Click below to read more. Here is a snipet.

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New York's radio station WLIB-1190 AM has been loyally "serving New York's Black community" - as its logo states - for decades now. In the early '90s WLIB was lauded as a resource for "Afrocentric" programming and became known for featuring Imhotep Gary Byrd's "Global Black Experience" show.

The station was in many ways a Black activist outlet.

But by the end of this month, WLIB will be taking on a different hue, as it joins the launch of Progress Media's "Air America Radio," the new, predominately White, liberal talk-radio network. Air America has reportedly partnered with Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC), which owns WLIB.

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One point that I think needs to be made here is that conservatives/rightists seem to often mistake fact-digging by the media as a liberal/leftist act, especially when it focuses on the government or the Bush administration and reflects negatively on them.

Examples: Is asking our government questions about its actions during wartime/counterterrorism, and trying to get straightforward answers, necessarily left-leaning reporting? Is reporting the number of soldier casualties in Iraq a left-leaning act by the media? Is reporting on the investigation of the Bush administration's knowledge and actions leading up to September 11 a liberal news tack?

I believe the answers to all of these are "no", but that many conservative/right-wingers think in terms of "yes".

In my opinion, the notion of The Liberal Media is a complete myth.

Is this part of the plan?

I'm sure Franken, Garofalo & co. will get better. I just doubt that it will matter.

Fox is very liberal in my view, and Rebuplicans are for small government and balanced budgets.

"Using comedians to inform and entertain instead of boring cats like Mario Cuomo is a stroke of genius."

Unless of course the radio shows they are on are boring. Fan of all the Air America hosts but in all honesty, this station sucks.

Using comedians to inform and entertain instead of boring cats like Mario Cuomo is a stroke of genius.

Sterling, I do talk for three hours a day. That's for your understanding. But what's your excuse?

Honey: OK, I read the whole thing. Yes, Rush Limbaugh makes mistakes. So does everybody. I am not personally endorsing Rush Limbaugh, I am just pointing out that he is a generally likable guy who is really, really good at radio, and who became phenomenally popular by giving people what they want: a conservative media voice.

That said, he has to talk for three hours a day, extemporaneously, and so I think we can forgive him the occasional misstatement.

Ajit: "i think i proved that point."

It's nice that you think so, Ajit. But the FOX news situation is NEW, whereas the old leading networks controlled ALL TV news for decades, and still control most TV news distribution. So just to say, "FOX is #1, therefore there is no liberal media bias" is simple-minded. WHY has FOX become #1 in the last few years, despite being available on basic cable for far fewer households, and not available at all in Canada? Could it be a backlash? That's MY point - that conservative talk radio became successful because it was an alternative to leftist control of the mainstream news business in the 80s and 90s.

And the fact that people in airports read USA Today doesn't make it more influential than the NY Times, or the LA Times, or the Washington Post, which all lean left. And even the WSJ, as I pointed out, has a left-leaning news dept (personified by Al Hunt), but a right-leaning ed page.

Honey: So...is your point that Rush Limbaugh was wrong about something, 15 years ago?

You're all a bunch of morons! Stop listening to the radio and read the bible!

Sterling, your contention that those of us who "bristle" have an "expectation" that media be liberal is true only in that I have an expectation, and that's that the media be inquisitive, persevering, tenacious, and pull no punches, and that goes for everyone regardless of left or right lean. What is angering is the kind of free pass MOST of the media gives the Bush administration, sure the NYT and some others try to investigate, but even they bury stories or don't follow them through, and those publications are NOT a majority. Most outlets, be they print, TV, or (especially) radio are embarrassingly easy on the Bush administration, which makes me doubt any charges of liberal media bias.

Matt - Chris Matthews is in the administration's pocket? What are you smoking? And I don't think he'd call himself a "former dem" - he remains a "dem". Jim Cramer is a Democrat - and a partisan one.

And I said "off-market coverage" in regards to CNBC. Of course financial guys are going to lean right, but their news coverage is extremely limited and focused - CNBC during the day is niche broadcasting, the same as soap operas or trailer trash talk shows.

