An Interesting Question

[tone=My Cousin Vinny]

We keep saying that the media is being driven by the Democrat Party agenda.



Could we be wrong?

Could it be the other way?

Are the Democrats allowing themselves to be driven by the agenda of the media elites?

Why don't the right's media sites count as "media?"

I hear this all the time about the "media" and it's usually from another media source.

TV may be left leaning (although there are plenty of cable channels that are "right"), but the radio and interwebs are much more right leaning then left leaning.

Fox is the media
Breibart is the media
Rush is the media
Infowars is the media
American Thinker is the media

and on and on...

JohnnySavage said:

Why don't the right's media sites count as "media?"

I hear this all the time about the "media" and it's usually from another media source.

TV may be left leaning (although there are plenty of cable channels that are "right"), but the radio and interwebs are much more right leaning then left leaning.

Fox is the media
Breibart is the media
Rush is the media
Infowars is the media
American Thinker is the media

and on and on...

Click to expand...

Because they serve only a fringe minority in the consumers of the news, and you know that. FOX's cable reach goes nowhere near the numbers of the network news outlets and you know that too.

Really Johnny, you're better than this. You might have well whispered...

[voice-Orson Wells][background=snowing] ... Russians. [/voice][fade to black]

4est_4est_Gump said:

Because they serve only a fringe minority in the consumers of the news, and you know that. FOX's cable reach goes nowhere near the numbers of the network news outlets and you know that to.

Really Johnny, you;re better than this. You might have well whispered...

[voice-Orson Wells][background=snowing] ... Russians. [/voice][fade to black]

Click to expand...

I don't believe that at all. Between cable, internet and radio - I bet the right has far more viewers/readers/listeners.

The right even as a "media elite" as the President's Senior Adviser.

JohnnySavage said:

I don't believe that at all. Between cable, internet and radio - I bet the right has far more viewers/readers/listeners.

The right even as a "media elite" as the President's Senior Adviser.

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Maybe, that might have been true before the election (I really doubt that), but since the election, in case you haven't been paying attention, the Left has been consuming a lot more news, especially on TV.

And on the tangent offered, the President's "Senior Advisor" is being marginalized and replaced by two solidly Democrat Jews, and I'm saying that in a pejorative way, but in a rather amused way as to how the Democrats continue to attack that which they would have happily voted for...

JohnnySavage said:

I don't believe that at all. Between cable, internet and radio - I bet the right has far more viewers/readers/listeners.

The right even as a "media elite" as the President's Senior Adviser.

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I never understood this level of whine, either. What the hell more do they want?

I only have my own bubble of experience to draw on. I spend 90% of my internet time on Lit where the most prolific political posters are on the right. I drink my beer at the American Legion where all the tvs are tuned to Fox, and I live in the deepest of red a region could be and everyone's car radio is tuned to a local "Christian" station that reposts all the Rush-type talk shows.

I, personally, watch the 6 pm BBC World news, then the 6:30 PM NBC Nightly News - otherwise the tv is on a sports event or turned off. I used to watch C-Span all day, but my country office doesn't have a tv and I'm not paying two cable bills

4est_4est_Gump said:

[tone=My Cousin Vinny]

We keep saying that the media is being driven by the Democrat Party agenda.



Could we be wrong?

Could it be the other way?

Are the Democrats allowing themselves to be driven by the agenda of the media elites?

Click to expand...

I made that suggestion yesterday to KingO. It seems the real establishment is the media and sympathetic elected politicians the tools for advancing their agenda.

JohnnySavage said:

I only have my own bubble of experience to draw on. I spend 90% of my internet time on Lit where the most prolific political posters are on the right. I drink my beer at the American Legion where all the tvs are tuned to Fox, and I live in the deepest of red a region could be and everyone's car radio is tuned to a local "Christian" station that reposts all the Rush-type talk shows.

I, personally, watch the 6 pm BBC World news, then the 6:30 PM NBC Nightly News - otherwise the tv is on a sports event or turned off. I used to watch C-Span all day, but my country office doesn't have a tv and I'm not paying two cable bills

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I see you and raise you.

