Your Opinion: Response to Horstmann on bias vs. balance

Dear Editor:

I am responding to "Liberal half-truths challenged," a letter published recently. Harold Horstmann of Lohman proclaimed that liberals are incapable of being honest and are bent on destroying society. This would be considered a stereotype as most would agree that there are bad apples in every bunch.

Later in the opinion Horstmann seems unsatisfied that Fox news was labeled least trusted news source by a rival news station. Now I will be the first to agree that Fox News problem didn't get a fair shake in that poll since it was conducted by their competitor. Depending on the audience being surveyed a high school journalism team could be voted most trusted news source. I see this as no different than Fox News claiming to be fair and balanced even though the station clearly caters to the right.

Horstmann also claims Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to be legitimate journalists rather than entertainers based on a long broadcasting career. I must disagree on the grounds that Limbaugh and Hannity - much like liberal talk show hosts Rachel Maddow and Ed Shultz - insert their opinion on news stories rather than broadcasting the news itself. For example , Rush Limbaugh referred to Sandra Fluke as a prostitute and a slut after her testimony in front of Congress, that was the opinion of Rush Limbaugh not a fact.

Legitimate news would be if the evening news anchor reported that a fire at 123 Oak Street was caused by a ruptured gas line. That's called reporting facts. I doesn't seem too conservative to call people vulgar names like he did to Sandra Fluke. In his post Hortsmann claims liberals feel threatened by Limbaugh and Hannity for exposing their agenda. This would also be false; by exhibiting vulgar and obscene behavior like the name calling mentioned above Limbaugh and other loose cannons on the far right are doing nothing but destroying their own credibility and further complicating the identity crisis that is currently taking place within the Republican party.