--- Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > OK, let me walk through this arguement. First of > all, I saw people jumping > from the WTC a number of times on TV. Then, an > announcment was made: "we > have been requested to stop showing these photos > because of the feelings of > the families of the people in the WTC. We thought > about it, and decided > they were right." My real guess is that they > thought Americans would > believe that and it was not worth the risk of > alienating too many viewers. > > Second, in your discussion of the media elite, you > have made it looked like > a left wing monolith. I cannot agree with that. > Are you arguing that Fox > news has had a left wing pacifict agenda over the > last year that permiated > its news coverage? Don't you think the NY Post, or > at least the Washington > Times would be willing to publish those photos, if > the only reason for not > publishing them was a left wing agenda? Is every > news outlet part of the > leftist elite?
No, but most of the major ones are. I think I've realized where the difference between you and me on the media really stems from, Dan. You think that they're good at their jobs, and I think they're inept. I agree with you (to some extent) that viewership and such are important. I disagree that they're _primary_, because if they were none of the networks would have an evening news broadcast. Yet they do, so clearly something else is going on. But more than that, the success of Fox News suggests (to me) the extent to which the media elite is completely out of touch with the American mainstream. This isn't surprising - read David Brook's articles in _The Atlantic_ on Red & Blue America. But it does seem clear. Fox exploited a fairly obvious market niche (a news broadcast not skewed to the left) and met with remarkable success. But no one in the business except Roger Ailes saw it. I have a friend who works for ABC News who keeps referring to Ailes as a genius. I don't think so - I'm sure he's smart, but mainly he just didn't share the ideological blinders that she and almost all of her co-workers have. Let me quote from an ABC News institution, in fact - The Note: Like every other institution, the Washington and political press corps operate with a good number of biases and predilections. They include, but are not limited to, a near-universal shared sense that liberal political positions on social issues like gun control, homosexuality, abortion, and religion are the default, while more conservative positions are "conservative positions." They include a belief that government is a mechanism to solve the nation's problems; that more taxes on corporations and the wealthy are good ways to cut the deficit and raise money for social spending and don't have a negative affect on economic growth; and that emotional examples of suffering (provided by unions or consumer groups) are good ways to illustrate economic statistic stories. More systematically, the press believes that fluid narratives in coverage are better than static storylines; that new things are more interesting than old things; that close races are preferable to loose ones; and that incumbents are destined for dethroning, somehow. The press, by and large, does not accept President Bush's justifications for the Iraq war -- in any of its WMD, imminent threat, or evil-doer formulations. It does not understand how educated, sensible people could possibly be wary of multilateral institutions or friendly, sophisticated European allies. It does not accept the proposition that the Bush tax cuts helped the economy by stimulating summer spending. It remains fixated on the unemployment rate. It believes President Bush is "walking a fine line" with regards to the gay marriage issue, choosing between "tolerance" and his "right-wing base." It still has a hard time understanding how, despite the drumbeat of conservative grass-top complaints about overspending and deficits, President Bush's base remains extremely and loyally devoted to him -- and it looks for every opportunity to find cracks in that base. Of course, the swirling Joe Wilson and National Guard stories play right to the press's scandal bias -- not to mention the bias towards process stories (grand juries produce ENDLESS process!). The worldview of the dominant media can be seen in every frame of video and every print word choice that is currently being produced about the presidential race. [End quote] Now, that's not me talking. That's an employee of ABC News in an official writing, not even something published independently. Will the right-wing press publish the images? I think that they will (and have) put more emphasis on the images than their left-wing brethren. Because they work in an environment in which the dominant norms are entirely shaped by the press organs of the media elite, they won't go all the way - they will feel restrained by a sense of not getting too far away from the "acceptable boundaries" which are largely laid out by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and the New York Times. So I would say that the media elite is trapped heavily in its little conceptual world. One of the wonders of the internet is the extent to which it allows people to escape from that prison - I think that the Democratic Party (for example) is going to have to figure out how to operate in an environment where every story is not pre-spun to their benefit, as it has been for the last 30-40 years. They'll learn, but it will take time, and lots of other institutions will have to adapt as well. That aside, the dominance of that elite shapes the norms in which the media operates. The extent to which that elite is out of touch with the public creates the gaps which conservative media have been able to exploit, but it also explains many of the decisions they make - like the ones that you described. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2' http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/movie?mid=1808405861
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