Media: Right Turn On Red
legendgames.net
Analysis by Dan Riehl
This should make it clear for anyone to see - media is going to become more and more conservative in nature. It has no alternative but to follow mainstream American thought.
While it's easy for a conservative to bash large media for suspected liberal bias, it is short-sighted to believe that the anchors, reporters and producers have free reign to take a news organization in whatever direction they'd like. Today's media, more than ever, is big business. It is driven by circulation figures and ratings and the correlated advertising rates it charges advertisers based upon the numbers. And the numbers are not good for more established, perhaps more liberal news organizations.
CNN saw its prime-time ratings drop sharply in February, falling further behind Fox News.
CNN's ratings dipped 16 percent overall and 21 percent in prime time during February, according to Nielsen Media Research, as some of the cable news channel's biggest stars lost viewers.
The shift to the right will also be accomplished much easier than it might have been just five or ten years ago. Large numbers of today's reporters and journalists went into the field on the heels of the Watergate scandal in the early seventies. As a result, there is a fairly large number of individuals in the news game ripe for retirement. One need only reference the recent retirements of three media mainstays - Rather, Brokaw and Moyers to grasp the situation. And this is the case for more than just the big players.
While the injection of new blood doesn't necessarily correlate to a shift in view or politics, it does represent a shift in power. More established individuals as above, or a Donaldson, a Walters, and so on, had or have clout as a result of reputation and audience. New individuals climbing into the news spotlight will not have that foundation. With media branching out through the Internet, including blogging, the business is destined for a period as competitive as it has ever seen. Actually, it's already there.
Several large print publications have already been caught up in scandals around their manipulation of circulation numbers in an effort to bolster advertising rates. When you wrap all that together, it makes things timely for a change. Witness these numbers from the above linked story in the NY Daily News.
...CNN's "Paula Zahn Now," ... a 17 percent drop in ratings, while its Fox competitor, "The O'Reilly Factor," saw a 9 percent jump
... CNN's "Larry King" live saw its ratings tumble 23 percent, while Fox's "Hannity & Colmes" posted a 19 percent rise
Producing news takes money. Television networks, particularly, were less subject to pressure to make money with their news divisions as a result of their large incomes from the entertainment divisions. But with the entertainment industry becoming ever more crowded and competitive, it is unlikely they will be able to exist in a vacuum, spared from the usual business dynamics and competition.
With the faces out in front changing, the suits behind the scenes will yield more and more power and control. And they do not practice their craft simply for the enjoyment of it, or because they desire to represent a particular ideology. They are business men and women and they will adjust to where the people are, not undertake some noble effort to persuade them what they should think, or how they should vote. |
