DEFINING THE ELITE MEDIA:
Real Clear Politics -
Bill O'Reilly had a very good "talking points memo" to begin his show Monday night dealing with the charge of just who is the "elite" media. Here are some excerpts:
The New York Times is ground zero for the elite media and you would think executives at that paper would understand how detached from American reality it has become. But they do not.
Generally speaking, the elite media believe that the majority in this country -- white Christian Americans -- are prone to oppressing the minority. The elites rightfully point to the civil rights struggle as an example of how the majority can hurt a minority until the forces of reason stepped in.
It goes without saying that the elite media will almost always favor political candidates that espouse high taxes for the evil rich; higher spending on the poor -- even if the programs are wasteful and ineffective -- and more restrictions on corporations, which the elites believe are oppressors as well.
If you go up against the elite media it will not be pretty. You will be branded a bigot, racist, anti-Semite, [a] homophobe. You will be called a fundamentalist, or an ultra-conservative. Elites don't debate. They attack and marginalize.
Now the landscape has changed. And while our competitors at NBC and CNN still can't figure out how Fox News has become so powerful, it’s very simple: We are not the elite media. For example, we don't feel the 66 percent of Americans who are against gay marriage are fools and bigots. And we don't think that our opinion has more validity than your opinion, no matter what it is -- we give voice to all points of view, including the elite one.
O'Reilly hits the nail directly on the head. The unprecedented success of FOX News has dramatically altered the landscape in regards to how the news is delivered in America. The elite networks no longer operate in a vacuum, free to spin and cover stories in any way they wish. Those days are over.
America has finally been given a choice when it comes to where it gets its information on the TV and the wild success of FOX shows just how much the country wasn't liking the dog food being served up everywhere else.
I have no studies to prove this, but I firmly believe that had FOX News not existed in 2000, George Bush would never have won that election. Contrary to what many liberals think it is not because FOX was an extended arm of the Bush campaign or part of the vast right wing conspiracy, but rather the fact that the other networks and papers no longer had a monopoly on the flow of information to the American people. That made - and continues to make - a HUGE difference, and it is one of the reasons liberals are scurrying around trying to start a radio network and a cable news channel.
But most are in denial about the entire FOX phenomena, which is why a "liberal" news channel has little chance of success without government funding. The problem is the "elite" don't realize just how out of touch they are with the average American. In their world 10 years ago, CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS covered the news fairly and objectively, with no spin or bias. There are still intelligent people today who would stand by that statement. They are in denial.
Have the executives at CNN or NBC really asked themselves the hard question of why FOX News Channel throttles them in ALL of primetime? There is no question that the other networks have moved closer to the center these last couple of years because of the success of FOX, but for the most part they're still out in left field.
The problem is the culture that pervades these organizations on all levels trickles down and oozes out the final product no matter how hard they try to be objective. Having a 74 yr. old Bob Novak and a bow-tied Tucker Carlson as your "tokens" isn't going to get it done.
O'Reilly tells them point blank the secret of FOX's success; "We are not the elite media. For example, we don't feel the 66 percent of Americans who are against gay marriage are fools and bigots."
Until the culture of these news organizations changes, FOX will continue to dominate. -J. McIntyre 7:09am | Link | Email |
