Mar 16 2007
America Has No Confidence In The News Media
The News Media in this country has become a joke. With people like Keith Olberman and Chris Mathews it is no wonder Americans have no respect for the news media. The rise of Fox and the blogosphere has taken root because the media has self destructed through what can only be described as “mental inbreeding”. The echo chamber of liberal thought (and not very deep thought at that) is now exposed and America is turning their back on it. How else do can anyone that is the conclusion to draw from this poll:
The vast majority of American voters detect the presence of political bias in the mainstream news media, according to a Zogby poll released yesterday in conjunction with the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.
Sentiment is strong: 83 percent of likely voters think bias is “alive and well.” Of that number, 64 percent said the press leans left, while slightly more than a quarter — 28 percent — said there was a conservative bias.
Not so surprising is the fact the far left is more and more out on an island of its own views. When I see 60-30 splits like this, with the left out there in some strange parallel universe, I take heart that the conservative movement has the potential to make a come back. As long as the far right can tolerate (actually, we would prefer respect) the more pragmatic independent conservatives needed to make governing majority. BTW, that means no name calling, like RINO (which, as an independent, I find quite humorous).
The biggest loss to the old media is that they lost the kids.
Kids have their videos. And, it’s been this way since Nintendo rolled out in the mid-1980’s.
You can’t win audiences back, either. Let alone with drivel.
While one good thing? Money still talks. So the instant riches for those who wrote and filmed 300 is there to see. Doesn’t need an Oscar. Now that it’s a waste of time to see algore get one.
And, that’s also a shift.
Oddly enough? From the bottom up.
This also couples to changing tastes. How last century it began with women showing no ankle at all. Wearing sweeping skirts out on dirty streets. Even the two big wars weren’t the only news of stuff that brought “change.” Because the way money is gonna get earned, ahead, won’t have much to do with college debt. Or the credentials that gave us a bunch of losers on the top.
First, however, you notice the drop off in customers. That’s always a good indicator that you’re no longer an influence. Anymore, than today, paris can dictate the color of women’s clothing. GONE. Not forgotten. But relics just the same.
While over at the NY Times? Did you know they’re trying to knock Hillary out of the 2008 nomination? You didn’t? Well, they are. Through their print vines. Makes one wonder if they’re like the Aspen vines, so well connected underneath, that when one set dies, they all die.
While the Internet hears everything. And, you can see what you want. And, sometimes, you can even throw in your own two-cents. Nice, huh?
I think putting people like Olberman and Matthews and Stephanolopus and Russet on TV as journalists really hurt the media. These people were honest to God operatives for the Democratic party. That is who signed their paychecks for years. Imagine giving Karl Rove a spot on TV and trying to tell people he was a journalist. Same difference.
The media has done it to themselves. They are adults making business decisions with plenty of good data to see how their viewership/subscribers are reacting to their product.
I f Fox can come in and do an entry into the market and capture audience, that is how it works.
The present choice of direction by some media has all the wisdom of opening a tanning shop in the desert.
So management has to observe their market and adjust. If they don’t then that is less than satisfactory.
Simple as that.
Terrye – It’s all one big happy Democratic family. All these people are interested in is power, period. Washington is no civics class.
Not to feel sorry for the Media,,,,,, but think back (I can do 40 plus years) when can you remember an occurance of something reported which matches your observed memory….. I know of two, neither were remarkable or relevant to world problems, but both were FUBAR wrt reality….. case closed……
I see the dems are still lying even on polls. 60% say media is right leaning. Gee, I hadn’t noticed.
News these days isn’t about informing the public, it is about selling products. Advertizing. It is about getting eyeballs. The idea is to put sensational content out there that compels people to watch and then you show them the ads that are your bread and butter.
So you now have stories that go on forever (Plame saga, or the Anna Nicole Smith soap opera) that people can follow and tune into the latest developments so the sponsors can hit them with some more ads.
News is basically nothing more than a lamp these days that draws the moths to the advertising. It has absolutely nothing to do with what is accurate or truth … it has to do with what the largest number of people will tune their cable box to. If there was an ongoing debate about the sky being orange that people were interested in, believe me, the news media would trot out people who believed the sky was orange just to create a controversy and get people to watch. News is now theater.
