Democrat Goals: Government Control of Media

[Banquo's Ghost]

Where are the self proclaimed defenders of speech who pop up whenever they think Bushitlerburton is doing something terrible (Like, oh, supposedly 'censoring' geologists)?

Waiting till there's some substance rather than a congressman flapping his lips?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Waiting till there's some substance rather than a congressman flapping his lips?

Valid point.

A Kucinich mouthing liberal platitudes for a "red meat" audience is a far cry different from a Kucinich introducing legislation re-instating the Fairness Doctrine and putting real effort behind its passage.

Would a fair slice of the American political "Left" like to see Limbaugh and others shut up -- or effectively have to pay for Al Franken to get 15 hours of broadcast time a week? Sure they would.

Will Kucinich and others actually push it, bring it to a public vote, take on the inevitable challenge in front of the Supremes, etc.? Not nearly as likely.


As a side note, DA has rather succinctly expressed a view on mainstream media that is fairly representative of USA traditional/conservative thinking. Well done DA.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Would a fair slice of the American political "Left" like to see Limbaugh and others shut up -- or effectively have to pay for Al Franken to get 15 hours of broadcast time a week? Sure they would.

I was under the impression that Ann Coulter (amongst other right-wing rabids) was calling for a lot of "liberal" media types to shut up or be prosecuted for treason not long ago.

Both sides like to claim the "other side" is unfairly biased and in the driving seat to influence the apparently docile and uncomprehending hordes. The important thing is that there are sides, and that I suspect most people either couldn't care less or are perfectly capable of making their own choices.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I was under the impression that Ann Coulter (amongst other right-wing rabids) was calling for a lot of "liberal" media types to shut up or be prosecuted for treason not long ago.

Yep. She's the "right" wing equivalent. Personally, I think she just throws out those verbal bombs to drum up book sales -- but I can't prove it.

Both sides like to claim the "other side" is unfairly biased and in the driving seat to influence the apparently docile and uncomprehending hordes. The important thing is that there are sides, and that I suspect most people either couldn't care less or are perfectly capable of making their own choices.

Again, you speak a good deal of sense here. Remember, however, that the sense of US mainstream media being more liberal than their audience is not a phenomenon of the last few years. Going back at least to the 1960s with Agnew's criticism of the media (yes, he was a crook, but his point was still worthy of consideration) and Nixon's (yes he obstructed justice, but he had a keen political sense of where a majority of American thinking trended) messages aimed at the "silent majority" there has been criticism along these lines. This is in sharp contrast to the radio era or the first part of the 20th century, where media had a reputation for hammering at government on behalf of the common man, but also of being fairly supportive of traditional values and traditional common wisdom in doing so.

Of course, take it further back and the papers were just as divisive as they are today -- and more so. Look up the columns written during the Jefferson/Adams election. Makes today's stuff look like cotton candy.

[Lemur]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were supposed to be taking Kucinich seriously.

In other news, David Wu says that the administration is full of fake Klingons. Where, oh where is the Klingon outrage?

[edit]

Fact-check for DA:

Fox news is the #1 rated news network in the country, with more viewers than many of the other major netwroks combined.

Not backed up by any numbers I can find:

Cable news outlets saw prime-time audiences dwindle in 2006, with the leader in the space, Fox News Channel, dropping 26 percent in the core 25-54 demo. CNN fell 17 percent in the demo, while CNN Headline News was down 5 percent in total viewers and 4 percent in the demo.

CNBC was the only cable news net that saw significant growth in 2006, upping its prime-time audience by 32 percent and boosting its core demo more than 15 percent. MSNBC grew slightly, upping its total prime-time audience by 5 percent and its 25-54 number by 7 percent.

In fact, you can take the ratings for all three cable news networks and they still wouldn't add up to the viewership for a single network channel's nightly news. So direct your wrath at ABC, CBS and NBC, por favor.

[Ice]

DA:

Democrats: Crappy

Republicans: Crappy

Politics: Crapppy

[Rameusb5]

DA:

Democrats: Crappy

Republicans: Crappy

Politics: Crapppy

Media: Crappiest of all.

The 24 hour news channels have done far more damage to our democracy than communism could have ever hoped to.

Some of the absolute garbage that gets spewed by the media is absolutely amazing to me. While I'm totally against censorship, it is unfortunate that 99.99% of America has chosen to let other people think for them. Which means that people actually listen to the media. That scares me.