From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue May 13 2003 - 00:21:18 MDT
Samantha wrote in another thread:
[gts wrote:]
>> I got a good chuckle about a week ago during the opening comedy
>> monologue of Conan O'Brian on "Late Night with Conan O'Brian" (the
>> comedy talk-show that comes on late at night after Jay Leno).
>>
>> Conan said something like:
>>
>> "I hear China is starting its first 24 hour cable news network. It
>> will of course be illegal for the network to voice opinions that
>> oppose the ruling party. They're going to call it Fox News."
>>
>
> hehehe. But wouldn't CNN be a more straightforward acronym?
CNN can hardly be accused of toeing the ruling party line. In fact many
folks here think CNN is guilty of the opposite crime.
Personally I agree with those who think CNN is biased to the left, but I
think it is not nearly as biased as FOX is biased to the right. In my
opinion FOX has been accused rightly of becoming the unofficial "Mouthpiece
for the White House."
I note also from the long discussion we had here about six or eight weeks
ago that bias in the news media is very much in the eye of the beholder.
People tend not to notice bias in the news when the bias agrees with their
political world-view.
Cable news networks are not obliged by law to serve the public interest,
which is one reason we see extreme advocacy journalism on cable like that
which comes from FOX.
It will be interesting to watch FOX News if a Dem gets elected next time
around. The network will have two options if it wants to keep market share:
1) FOX will launch a "Let's all hate the liberals in the White House"
platform similar to that of Rush Limbaugh during the Clinton administration,
or
2) FOX will fire 3/4 of its staff, struggle to find new guests, and try
desperately to transform itself into a moderate or liberal news channel.
I think option 1) is most likely. FOX will not want to risk losing its
existing market share. FOX serves an important market niche. Speaking as a
capitalist, I think it should do everything in its power to hold on to it.
I have a theory about why the non-cable news media tends to be biased to the
left: the majority of American news consumers are biased to the left, and
the news media is merely a product designed to meet consumer demand. Notice
that I did not say the majority of American *voters*.
-gts
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue May 13 2003 - 00:31:01 MDT