When the FCC eliminated the “fairness doctrine,” talk radio became a new force in shaping the political debate. Rush Limbaugh became as influential in this generation as Walter Winchell was for a previous generation. The Internet will only expand the media further, as many bloggers will be incorporated under the umbrella of the mainstream media.
What has changed is that the media is reverting back to its history — media separated by ideology. The neutral media was a new idea attempted in the last half century, but now ideology is part and parcel of newsgathering. Fox spearheads a conservative news gathering organization and the rest of the media represent the left side of the political spectrum.
But this does not tell the whole story. MSNBC and CNBC do include conservative voices such as Larry Kudlow as part of its programming, and Fox has it share of house liberals. Even websites like Instapundit are characterized by the debates, as views of the right and left are both featured. Instapundit has linked to various websites representing a wide spectrum. The Drudge Report is the leading newspaper today. I should say, the Drudge Report is as close to a national newspaper that exists as Matt Drudge links to every major news organization around the world and acts like an editor. His headlines feature news stories that he deems important.
In Europe, it is not uncommon for various media to represent one side or the other. Often the editorial policy seeps right into the reporting, and we are now seeing American media going back to its roots in similar fashion. There is a conservative media and a liberal media. The debates that exist in cyberspace occur in the newsroom and as one Newsweek reporter stated, Kerry benefited immensely from support within the “so-called” mainstream media newsroom.
We are seeing evolution of the media in new forms. Millions of pundits now state their opinion and link to worthy news items on a daily basis. Mainstream media is as close as a computer key or can be held in your hand like a daily newspaper. They are one and the same. Only now, we are witnessing opinion journalism becoming less divergent from front page reporting. In some cases, front page reporting is opinion journalism.
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