Biased liberal versions of biased conservative media outlets.

On Wednesday, political comic Al Franken launched "Air America Radio," which is being billed as a liberal answer to the right wing's dominance of radio talk shows.

It was learned on the same day that former Vice President Al Gore and wealthy Democratic fund-raiser Joel Hyatt are going to pay $70 million for a small digital-cable channel, presumably with designs on a liberal challenge to conservative Fox News.

They just don't get it.

This country doesn't need more slanted news from the left or the right. What Americans want are news sources they can trust.

And don't go telling me about "the liberal media." If you listen to enough conservative pundits and politicians, you'll never hear the word "media" without it being prefaced by "liberal."

It's like one of Bill Cosby's classic comedy routines:

"It was because of my father that from the ages of 7 to 15, I thought that my name was Jesus Christ and my brother, Russell, thought that his name was 'Dammit.' 'Dammit, will you stop all that noise? Jesus Christ, sit down!' One day, I'm out playing in the rain, and my father yelled, 'Dammit, will you get back in here?' I said, 'Dad, I'm Jesus Christ.' "

Friends, I have some shocking news for you.

There is no "liberal media."

Honest.

Editors from the New York Times and the Washington Post and, for that matter, Pravda, don't contact all the other editors in the country each day and tell us what to put into our newspapers.

Despite statistics showing that most members of the Washington media voted for Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000, there is no cabal of journalists plotting to inflict liberalism on an unsuspecting public.

On the contrary, I've heard it said that while liberals in the media may certainly bring a subconscious bias to their work, conservative outlets such as Fox News, the Washington Times and talk radio have an active agenda to influence public opinion in support of the Republican Party.

I truly believe that to be true. Not only that, but they are doing one heck of a good job of it. E.J. Dionne had it exactly right in a December 2002 column in the Washington Post.

"It took conservatives a lot of hard and steady work to push the media rightward," Dionne wrote. "It dishonors that work to continue to presume that — except for a few liberal columnists — there is any such thing as the big liberal media.

"The media world now includes (1) talk radio, (2) cable television and (3) the traditional news sources (newspapers, newsmagazines and the old broadcast networks). Two of these three major institutions tilt well to the right, and the third is under constant pressure to avoid even the pale hint of liberalism. ... What it adds up to is a media heavily biased toward conservative politics and conservative politicians."

Which is why a lot of liberals have been yearning for just what Franken and Gore are trying to give them.

But news you like to hear isn't necessarily news you can trust, which is why I continue to have such high hopes for the future of newspapers in this high-tech, tell-me-all-about-it-now media climate.

Newspapers, as a rule (and a very good rule it is, too), do a better job than radio or TV and certainly the Internet of trying to get their facts right and being as fair as possible.

When a Jayson Blair or some other miscreant betrays readers' trust, it's big news and taken care of at the newspapers in question with a combination of public guilt, shame and forceful action against said miscreant.

It all comes down to people being able to believe what they read or hear. Isn't it just a little silly to tune in to a conservative or liberal radio station just to listen to a reassuring commentator tell you that you're right in everything you believe about politics?

Al Franken is a very funny guy. Years ago, Rush Limbaugh was pretty funny, too. I used to like to listen to his radio show. Oh, I disagreed with just about everything he said, but he was entertaining.

Unfortunately, he got predictable and more venomous than amusing, so I stopped listening. If Franken is entertaining, I'll listen to him, provided any of the local stations carry his show. But, if it's just doctrinaire left-wing politics, I won't.

In other words, Franken and Limbaugh are good for a laugh, but I think most folks want to get their news from people who at least attempt to present it without an agenda.

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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.