American Media :: Conservative Or Liberal?

Do liberals or conservatives control the media?

Liberals are currently railing that the media is Conservatively biased and terribly unhappy about Phil Donahue's quick exit from TV. Further they maintain that the Radio waves are over loaded with conservative views. Conservatives complain that TV, in its shows, & newscasts are overly liberal. Ditto Hollywood, newspapers & music. They also bemoan the fact that all they have is AM Radio.

Actors and musicians are typically to the left because their professions are typically about expressing the human condition, which requires empathy with people. Their concerns with people are best represented among left-leaning politics that have a commitment to improving the living condition of the general public as its base. Today's business leaders, including media conglomerates, are driven by the need for greater profits, which often requires ignoring human conditions. Their concerns with self-interest are best represented among right leaning politics that have a commitment to protecting private property as its base.

So how is the print media doing? There's the hopelessly wishy-washy NYT on the "left". On the right you have the WSJ, Washington Times, Weekly Standard and the NY Post.. The Washington Post? Their editorial page is now a haven for the neo-cons. The New Republic? This flagship for "liberal journalism" is now a pathetic sop to the neo-cons as well - thank you Marty Peretz. The Atlantic Monthly? It's editor is Michael Kelly- 'nuf said.

How about TV? ABC, CBS and NBC are whoring shills for their corporate masters. The very notion that GE would allow one of their subsidiaries (NBC) to twist the news in a liberal manner is laughable. The News Hour on PBS has long since been de-fanged and is mostly a gabfest for establishment white men. Cable news? I won't talk about Fox. MSNBC puts up the poor befuddled Donahue, then pulls him, but they do have time for Michael Savage. CNBC is completely in the tank for Bush. Then there's CNN - the outfit that tried to hire Limbaugh! That sent Isaacson to capital hill to suck up to the Repub leadership (please tell us how we can make you like us!!). The CNN of Wolf Blitzer is giving us a never ending diet of RumsfeldCondieWolfowitz - liberal? Please.

Finally there's talk radio... oh, nevermind.

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:m: Peace.

 

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Media producers compete for advertising by competing for viewers. This causes a feedback loop between fleeting majority opinions and the feel-good affirmation from "news" organizations that are in the business of telling Americans what they think they want to hear. The 9-11 experience has caused the highest-decibel feedback with the major media in history. Until alternative, more diversified media becomes as attractive to consumers as the cable news-as-entertainment, viewers who think they are learning about the world effecting them will only be looking into a confusing self-congratulating distortion of reality. These are dangerous times for a superpower with a majority of individuals unaccustomed to spontaneous independant thought.

After America's approaching foreign policy/military debacle runs its course, the media will be just as vociferously criticizing the sick old Bush Doctrine, and cheerleading the next screeching feedback loop. It's not a liberal/conservative thing: It's a mindless stampeding media-herd that has no agenda but the dollars it grazes on. Present pastures, like recent ones, will soon be despoiled.

 

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Corporate America controls the media. Political affiliation doesn't effect the news, ratings and propaganda do.

 

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I agree completely. I really hate to give complements to anyone in these forums, but that was a brilliant post hypewaders.

 

:big head emoticon: thanks.

 

Liberals control Fox, can we all agree on that?

 

No.

 

CNN is a bunch of dry, senile old men. Its the most boring news channel, and its also the most liberal, from what I hear.

 

Yep. That pretty well describes all the news channels.
Is CNN the most liberal? I don't watch any of them with any frequency but that seems like it may be true. Regardless, being the most liberal corporate controlled distributor of right-wing propaganda is still very conservative.

 

Fox is conservative to the point I don't watch it if certain people are on such as Steve Doucy and E.D. Hill.
I think CNN is becoming more and more conservative in trying to get the lead back in the ratings game.

