‘Friday Night Lights’ Author Buzz Bissinger: My Journalist Friends Called Me A Traitor For Endorsing Mitt Romney For President [Video]

Well-known author and journalist Buzz Bissinger, the lifelong Democrat who wrote Friday Night Lights, has apparently received the Stacey Dash treatment after he published his Daily Beast column outlining his decision to vote for Mitt Romney for president.

Bissinger appeared on CNN this morning to talk about the “bad buzz for backing Mitt.”

Speaking with host (and Daily Beast Washington Bureau Chief) Howard Kurtz on the CNN Reliable Sources program, Bissinger said he received about 4,000 comments in social media about his pro-Romney column, running about 6-1 against his endorsement. But the response was far more intense than people merely agreeing to disagree about politics. It has damaged personal relationships, Bissinger noted.

“And it wasn’t just, you know, ‘I disagree’ with you. It was the f-word, it was ‘you’re a baby killer.’ It was even friends, among friends it wasn’t as vitriolic. It was this sense of, ‘How dare you, you’re traitor. You’re a writer. You’re a journalist. How can you possibly come out in favor of this man.’ “

Bissinger admitted that he responded online in the same in-your-face manner. But he also conceded that this experienced convinced him that the liberal bias in the elite media is profound.

“There’s no doubt in my mind there’s a definite liberal bias in the mainstream media. You take out Fox and MSNBC, which is staked at the right and the left, there is a liberal bias. You are simply not expected, when you’re a journalist and a writer, to endorse a Republican. And don’t tell me it does not seep into the coverage. I mean, you look at The New York Times, you look at their editorial today on Afghanistan, you would feel it’s the Republicans’ fault we’re still there, but that’s Obama’s decision. It does seep in.”

Buzz Bissinger further called attention to a contradiction that many others have encountered as well. The liberals who are blasting him for his support of Mitt Romney are supposed to be open minded, accepting of divergent viewpoints, and proponents of free speech, he observed.

Most eye opening: liberals every bit as f***ing nasty as the conservatives they supposedly hate because they are so nasty.

— buzzbissinger (@buzzbissinger) October 10, 2012

Watch Buzz Bissinger talk about taking heat from (former) friends and fans for supporting Mitt Romney for president: