into the wider journalistic mindset about Santorum.” Rating: Three out of five screams.
