Do you dislike the mainstream media?

[mbinder]

Yes. Anybody that doesn't probably isn't worth talking to about anything.

 

[Liquid Smoke]

I do dislike them. I think the frequently shape and deliver half truths to further an agenda. It really doesn't take much to see through it either.

 

[Liquid Smoke]

people scoff at shows like that (and the hosts will even use "we're not news" as an excuse to do things), but i think satire is really important. historically too, you can look back and see instances in which it was.

I hear you but when it is largely one sided satire, it's hard to take it seriously. Plus Stewart has spawned an army of panderers that are pretty much just hack.

 

[Jack V Savage]

What would you consider a "fanatical right-winger" and how would it be different from a regular Conservative?

A regular conservative, by definition, is not fanatical. I think of Russell Kirk (and specifically his work on conservative thought ("The Conservative Mind") as being the best exponent of conservatism. A fanatical (American) right-winger would be a radical (the opposite of a conservative)--someone who wants to remake American society along right-wing lines (so, like, right-wing "libertarians," ethnonationalists, opponents of democracy, etc.--anti-liberals). Someone like that would obviously regard the MSM as being on their left, despite the attempts to balance between the parties (a process which inevitably slants MSM news to the right).

It was painfully obvious that CNN was in the tank for Obama for all eight years of his Presidency and that they were salivating for Hillary Clinton to become President.

This is just comically off the mark. I have to assume you never actually watched CNN, except clips selected for you in a misleading way by the right-wing specialty media.

A CNN debate moderator even took sides during one of the 2012 debates after which CNN generated an internal memo calling it a glaring mistake, doesn't get much more blatantly biased than that. Don't get me wrong, they're still a quality, respectable news outlet of course but they're leftist nonetheless. One of us is looking at a spade and calling it a spade and the other is not.

Indeed. I'm calling mainstream media mainstream, and you're calling it ... something else. Leftist propaganda? Not sure how far you go with this.

What do you mean by different business model then?

The MSM aims for broadly inoffensive content that treats both parties equally (even, as in the case of climate science or claims about regressive taxation, when objective truth is on one side). Fox's approach is to appeal to people who are unsatisfied with centrist/bothsidesist news coverage.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I'm willing to bet 90% of the viewers are old people (baby boomers).

Once they're gone, MSM is gone for good since most millenials and generation Z don't watch garbage on TV, they use the internet on their laptops/phones/tablets to get their news.

Cable news consumption skews heavily old. Fox's median viewer is 66 years old (61 for CNN). Not sure about the MSM in general. Probably not quite as skewed in that direction if you include the NYT and its Website.

 

[Wingslaught]

Obviously. A regular conservative, by definition, is not fanatical. I think of Russell Kirk (and specifically his work on conservative thought ("The Conservative Mind") as being the best exponent of conservatism. A fanatical (American) right-winger would be a radical (the opposite of a conservative)--someone who wants to remake American society along right-wing lines (so, like, right-wing "libertarians," ethnonationalists, opponents of democracy, etc.--anti-liberals). Someone like that would obviously regard the MSM as being on their left, despite the attempts to balance between the parties (a process which inevitably slants MSM news to the right).

This line of thinking is a bit rich coming from someone who called Politico right-biased. I guess that makes clear just how far left your political leanings are. I'm also not anti-liberal, Libertarians are really classical liberals after all.

This is just comically off the mark. I have to assume you never actually watched CNN, except clips selected for you in a misleading way by the right-wing specialty media.

You'd be quite wrong yourself. I've watched plenty of CNN, now MSNBC on the other hand can be difficult to stomach.

Indeed. I'm calling mainstream media mainstream, and you're calling it ... something else. Leftist propaganda? Not sure how far you go with this.

You're saying the mainstream can't be left-biased? What about Hollywood? They're mainstream entertainment and there's left-leaning political bias incorporated into almost everything they produce.

The MSM aims for broadly inoffensive content that treats both parties equally (even, as in the case of climate science or claims about regressive taxation, when objective truth is on one side). Fox's approach is to appeal to people who are unsatisfied with centrist/bothsidesist news coverage.

Interesting take on it, I disagree obviously. I don't think the MSM is nearly so pre-occupied with striking a careful political balance as you claim. Its also pretty obvious you resent, or maybe lament, their attempts to be neutral and objective which is odd given that its part of their profession.

 

[Jack V Savage]

This line of thinking is a bit rich coming from someone who called Politico right-biased. I guess that makes clear just how far left your political leanings are. I'm also not anti-liberal, Libertarians are really classical liberals after all.

Politico has shifted, actually, and is more substantive and more mainstream (used to be called "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" because of its shallow, pro-establishment politics). And right-wing libertarians are nothing like classical liberals (I promise that if you read Adam Smith, for example, you'd call him a Marxist). Plus, it's anti-liberal in the sense that right-wing libertarians oppose democratic self-governance.

You're saying the mainstream can't be left-biased? What about Hollywood? They're mainstream entertainment and there's left-leaning political bias incorporated into almost everything they produce.

The mainstream media has mainstream views. Hollywood is different because it reflects the sensibilities of a lot of different, unrelated artists, plus it's heavily unionized, and it has a history of gov't-imposed right leaning that they then rebelled against.

Interesting take on it, I disagree obviously. I don't think the MSM is nearly so pre-occupied with striking a careful political balance as you claim. Its also pretty obvious you resent, or maybe lament, their attempts to be neutral and objective which is odd given that its part of their profession.

That's actually false. I would prefer that they attempt to be *objective*, which is, emphatically, not the same as "neutral in all political disputes." I gave a couple of examples. We know definitively that the Earth is getting warmer as a result of human activity. That's objectively true. But it's a matter of political controversy, and thus the MSM treads very lightly. Likewise, we know definitively that regressive tax cuts don't spur economic growth (they just shift wealth upward), but because it's a matter of political controversy (because Republicans dishonestly sell regressive tax cuts on promises of growth), the MSM can't say that openly. Or another one: In the aftermath of the GFC, it was clear that higher deficits were A) desirable, B) temporary, and C) almost entirely the result of the GFC depressing revenue and automatic stablizers. Yet the MSM took seriously (and openly promoted) phony deficit concerns by the GOP, going along with the obviously false assertion that it was a result of some (never named) policy of Obama's.

The model I'd prefer is that the MSM focus on Truth and not care at all about who likes it or not. But obviously that isn't a popular enough view, and balance is the goal. It ends up truly pleasing no one, but it provides enough credibility (in perception) to keep the numbers up.

 

[all caps]

I like how the lefties here think sherdog conservatives watch fox news
No one cares about fox news <Lmaoo>
Everyone but the partisan jabronis recognizes fox news is just as fake as all the other sensationalist crap