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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| The Cure for Media Bias |
| 2008-10-02 |
| Glenn Reynolds, "Instapundit" . . . Media bias used to mean that they would slow-walk stories that reflected badly on their candidate; now they just flat out ignore them, or even try to shoot them down. They're not just in the tank, they're functioning as arms of the campaign, and Obama's strategy shows that he knows that and is relying on it. So various readers have been asking what I think people should do. For example, reader Steven Murray writes: Do you subscribe to Newsweek magazine? I do and my sister told me that I should cancel the subscription. She says that since that magazine is so deep in the tank for Obama, I am just subsidizing his campaign and the Democratic party. You know, I think she has a point. If more conservatives, libertarians, and Republicans canceled their subscriptions to these types of publications, maybe then they would take notice. I doubt it. Most of these general-circulation magazines are in fact niche products serving their version of the NPR demographic (and, in Newsweek's case, doctor's offices). By all means, if you don't like them, cancel your subscription. People have been doing that for years, and it does have an effect -- look at the plummeting viewership of network news programs. You can also write them, and their advertisers, and complain. This does some good, but it's usually temporary. As soon as the heat's off, they go back to their old ways. It's the only thing that's likely to do much good between now and the election, though. But if you really want improvement over the longer term, you need to support competition that isn't an arm of the Democratic Party. The New York Sun folded yesterday. It was a serious, right-leaning newspaper in New York City. It was undercapitalized, and its shutdown is probably symptomatic of what's going to happen to a lot of bigger newspapers soon, but if even a fraction of the people who are unhappy with the Times had subscribed it would still be in business. And, still, while the New York Times gets in deeper trouble, the New York Post seems to be doing fine. If you want to have a media environment that isn't dominated by the Gwen Ifills and Keith Olbermanns of the world, you need to ensure that other kinds of voices flourish. That means supporting the alternatives with your eyeballs, your subscriptions, your advertiser-patronage (and you could write those advertisers and tell them you're happy that they're supporting that kind of programming, too -- they probably don't get many letters like that, so they'll be noticed) -- basically, your money. Businesses need money to flourish. There's a vast underserved population out there, for news, entertainment, movies, etc., and if people start serving it, the current "mainstream" media won't be so mainstream anymore. So if you're unhappy with current offerings, put your money where your mouth is. And if you're one of the people with creative interests, start making alternative stuff. Not just news and punditry, but entertainment, documentaries, etc. If An American Carol does well this weekend, it'll make it a lot easier for the next film of its type to be made. If Evan Coyne Maloney's documentary work does well, it'll encourage a lot more of that kind of work. Think of it like cultivating a garden: Starve the weeds, feed the flowers. Like gardening, it's work. But like gardening, if you do the work you'll see results. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #11 40 cal hollow point |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2008-10-02 20:45 |
| #10 Doesn't someone sell a T-shirt that says: Rope, Tree, 'Journalist' - some assembly required. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-10-02 19:01 |
| #9 Rupert Murdoch looked at media bias in cable news and saw "underserved market segment". Fox has taken tremendous market share from it's competition and has been very profitable. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2008-10-02 18:32 |
| #8 "The Cure for Media Bias" If I say "use a .45" will I get sink-trapped? If so, then I won't. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-10-02 17:46 |
| #7 The next bailout by the Dimwitted Congress will be the liberal media newspapers and networks when they go broke. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-10-02 17:19 |
| #6 Most of these general-circulation magazines are in fact niche products serving their version of the NPR demographic (and, in Newsweek's case, doctor's offices). Perhaps you should tell your doctor that you dislike them |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-10-02 14:21 |
| #5 Its a business. It goes out of business just like any other. It should be subject to the same standards as they demand by any other business. It's not a free speech issue. It's a commerce issue. The intent to defraud and misrepresent is punishable in both regulatory and civil law. If GM knew of a defect or a serious problem with their product and withheld that information they become liable as a consequence. We've been entertained to no end by the media hammering on other businesses. They should be subject to the same treatment. The truth is a defense. The lie is not. Just as GM can't avoid blame or penalties because a subcontractor fails to meet requirements, neither can the media that willfully neglects to check for the truth, escape the consequences for acting as an agent in any misrepresentations. I'll give them an out with a prominent front page disclosure posting, just like on the side of the cigarette packages, 'that the contents are not to be assumed to be true and that it is provided for entertainment purposes only'. Otherwise, they're in for the full consequences. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-10-02 12:41 |
| #4 BNice but not enough: if the media are biased in favor of liberals it is in no small part because their staff is chock full of liberals and that is because that is the only variety availbale in the market. It would be time that conservatives embreace careers in journalism. And it would be time they attcked the root causes: those universities where teachers don't content themselves with using their classes for indoctrination but give bad appreciaytions to students who don't toe the line. Once they find that having Ward Churchils or Chomkis in their payroll is baaaaaad for business, universities, spevcially in soft sciences, will stop brainwashing students. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-10-02 09:57 |
| #3 The gray lady needs to sink, with BO tied to the mast(head). I'm SAILING!...glub glub glub. |
| Posted by: Minister of funny walks 2008-10-02 09:33 |
| #2 Some of these magazines for lefties are give-aways that I have gotten in the past from airline frequent flyer miles only because they don't have anything more useful such as woodworking, gun magazines, camping, sports, Shotgun News, how to make your home brew, saving energy methods, hunting, otherwise useful stuff, etc. You know JohnQ-SixPack types of magazines. I do recycle them for landfill and other stuff. Rantburg is still the finest thing out there. Besides I am certain that Sun Tzu (Art of War) must have said somewhere: "Know what your enemy is thinking." |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-10-02 08:51 |
| #1 Chance the Gardener in "Being There?" MSM = Unabashed, Unapologetic Trumpeters for the Left. Too lazy and too agenda-driven to do incisive, hard-hitting investigative reporting of abuses in its Democratic Party. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-10-02 08:39 |