It's so red here that Democrats don't even bother to run for office.

My choices are Republican, Libertarian or Constitution party.

I vote in the reverse order, unless the Libertarian is a total lunatic, in which case "he" (and that's my way of highlighting that it's never a "she") gets my vote every time.



And tangentially, I am seeing that I was right, something went wrong with the 60th missile. It might have been made in North Korea...

Rightguide said:

I made that suggestion yesterday to KingO. It seems the real establishment is the media and sympathetic elected politicians the tools for advancing their agenda.

Click to expand...

He has me on ignore. I made too much sense out of his rabbit-hole nonsense.

JohnnySavage said:

I only have my own bubble of experience to draw on. I spend 90% of my internet time on Lit where the most prolific political posters are on the right. I drink my beer at the American Legion where all the tvs are tuned to Fox, and I live in the deepest of red a region could be and everyone's car radio is tuned to a local "Christian" station that reposts all the Rush-type talk shows.

I, personally, watch the 6 pm BBC World news, then the 6:30 PM NBC Nightly News - otherwise the tv is on a sports event or turned off. I used to watch C-Span all day, but my country office doesn't have a tv and I'm not paying two cable bills

Click to expand...

Shower Takers

Their all liars!

Exescort said:

Their all liars!

Click to expand...

Yes, they are. They're all pretty little liars...

4est_4est_Gump said:

He has me on ignore. I made too much sense out of his rabbit-hole nonsense.

Click to expand...

Does he have a butthole big enough to be mistaken for a rabbit-hole? Seems that's where some of his crap comes from.

4est_4est_Gump said:

I see you and raise you.

It's so red here that Democrats don't even bother to run for office.

My choices are Republican, Libertarian or Constitution party.

I vote in the reverse order, unless the Libertarian is a total lunatic, in which case "he" (and that's my way of highlighting that it's never a "she") gets my vote every time.



And tangentially, I am seeing that I was right, something went wrong with the 60th missile. It might have been made in North Korea...

Click to expand...

It should have been delivered to the Presidential Palace. Problem solved. Money saved.

Rightguide said:

Does he have a butthole big enough to be mistaken for a rabbit-hole? Seems that's where some of his crap comes from.

Click to expand...

I can never tell is he is being serious or busybody...

JohnnySavage said:

It should have been delivered to the Presidential Palace. Problem solved. Money saved.

Click to expand...

Yeah, again, it seems no one has learned the lesson from Saddam to Momar, what the fuck is the plan once he's gone...

4est_4est_Gump said:

Yeah, again, it seems no one has learned the lesson from Saddam to Momar, what the fuck is the plan once he's gone...

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yes!

But T Rex did say that the policy hasnt changed....I agree, let him stay, or better yet, let the military take over

4est_4est_Gump said:

[tone=My Cousin Vinny]
We keep saying that the media is being driven by the Democrat Party agenda.

Could we be wrong?
Could it be the other way?
Are the Democrats allowing themselves to be driven by the agenda of the media elites?

Click to expand...

That's T-REX to you plebe and next time bring some bling...






Maybe a little arm candy.

certainly not an off-based observation...

evidenced, if only by how mistaken this 4th/5th estate was in the recent election...

and... that for the most part, the media is commercially driven,
does make it both...
more responsive
and
more aggressively vulnerable to... hyperbole
than either major party or...

various political bent.

whereas certain media may have a liberal or conservative footing,
they, as a socio-political actor,
more often drive the conversation(s) than just report it...
and are undoubtedly an estate unto themselves...

it both chases and leads;
the diversity issue(s) alone demonstrate this;
an entire messy and noisy ball of hyperbolic ephemera
in its lumbering umbra.

in an earlier time,
the media both reported upon,
and in it's hyperbolic wake,
promoted crack cocaine
from a relative obscurity to... a national epidemic.

this is not to say that it is dysfunctional to have
media as a socio-political actor as such.

what it does mean is that yes, it is an actor,
but certainly more unaffiliated than our...
'please give this a simple label' sensibilities might like...

