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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: tejek who wrote (157875)1/10/2003 9:23:10 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 1580052
 
If what you're saying is true, then a majority of tv news viewers will be watching FOX in the not too distant future since conservative viewers now have a choice.

1 - There are other reasons to pick a news show to watch other then its ideological balance.

2 - I never said conservatives where a strong majority, meerly that they are not out of the mainstream.

3 - If you consider FOX to be conservative and think that people choose what to watch based on ideology then you would have to conceed that conservatism in the US is strong and growing.

Its true Reagan was popular but he was also a centrist Rep.

Thats not what the Democrats where saying at the time or for many years later. Most people would call Reagan a conservative. His themes where tax cuts, a strong defense, a (failed) attempt to cut domestic spending and deregulation. He was far more bold on tax cuts and defense increases then GW has ever been. He called the Soviet Union the "evil empire". Sure that was just recognizing reality but it was a very un PC perhaps even non moderate thing to say. Bush Sr. was well to the left of Reagan, thats part of the reason he didn't last for two terms. He promised no new taxes and then increased taxes, while Reagan promised tax cuts and deliever them. Bush Sr. raised taxes, cut military spending, and increased regulation at a faster pace then it had increased under Reagan. Hardly an example of outflanking Reagan on the right.

In fact, I
believe most news media are close to center as well... ...it may appear only to rightist conservatives that they are liberal. And while D. Ray goes on and on about newspeople being Dems.......I have seen no facts to support that position.


The facts are that a strong majority of journalists voted for Clinton as opposed to 43% of the overall population. Polling data show that a majority of the country supports ending affirmitive action and outlawing partial birth abortion, but this is rarely reported and the ideas are more often bashed then supported by the main stream media. An insane person with a gun shooting up a building is written up as definitive proof of the need for more gun control but the many people who defend themselves and others with privatly owned guns almost never even gets a mention.

So two possible contentions........yours.......that the population is basically conservative and have not had a choice in their tv viewing til now..or that most Americans are mostly near right or left of center, and so candidates and media outlets close to center do well.

That's another logical falicy. Its called false dilemma. You say it has to be either A or B and ask which, but the truth is C, that the country is balanced between liberals and conservatives with at most a slight and perhaps temporary tilt to conservatives and with a lot of moderates, but that the press has a strong (but diminishing if you include the growth of new conservative media outlets) tilt to the liberal side.

Tim