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[Commentary] The entire notion of liberal media bias is a lot of nonsense, cooked up by conservatives to be used as a kind of stick with which to beat journalists in the hope of getting better coverage.

Think I’m making this up? Just ask Rich Bond, who, as the then-chair of the Republican Party, complained during the 1992 election, “I think we know who the media want to win this election—and I don’t think it’s George Bush.” That was Bond on a bad day. On one of his truth-telling days, however, the very same Bond observed of the very same election, however, “There is some strategy to it [bashing the ‘liberal’ media]. … if you watch any great coach, what they try to do is ‘work the refs.’ Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack on the next one.”

In the midst of Big Bird-gate, PBS shrewdly purchased the character’s name as an advertising keyword on Twitter to promote the public broadcaster on the social network. The decision shows how companies are learning to respond to the massive but short-lived ad opportunities that bubble up on social media. While these type of instant-memes are becoming ever more common, what stands out in this case is how quickly PBS responded. As Mashable reports, the broadcaster purchased the keyword “big bird” in order to have a PBS message appear atop the Twitter stream:

Where do people go for local news when there’s no newspaper (or less newspaper than before)? TV and the Internet are the big winners, judging by a survey of New Orleans residents by Louisiana State University’s Public Policy Research Lab.

TV won by a considerable margin, with 76% of New Orleans residents saying local TV news will be their first choice now that the New Orleans Times-Picayune is moving from a daily publication schedule to three days a week, followed by 44% who said they’ll turn to the Internet, according to the survey, which allowed multiple responses. Just 40% said they will continue reading the Times-Picayune for local news. Asked to choose their favorite local news source overall (exclusive of other choices) 44.5% said TV, 22.9% said newspapers, and 18.8% chose the Internet. Asked their favorite source of national news, 38.9% chose TV and 24.7% chose the Internet, while just 7% said local newspapers, and 4.1% said national newspapers. TV also led in terms of trustworthiness, with 46.1% saying local TV news is the most trustworthy, compared to just 26.9% for newspapers.

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Anthony Barrero ran his hands over a large Google Earth image of the George Mason University campus and assessed the situation. The map was covered with dots representing students, some of them sick and injured, sheltering after what appeared to be a dirty bomb attack on campus. Improvised explosive devices placed along nearby roads had delayed an immediate evacuation and there were few rescue workers on campus. Most reports were coming in from the students themselves, using a Twitter look-alike called Chirp. Some students chirped they were injured or feeling sick. Others were reporting strange backpacks around campus. In the makeshift emergency operations center spread out behind Barrero, state, local and federal emergency management officials were monitoring students chirps and chirping back to gather details about the suspect backpacks and asking students to chirp about their injuries and locations with the hash tag #gmuhelpme. This simulated calamity was organized by MITRE, a nonprofit that manages federally funded research projects. Its conclusions could lead federal, state and local officials to look more closely at how they can use social media to improve disaster response.