As for Dennis Miller, I consider him to be a person without a firm political affiliation. In his early days he seemed a libertarian, then was obviously a Clinton backer, and now (post-9/11) he's a Bush backer. I think he could go back the other way at any moment.

Gloria Borger and Tim Russert are also CNBC regulars, and they're both slight left-leaners.

I think you're talking about Bill Schneider as the CNN political analyst. It's true he's a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, but he's also written a column for the New Republic and taught at Harvard. He's also a contributing editor at National Journal, which is slightly left of center. I think he's pretty much a middle of the road guy. The rest of the CNN stable is very left-leaning. CNN also plays an old trick - on their panel shows, like The Capital Gang, they not only out-number the conservatives with lefties, they also pick weak, unattractive conservatives (cough, Bob Novak, cough). Fox does this in reverse, with Alan Colmes and others.

Hey, Sterling, check this out:

http://www.fair.org/press-releases/limbaugh-debates-reality.html

uh...who's arguing that the NYT isn't liberal? sorry for not being clearer in my previous point. what i was trying to do was say that sterling's ridiculous comment about the rampant liberal bias throughout the media is yet another right-wing paranoia/conspiracy theory by showing that the top newspapers and the top news channel in the country are not liberal at all. i think i proved that point.

MSNBC: Scarborough (former republican congressman) and chris matthews (former dem now in the administration's pocket)

CNBC: Kudlow (former Reagan official and supply-side true believer) Kramer (anything to make the market go up), joe kernan (same), and now dennis miller who clings to bush like a scared child.

this is not centrism.

CNN: chief political analyst is a fellow at a conservative think tank, and you could substitute their anchor's scripts with administration white boards.

you're swimming.

Have to agree with Sterling.

Even a cursory glace at the New York Times shows its (slight) bias. I do not think the NYT's bias is as explicit and unrepentent as FOX News, but has more to do with the fact that most journalists (print, at least) are democrats and, unwittingly or not, that bias comes through to a certain degree.

As much of a fan of NPR and its "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", it too leans left. The choice of stories, who is interview, the amount of time to a particular viewpoint, etc. Again, like the NYT (and unlike FOX News), I do not think it is an agenda.

As someone said earlier, all media is biased. As long as the reader/watcher/listener is aware of that, and takes ANY story with a little grain of salt, the 'bias' is relatively harmless.

(Whoops - I meant that Fox News is a cable news network, not a broadcast network.)

Ajit - Don't play games. The New York Times is the most influential newspaper in America, and it is very much a left-leaning outlet. Granted, it was worse under Howell Raines, but it's still out there.

The reason Fox News has become the most popular broadcast network is that it is an alternative to the Pravda-esque leftism that earlier prevailed on TV news. Since Fox's ascent, MSNBC has moved to a centrist point, and CNBC's off-market coverage probably always was basically centrist. But CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS were and remain left-leaning.

And Brokaw and Jennings are not considered left-leaning? By whom? Brokaw is apparently one of Kerry's short-listers for vice-president, for crying out loud, and he's the most centrist Big-3 anchorman in HISTORY!

Matt - If you want research, go to Accuracy in Media - they've been documenting left-leaning bias in the media for decades. Goldberg wrote about experiences in his several-decades long career at CBS.

Ryan - Rush Limbaugh is a chamber-of-commerce Republican. His views are well within the mainstream. If they were not - how do you suppose he could have built a listener base of 20 million in midday, what used to be considered throwaway time by radio stations? He's on vacation this week, I think, but maybe you should take some time to listen to him?

What you might find is that you object not very much to what he SAYS, but that you are irritated by the CONTEXT and ASSUMPTIONS he brings to the table. The TOPICS he chooses, and the way he FRAMES those topics might annoy you. And I hope you enjoy the experience, because that's what it was like to be a conservative in America before talk radio and the Internet, watching TV news or reading a newspaper.