The Rebirth of Partisan Media

RWS has a piece about her concern over the rise of partisan media.

It starts off by talking about the palpable frustration that conservatives had during the Reagan years due to the fact that it was extraordinarily difficult to air conservative views and interpretation of events.  She goes on to talk about Rush, and the rise of talk radio, and then the rise of Fox News. 

These were positive developments because it finally gave conservatives an outlet where they weren't looked at by leftist media elite like a menagerie of bizarre, savage creatures on an episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

Great right? But here's where RWS' concern starts,

But what I see now is beginning to bother me. It bothers me that Fox News has become exclusively leaning to the right and CNN has become exclusively leaning to the left. I fear we will become completely divided in our news. With half the country hearing the left spin and half hearing the right spin.

We're heading in that direction, and its not about to stop.  We've been long overdue for it to happen.  Truth is, there has long been a partisan element to the media . Our nation's early newspapers were fiercely partisan, though that level of intensity had dropped over time as papers became more professional, however they largely maintained their partisan nature. 

We had an arguably objective media in the middle of the twentieth century, largely because most people were on a similar note politically, as well as the unifying effect WWII had on the public, that's obviously changed, but its where a lot of people get this false notion of an objective media. 

It seems to me that journalistic integrity is a thing of the past. Reporters are more interested in putting their own personal agendas forward than just reporting the story.

This isn't gonna change anytime soon either, any chance for that to change went out the window when Al Gore created the Intartubes.  Now anyone can report the news anyway they wish, and read sites, news, opinion and information that will only reinforce their beliefs.  The only thing we can do is to offer the truth, and I would say we do, much more than the left does in the MSM and the sinistrosphere.

The difference in Fox News is that with people like Hannity or O'Reilly, you know where they are coming from. They make it clear what their political leanings are. You can take their shows for what they are, their opinions from a more conservative view. Dan Rather is the poster boy for what drove us all crazy. Newsmen/women hiding who they are. He, like the other network anchors, pretended (and pretend) to be unbiased, when in reality they were/are putting their own leftwing spin on the news.

People were sick of it, which is why Fox News is so popular.

Its a charade, the left took over traditional media, and the right has had to play catch up in creating its own media.  The left has the huge advantage of holding all the old apparatus.  They have chosen not to declare their obvious bias because conventional wisdom still to a degree says traditional media is objective, they know that as soon as they admit bias, they lose an even bigger market share than they already have. 

I can't say I blame them for continuing the charade, what else do they have?  They are losing conservatives in huge numbers, their old viewers are dying, their potential future audience geets their news from DailyKos, HuffPo and DU, they have no future.

 By denying their bias, they slow down the realignment process a little, traditional media still has sway over older people and those who aren't at all news savvy.

But we are divided enough as a nation. We don't need our news to be.

I disagree, we've never needed a partisan media more than we do now in this country, the sooner we finish the realignment, the better.

What can be done about it? You tell me.

Nothing.  Resistance is Futile.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 03:46 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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