Look. I have problems with mainstream media. Most major news outlets are nothing more than sensationalistic entertainers, afraid of losing ratings if they interrupt their 24-hour coverage of the latest celebrity trial to report on real news.
But for once, I come to their defense.
I'm not so much defending the media as I'm criticizing its critics. As Kevin Drum points out in a recent post, "here's what the public hears about newspapers from the blogosphere:
- From the right: newspapers suck because they're too liberal.
- From the left: newspapers suck because they're craven apologists for the Bush administration."
But I wouldn't limit the critique to the blogosphere and newspapers. In general, conservatives tend to criticize the media for having a liberal bias, and liberals tend to criticize the media for being conservative. It's like a political litmus test. Unsure about your political beliefs? If you think the media is out-of-touch with mainstream American values, you're probably conservative. If you view the media as "The Man", and think it is entrenched with the dominant power structure, you're probably liberal.
Not to say that there isn't a little political bias in the media. It's hard to argue that Fox News isn't a little conservative, or the New York Times isn't a little liberal. But for the most part, major media outlets appeal to the middle, the mainstream, because that's where the major of the audience (and the money) is.
And the harshest critics, the ones standing on the pedestals shouting into a megaphone about the media's bias, they don't want an objective media. They want a media that caters to their political ideology. They want newspapers and television shows that repeat their party's talking points. They want... the blogosphere.
Article comments
1 - Sydney
Some good points there I think. I always wanted to see a well written post on this topic (despite the fact that it comes up in other posts).
I think though that Big Media doesn’t have to necessarily be either too left or too right, to be faulted. The problem is that they run themselves as a business and this interferes with objective journalism.
As such, the media is constantly ignoring important stories, twisting the truth on other stories, and in the case of the War, inciting the public to support the war.
Whether you find cases where these interferences support a liberal agenda or a conservative one, the truth is they support Big Media’s interests.
Personally I think Big media’s interests are often liberal in terms of more personal politics (the politics of religions, the family, and identity, abortion etc.) and are right wing in terms of big politics (Economy, foreign affairs, globalization, environment, larger national affairs).
The real problem though, lies in the American people and its political system that revels in rhetoric, and name-calling. As a result the American people are too busy calling each other left wing pinkos or right wing nuts to admit that solution lies somewhere in the middle.
Furthermore, the American people have to start demanding hire standards. When Big media slants a story or doesn’t offer the alternative view, we need to punish them, write a letter or lend our support to another channel.
All around, Americans need to raise their ethical standards and start punishing GWB for the unprecedented number of lies he’s told and unprecedented rhetoric that news channels are using (my opinions here…). There’s a worthy revolution waiting to happen there. As it is America is big nest of lies.