Liberal Media / Conservative Media

[rmcrobertson]

"The media," is not getting lazier. They are getting bought up, consolidated, corporatized, by conglomerates that have no vested interest whatsoever in getting the news or reporting information: they have a vested interest in turning a profit.

Some wire services have been run out of business; some have been bought out. Newsrooms have lost their ability to research and report, because that costs money. And, the real profit centers are in entertainment: CBS news, if I recall correctly, is in CBS' entertainment division.

To ice it, the personal interests of reporters increasingly revolve around making their careers--but why's anybody surprised? This is how capitalism works.

Then too, when a real reporter, like Seymour Hersh, appears, then everybody and their dimwit uncle starts attacking him as a liar and traitor. Must be fun.

 

[Phoenix44]

True.

 

[Feisty Mouse]

CBS news, if I recall correctly, is in CBS' entertainment division.

You are kidding me! (Although I know you're not.)

Sad, sad sad.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

You are kidding me! (Although I know you're not.)

Sad, sad sad.

Well, there is the big business aspect...but there is some hubris on the part of the old timers that has slowed many of them down. Name some of the old great interviewers...who still shoots from the hip during interviews? Mike Wallace sure doesn't. He lost his edge. Morley Safer? I think so. Mike Krall? Yes. Tim Matthews? Oh, hell, yes. Deb Norville? No. Paula Zahn...sorta. Bill O'Reilly...shouts 'em down.

Some of those kids at the NY Times are trying to out do the old great ones...and are having to fabricate stuff to do it.

Maybe its a lost art, investigative journalism. The art of the interview sure is gone. People have forgotten the "follow up question."

Regards,


Steve

 

[Phoenix44]

People have forgotten the "follow up question."

When you have "press conferences" with pre-selected questions, questioners, AND answers, the "follow up question" no longer exists.

 

[TonyM.]

The freestate project is probably the work of a couple of losers I know from grafton. Loser=Can't hold a job, can't maintain their own company, can't stay married, can't get custody of their kids, can't get reelected to the legislature.
No wonder the people of Grafton (all couple of hundred of them) aren't interested. They already have had to suffer through the reign of a police chief that sold drugs and stole cars. I think having a bunch of spin dry twelve step rejects move to their little town would probably push them over the edge. Transient Dartmouth and CRREL peeps are almost taking over as it is.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Stuff to hand people when they talk about the "liberal media" and blame it for all our ills.

Here are links to studies regarding the media and bias:

<http://www.fair.org/reports/journalist-survey.html>

<http://www.fair.org/press-releases/power-sources-release.html>


Two just lovely quotes from conservatives regarding the issue:

"I admit it: the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole
thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative
failures."

--William Kristol, conservative editor of the Weekly Standard
and former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle.

"The truth is, I've gotten fairer, more comprehensive coverage of my ideas
than I ever imagined I would receive. I've gotten balanced coverage and
broad coverage--all we could have asked. For heaven sakes, we kid about the liberal media, but every Republican on earth does that."

--Pat Buchanen, during his 1996 run for the Presidency.


And some anecdotal information gleaned from several sources, with some of my own observations:



These are the top radio newscasters and the numbers of listeners that tune to their shows every week:

Paul Harvey. 23 million listeners.
Rush Limbaugh. 14.5 million listeners.
Sean Hannity. 10.5 million listeners.
Dr. Laura. 8 million plus listeners.
Michael Savage. 6 million plus listeners.

All the above are conservatives.

The two top syndicated columnists.

Cal Thomas. 537 newspapers.
George Will 430 newspapers*

Both are highly conservative.

Best selling authors of political commentary and some of their books:

Ann Coulter-Treason, Slander
Robert Bork-Slouching Towards Gomorrah
Sean Hannity-Deliver Us From Evil, Let Freedom Ring
Bill Bennett-The Book of Virtues
Bill O'Reilly-No Spin Zone
Barbara Olson-The Final Days
Peggy Noonan-When Character Was King
Bernard Goldberg-Bias
Pat Buchanen-Death of The West

All are conservative.

A short (very short) list of conservative authors/pundits you might recognize:

Bill Buckley, Matt Drudge, Matt Labash, Tucker Carlson, David Frum, Jonah Goldberg, Victor David Hansen, Oliver North, Bob Novak, Michelle Macklin, David Limbaugh...to name a few.

Other "talking heads" that lean to the right: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, Don Imus, and Dan Abrams. All are unabashedly conservative.

The New York Post, Washington Times and Wall Street Journal are considered conservative.

The "liberal" Washington Post's editorial slant drifted to the right under the helm of Meg Greenfield and later even farther to the right under her successor Fred Hiatt, according to Eric Altman in "What Liberal Media?"

The supposedly "liberal" Washington Post was the first to question the relationship between the Rose Law firm (that employed Hillary Clinton) and the State of Arkansas, whose governor was Bill Clinton. As indicated above, the Post is generally considered to be a notch or two right of center editorially.

The paper breaking the Whitewater scandal: The purportedly "liberal" New York Times.

The "liberal" network CBS is owned by Westinghouse, and NBC is owned by General Eliectric. Both Westinghouse and GE are major government arms contracters. ABC is owned by Disney. CNN is owned by Time/Warner. Note none of these companies are known for their bleeding heart stances on social issues. Big business is generally viewed as antagonistic to much of the liberal agenda.

Until recently, the "liberal" think tank, The Brookings Institution, was run by Michael Arnacost, a Republican member of Reagan's State Department who served as ambassador to Japan under George H.W. Bush. The top ten think tanks in Washington are conservative. One has to get to about the twelfth one down the list before finding one where a Republican would find himself uncomfortable were he/she to work there.

Writer Timothy Noah reports that because of the perception that they had a liberal bias, many reporters overcompensated in 2000 by portraying Al Gore as an habitual liar and giving George W. Bush favorable coverage, even though they ended up voting for Gore themselves. Many Gore supporters feel Gore was "gored" by the press. There is strong evidence to indicate this feeling was justified.

Bernard Goldberg, after publishing his book "Bias" about media bias towards the left, said on Fox News "I would say ninety percent of what I've heard and read about the book has been positive" This would make it sound as if the biased liberals in the media reviewing his book liked it...all but ten percent, anyway.

Conservatives get mention in the press five times as often as liberals. Jesse Helms got more press than Barney Frank, and the Heritage Foundation is mentioned five times as much as Americans for Democratic Action. One would think a liberal press would want the Heritage Foundation and Jesse Helms to sink into obscurity rather than getting time on the air and column inches in print. Apparently not.




*Conservative columnists outreach liberal colunmists of a ration of 3-1 according to author Arthur E. Rowse. Editor and Publisher magazine found that the number of Editors endorsing Bush over Gore in 2000 was 2-1.

Publisher's voted for Bush in a 3-1 ratio. These ratios reflect the actual votes cast for Bush by editors and publishers of the two hundred or so that were polled.


Regards,


Steve