to your point,
are the democrats being driven by the media?
certainly.
but so are the republicans...

as the most responsive,
and perhaps most significant player gauging and driving public opinion,
relentless in its 24/7 media spectrum gluttonous gorge,
and...
not subject to election,
but rather to daily selection (i.e. eyes and ears),
tempered then by advertising revenues on that,
the media, by very definition, has a very different agenda.

it is faster than party
and holds more tangible tendrils on the immediate electorate.
it curries public opinion (of all stripes) more effectively than party.
more have been moved to either opinion or action
by almost any 'breaking news' item or headline
than any white house statement or party plank...
the parties would be fool not to be led to some extent
by what media is doing and where it is moving.

the media knows this;
to such an extent that coddling opinion
unencumbered by traditional electoral choice,
(as a means to $urvive and thrive)
has become object, perhaps more than reportage...
when walter cronkite,
'the most trusted man in america'
shucked the newsreader constraints as an evening anchor
to vigorously and effectively protest the continuing vietnam war,
this era - this new era of...
a flexing, opinionated, driving and immediately effective media behomoth
was born...

the media did bring that war to a conclusion...

just as the "brought to your home" reality of the first gulf war
helped prompt 41 to stop outside of baghdad...

again,
this is not criticism of what this media has become.
it would not have become so unless there was vacuum to fill,
or perhaps more specifically, political vacuum to fill.

its

about

access and choices

but more than that

its about no longer

a common culture


in this the press is playing the role of

playing the witch doctor


I hope you share my desire not to have an Attila...

the question then becomes:

what short of tyranny
is the appropriate apparatus of check
on a hyper pro-active press...?

or rather,

what is the socio-political check
on a political actor not subject to electoral (re)certification...?

is it the market itself?
hmmmm?

even the expectation of how the press should act
is a synthesis of current practice and custom...
not easily codified by some 'rules of order'...

eventually eyes, ears and accessibility determine
what media outlets survive or fail...
(note here current tv/al jezeera us, air america radio)
the news is, after all a consumer product...
need to have consumers consume to sell ad space to survive...

but... that does not seem to foster the ideal of pure news reportage
over packaged 'news product' coming to the fore...

(i mean, really... find me an ugly morning weather report(ress))

certainly, traditional political actors are not equipped to...
challenge the behemoth?

I think that those whom wish to consume will.

Those who prefer disbelief will.



The rest of us will study history and draw our own conclusions...

JohnnySavage said:

I only have my own bubble of experience to draw on. I spend 90% of my internet time on Lit where the most prolific political posters are on the right. I drink my beer at the American Legion where all the tvs are tuned to Fox, and I live in the deepest of red a region could be and everyone's car radio is tuned to a local "Christian" station that reposts all the Rush-type talk shows.

I, personally, watch the 6 pm BBC World news, then the 6:30 PM NBC Nightly News - otherwise the tv is on a sports event or turned off. I used to watch C-Span all day, but my country office doesn't have a tv and I'm not paying two cable bills

Click to expand...

For me it's Lester Holt on NBC, FOX News and a smattering of CNN. It always gives me a warm feeling to hear those talking heads brag about their ratings numbers and know that I'm popping up everywhere.

Hey, Johnny, should we tell 'em how many different precincts we actually vote in?

cleaver said:

~snip~

to your point,
are the democrats being driven by the media?
certainly.
but so are the republicans...

~snip~

Click to expand...

They feed off each other.

The democrats have the largest disseminators of "news" in their camp forcing the republicans to play defense for the most part.

Further, the bulk of the 'reporters/commentators' are left of center, many way left of center. A careful reading of what they report contains as much commentary as it does factual news. More than a few of what is printed as news more properly belongs on the editorial page.

This is not new in American journalism, it's more of a return to the past where "news" was reported in a blatantly partisan manner. Take any news report and highlight the verifiable facts and then compare the number of words spent on the facts as compared to the words spent on the reporters 'spin' of those facts. It's amazing how little factual news there is out there.

Ishmael