 

A few years ago I would have laughed at the question. Of course the media is biased towards a liberal agenda and laughably so! That was then and this is now. A little phenomena that had been under the radar screen for some time became big, talk radio. That and Fox News allowed access to "all" points of views and "all" news stories. No longer could the hyper-liberal news outlets like CBS, ABC, CNN etc.. spoon feed a wide eyed and mesmerized country of sheep. Add the inherent freedom of expression and thought allowed by the internet and the lefts choke hold on the free flow of ideas has evaporated. Did you realize that at least two of the big TV networks are seriosly discussing scrapping their national news programs completely? It seems viewership of their left wing propaganda has plummeted so low that they can't raise enough advertising revenue to break even! In my own city, Atlanta, (considered a major market) CBS lost it's VHF station! The station switched to FOX and CBS is only available on some grainy b-grade UHF station.. almost unviewable!

I know its a frightening time for the extreme left. The Fox News Channel blisters all of the other cable news outlets in the ratings, the Drudge report is booming while Salon.com has to beg for donations to avoid bankruptcy. Dried up mouthpieces on the left like Yawnahue get replaced by dynamic conservative hosts like Savage..

The last place available for the radical left to gather are forums like these. It's amost sad to see the few remaining rabidly liberal kids bemoan the realities of today. Huddled together here it's possible to lash out at those they dislike, offer petty insults and champion a flawed and rapidly dying left wing ideology.

 

Tadpole_Terror = Paranoid

 

Hey, your the gun totin' pillsbury doughboy! LOL Where was the paranoid part? Other than a little gloating I thought I was just pointing out the facts.

 

I'm just messing with you.

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Conservatives are more popular in news shows because their platforms are very simplistic and controversial. The Liberal platform is a little bit more complex and not as easily digested by the public.

 

That’s another way of saying the conservative platform is more popular now. I have some smart conservative friends, but they can’t analyze politics or current events to save their life. All they do is spout patriotism.

 

Of course you know that's a rather "simplistic" view of the right static! lol Honestly, you can't dismiss the popularity of conservative programming by writing it off as simplistic. Well, I guess you can but your making a huge mistake.

I could just as easily submit to you that by virtue of conservative programmings popularity the majority of Americans would find the beliefs held by those like Hype (among others) to be beneath their intelligence and unworthy of serious thought. That too would be a mistake.

If your trying to say that quick sound bites and glitzy packaging (both perfected by FOX News) attract viewers I'll agree, but to write off it's success as nothing more tangible than that would be ludicrous.

 

I have to disagree. Conservative talk radio and news programs base their arguments for the lowest common denominator, in a similiar way like the music and movie industry. They spout out mantras that are simple enough for Middle America to grasp, but that also energized the smarter conservative base.

Conservative talk and news isn't about debate like their liberal counterparts, it's more of a pep rally. It's about chanting the party line 100 times a show, and insulting all who disagree. It's the most primal form of debating, on the level of pre-school kids fighting over a sandbox.:m:

 

Which liberal counterpart are you speaking of? For so many years I was never able to tune into the likes of CNN or the networks and have my views honestly represented. The conservative counterpart was some lukewarm patsy like "David Gergen" who isn't anything other than a conservative leaning democrat. Your definition of "honest debate" seems to be focused predominately within liberal parameters.. i.e. a far left point and a moderate left rebuttle. True conservatism was, and is, painted to be outside the mainstream. If nothing esle FOX News has proven that this isn't true.

I do agree with you that the talk radio versions aren't about debate so much as a deluge of ideological statements. That's no different than the liberal attempts at the art, it's just that they seem to lack an audience and fail.

Static, you came dangerously close to cheapening your position by enferring that "if your conservative, you must be stupid". I'm glad you stepped away from the brink, I know it was rough! (smile)

 

Personally, i think that overall we have a mainly conservative media that sometimes acts liberal.

 

Fox news is merely market diven and has realized that a simple dramatic presentation will draw more viewers than a complex in depth dialog.

As I read in another post on this forum, Fox will break away from their regular broadcasting to cover a "high speed chase", or the "Robert Blake murder trial". And people will watch.

Conservatives look through a telephoto lens and pick out a narrow field of view that is to their liking.

Liberals look at the world through a wide angle lens and envision the whole picture in their thinking.