An example of why America has lost confidence in the news:
On CNN’s front page tonite there was a banner ad for http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/polarbearsos_0207
The idea here is to “Tell the Bush Administration to protect polar bears and their critical habitat
Polar bears are completely dependent on Arctic sea ice to survive, but 80 percent of that ice could be gone in 20 years and all of it by 2040. ”
As if the Bush Administration can do anything about arctic sea ice. But the entire premise is wrong. Bears are NOT completely dependent on sea ice. The are dependent on seals and fish. Less ice means better access to seals and fish. They have to travel a shorter distance to get to food. Polar bears can also swim over 100 miles across open ocean. Less ice means more seals and fish. Polar bear populations go in cycles but there are currently many more polar bears now than there were in the 1950’s.
That the news media puts this kind of drivel on their front page is one reason people don’t take them seriously.
You live in a world where money talks.
When “300” blew out as a bombshell victory for unknowns; what it tells people who gamble on media success stories, is something known by the makers of video games for awhile.
The kids left the stadium. They are not going to the movies, like their grandparents did. Those grandparents made Disney rich. And, the star system that once existed in hollywood, was, in fact, based on handing out great roles to a few.
But it got out of hand.
Today’s stars? LOSERS, really. Because to make a film with them, is to put writers and directors at the mercy of IDIOTS.
So, “300” came along. And, yes. MONEY TALKS. It talks to those who sees ways of making big hits in the casino, as long as they steer clear of the dogma. And, the idiots who control “the boards.”
Of course, the blow out now has a lot of fingers in the air. Waiting to see “how” they can get a hunk of all of this.
Bush, by the way, survives doing what he does best. Avoiding any contact with the media.
And, Iraq? Maliki actually became a stable factor as soon as he saw what could happen if the donks actually win! And, “leave” Iraq. Which won’t happen.
In some ways Bush has just been cleaning out the stable. The stuff he inherited. While his dad did nothing positive for the CIA. Plame, as a joke, is doing wonders. Because no one believes her. Outside the jurors in DC. Which was Libby’s mistake.
In other words? Libby is now in Martha Stewart’s shoes. Discovering what it means to hire an attorney who can’t get it done in the courtroom.
Not bad for lessons, ahead. Where you can see Wells’ mistakes. ONE. He got shafted by waltoon. So you see there’s no brotherly love. No support structure among blacks. Just various, assorted roach motels.
Rumsfeld’s right. You can do the best you can do. But you’re still dealing with UNKNOWNS. “300” eposed a whopper. So that it’s now A KNOWN UNKNOWN.
Why did Wells allow Russert to leave the witnesss box? When you answer that one, you’ll be on your way to identifying better attorneys from the run-of-the-mill stock.
Bush? Let the donks run against him. He’s not running for a thing, anymore.
And, the outsiders, in this game, have the advantage. Guiliani, for one, is an outsider. Fred Thompson? Not quite. Got hit by the Chinese when he was a senator. And, all he can do is try to repair errors. Not quite the kind of guy that hits them out of the ball park.
And, he’s short of money, too.
Politics is a strange affair. The Whigs? Once on top of their game. Then? Henry Clay did something AWFUL! He backed John Quincy Adams, who came in second, in 1824. Because? He could cop the Secretary of War job. Which he got for four years.
But the Whigs, themselves, weren’t able to understand the shifting political winds. They were nativists. When the incoming hordes were German and Irish. And, Catholics, galore. They couldn’t grasp the arguments about slavery; when the real push was to pursue this all over the land. Wasn’t gonna work out on “compromises.” And, deceit. And, Taney, over at the Supreme Court, tossed a wrench into the works. Ended up GUTTING THE WHIGS.
Which is the American system. Able to correct itself after the mistakes are made by individuals.
As to this Bush? Better at his job than his dad, that’s for sure. But not good news to GOP kiesters who use “compromise” instead of intelligence. While the mainstream doesn’t want to play this game.
So far? It gives Guiliani the edge. What he does with this remains to be seen.