WTF? Where's This So-Called Liberal Media?
Warning! Wednesday Night Rant!
I Know where the liberal media isn't.
I don't think it's on National Public Radio. It certainly is not on C-Span:
According to a new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research,
However, I'm not really looking for 'liberal media'.
For me, all I want is objectivity, fact-based, reality reported by journalists with integrity and funded without strings controlled by corporate bosses.
The gold standard for me is the British Broadcasting Corporation. I am fortunate to get the BBC on my local AM radio station (owned by a conservative newspaper).
Listening to 'Beebe' for a year convinces me that my brothers and sisters who live in the notorious fly-over states are not stupid. They are just not informed. They would be, could be and should be fact-based, but they do not hear of facts. All they hear is American teevee, American gospel, American gossip. Their politics is full of polemics and bumpersticker superficialities. Because that's the only way their media 'informs' them.
My brothers and sisters are enslaved by our dysfunctional corporate-controlled, ratings-driven media which enshrouds our continent from sea to shining sea. We can do better.
Set my people free.
I Know where the liberal media isn't.
I don't think it's on National Public Radio. It certainly is not on C-Span:
According to a new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research,right-wing think tanks got 51 percent of C-SPAN’s total coverage in 2006, while left-of-center think tanks only got 18 percent of their coverage.Maybe Liberal media is to be found on MSNBC's Keith Olberman's Countdown. I don't much like his show, however. Especially with that bimbo who's taking his place recently: the one who devoted 12½ minutes of noninterupted air time to the Clinton clowns last night.
However, I'm not really looking for 'liberal media'.
For me, all I want is objectivity, fact-based, reality reported by journalists with integrity and funded without strings controlled by corporate bosses.
The gold standard for me is the British Broadcasting Corporation. I am fortunate to get the BBC on my local AM radio station (owned by a conservative newspaper).
Listening to 'Beebe' for a year convinces me that my brothers and sisters who live in the notorious fly-over states are not stupid. They are just not informed. They would be, could be and should be fact-based, but they do not hear of facts. All they hear is American teevee, American gospel, American gossip. Their politics is full of polemics and bumpersticker superficialities. Because that's the only way their media 'informs' them.
My brothers and sisters are enslaved by our dysfunctional corporate-controlled, ratings-driven media which enshrouds our continent from sea to shining sea. We can do better.
Set my people free.
posted by Vigilante at 12/19/2007 09:21:00 PM
10 Moderated Comments:
The sad thing is that C-SPAN appears progressive when compared with the rest of the broadcast MSM. Remember, however, that C-Span is a "public service" of the cable companies, whose desire to monopolize communications dove tails with the Reich wing.
Well, tomcat, at least they did an half-hour segment each with Richardson and Gravel.
I didn't realize that C-SPAN is part of the cable company monopoly. Do you have any sites I can visit to learn more? I really like The Washington Journal. Brian Lam is great.
Damn, what a let down.
I do think listening to liberal commentators on Air America is a great thing; especially when they bring in history, facts and really good liberal arguments that directly undermine conservative BS. I don't agree with all their positions, but even that helps me figure out mine.
But, OH, could we have a strong FM signal for liberal media?! And how about an entire network? Maybe if we did a synthesis might be the production of something neutral and based on reality, like Vigilante wants (I've been so depressed to see NPR and PBS news get so Republicanized; Pro Nixon, Reagan and the neo-cons).
Right you are, Pinks.
Yeah, Stella. I follow Air America, too!
But one more comment on PBS' News Hour. It's pathetic how far the News Hour has fallen. Tonight I watched a pathetic softball interview of Harry Reid followed by the most bizarre dialog between David Brooks and Mark Shields. Bizarre isn't exactly the word. Maudlin is a better word. Precious minutes were squandered over whether Congress was entitle to think of itself as ending the year on a high note or a low note. More minutes were squandered on critiquing the Christmas greeting video clips made by presidential candidates. I couldn't take watching the whole thing without barfing up desert. This crap would never be allowed to go on - not to say - go on and on, 'on the Beebe'.
Juan Cole Defends Miss Teen USA South Carolina:
She is a southerner, a blonde, and a beauty queen. But a southern accent is not, as most northerners mistakenly believe, a sign of ignorance. . . .
Ms. Upton's appearance on NBC's Today Show (below) reveals a bright and articulate person. Ms. Upton is interested in graphic design and a career in media, and I am sure she will have the last laugh on the assemblage of clueless losers who have been making fun of her, who lack her accomplishments and decency. And, I hope that all U.S. Americans take to heart her values, and find ways to help improve education in this country about international affairs. . . .
Tim Rutten writes today in the L.A. Times
. . . . Journalistic integrity is a two-sided coin. One, more commonly acknowledged side simply enjoins reporters, editors and media executives to be honest and fair in the journalism they deliver to readers, viewers and listeners. As hard as that often is, it turns out to be the easy part.
The other side of the integrity coin is the demanding one, because upholding it requires media executives and proprietors, which is what Zell has become, to keep faith with their readers and their communities. That can mean restraining a desire for ever-increasing -- or arbitrarily set -- profits in the interest of maintaining a sufficient level of journalistic service to readers, viewers and listeners and the communities in which they live. This is the test of integrity, which every publicly traded newspaper company and local television and radio company has failed miserably at over the last two decades.
The era of corporate accumulation has been an unmitigated disaster for American journalism. Money has flowed like a fiscal Mississippi into the pockets of investors and fund managers, draining one newspaper and TV station after another of the resources necessary to serve their communities' common good. Nearly every American newspaper and local television station sucked into one of the chains -- from the largest to the smallest -- during that period is today a lesser journalistic entity of less real service to its audience than when it was acquired.
Sam Zell's daring purchase of Tribune makes for
not only a great financial opportunity but also a historic opportunity for American journalism -- a chance to demonstrate that private ownership can reestablish the link between good business and good journalism that initially was forged by familial proprietors.
Good points raised above!
A diarist on the D-Kos has published, Essential BBC documentaries not shown on US TV. Of particular interest are:
The Power of Nightmares episode 1 is about the ideological revulsion to the consumer society created by industry and public relations. Simultaneously, Sayyid Qutb resolved to purge the Muslim world of Western consumerism while Leo Strauss resolved to make consuming Americans Crusaders for freedom around the world. Ayman Zawahiri was a student of Qutb and Paul Wolfowitz was a student of Strauss.
The Power of Nightmares episode 2 shows Bin Laden and the Neo cons fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan and how the Soviet collapse left both without an enemy to herd their public with.
The Power of Nightmares episode 3 shows how 911 was used to give those "with the most fear, the most power" and how the Neo cons recreated the terrorist threat.
Don't have time for these now, but have to bookmark them for later.
Who am I kidding? I can't sit still and watch 15 minutes of TV, much less hours. They should put it on radio, right?
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