My LTTE on the media being "In the Tank" for Republicans got a lot of responses

[NewJeffCT]

My LTTE about the media being in the tank for the Republican Party got a lot of feedback in this week’s newspaper. Hopefully, a person or two on DU can respond to the responders. If you do, when it asks you for a CT town, try a larger one like Enfield, Windsor, Norwich, East Hartford, Vernon or Manchester.

Here is the original letter, as printed:

IN THE TANK
During the eight years of the Bush presidency, the facts showed that Republican guests dominated the airwaves on the influential television news shows. Republicans were also far more likely to be on by themselves with no opposing view to rebut them. The excuse the media gave to us was that Republicans were the party in power, so naturally deserved to dominate the airwaves. Oddly, when Bill Clinton was president, Republicans also had a numerical advantage on the TV news. The excuse the media gave then was that Republicans controlled Congress. Now, in the first month of the Obama presidency, Republican guests have still had an overwhelming advantage on TV news shows, despite being a small minority in Congress and having lost the presidency. However, they still rule the airwaves, it seems. The only explanation left now is that the media is in the tank for the Republican Party.

Here are a few of the responses:

PLANET
In response to “IN THE TANK” : Are you actually saying that the outrageously biased Liberal media is a biased Republican media? What planet are you from?

COMMON SENSE?
In response to “IN THE TANK” : What?! Do you understand how business works? It’s a simple matter of consumer demand. Look in the grocery stores. The items that sell get restocked to make consumers happy. That’s why you don’t see dealerships full of hybrid cars. Very few people want them. Good business owners know that to be successful they must offer customers what they want. People these days are looking for real news and common sense, and that’s why you see conservative media flourishing.

MOCK
In response to “IN THE TANK” : Are you kidding? 75% of television is considered to be “liberal.” Did you also notice how much coverage Obama got for his inauguration? Did Bush get this much? Or did you see Katie Couric treat Sarah Palin like a child in her interview? And to top it off, have you ever watched Saturday Night Live. Did you ever hear of Tina Fey? Did the media mock Obama like they did with Sarah Palin?


Link to it all:
http://www.remindernews.com/SpeakOut

[antigop]

1. Great LTTE! The media is only as liberal as the corporations who own it. n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Catch 22

To get them to see the right-bias, you have to open their eyes to reality, so they can see the difference between what they're being told and what's really happening.

But they only believe what they hear on their favorite station, so there's no way to present reality to them.

Checkmate. Once brainwashed, hopeless.

Until the worldwide indoctrination centers -- which condition people from their earliest years to feel good about repeating utter nonsense -- lose their power, there's no way of fixing this.

[conscious evolution]

7. It all starts with Santa Claus

"which condition people from their earliest years to feel good about repeating utter nonsense"

One of the first things we teach children is nothing but a fucking lie.
Then we wonder where illogical thinking comes from.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Funny you should mention that

There is a worldwide conspiracy -- yeah, I know how that sounds, but think about it -- to tell this same lie to all children. Get caught telling a young kid the truth and absolutely everyone will revile you.

How did all those different (and sometimes unfriendly) cultures agree on that one bit of nonsense?

I don't have an answer, but if they all do it, there has to be a reason. It has to serve some purpose.

What is it that cultures can't do without first telling the Santa story?

[conscious evolution]

13. Get you to believe in

other non-existant beings who see you when you are awake,see you when you are asleep,knows when you have been naughty or nice and give you things but only after you die instead of once a year.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. Yes. I just find it odd that all these countries picked the same story.

[conscious evolution]

16. Should be no surprise

when you think about it.
The globalization of communications and mass media makes it easy for religion,goverments, and other interest groups to spread such a custom/mindfuck far and wide.
Santa as a global phenomenon has only been around a couple of decades.Before that it was only a handful of christian cultures that used Santa.Before widespread communications/mass media came into being you can bet that most cultures had some sort of childhood rite that accomplished the same thing.
The Easter bunny is one example I can think of.Before christianity co-opted it it was used in a similar way by some cultures that practiced nature based religions.

[FiveGoodMen]

17. I think Santa's been around a lot longer than the globalization of communications and mass media

[conscious evolution]

18. But not as a global phenomenon.

He was not even that big of a deal here till the cocacola company made him an icon.

[Winterblues]

2. I love the "Common Sense" reply

Republicans just took the biggest refutation in many a decade and yet it is supposedly what the people want... "Common Sense" Indeed.

[NewJeffCT]

4. I like how the Katie Couric interview was unfair

Umm, it was not a tough interview, Palin was just stumped by questions many middle schoolers could have gotten.

[lunatica]

12. "What do you read?" is not a hard question, unless you're Sarah Palin

That Couric is a meanie! She just wanted to play 'gotcha' with that Golum Sarah going after her 'Precioussss'

[DKRC]

5. Love that they contradict each other

:wtf:

PLANET
In response to “IN THE TANK” : Are you actually saying that the outrageously biased Liberal media is a biased Republican media? What planet are you from?

COMMON SENSE?
In response to “IN THE TANK” : What?! Do you understand how business works? It’s a simple matter of consumer demand. Look in the grocery stores. The items that sell get restocked to make consumers happy. That’s why you don’t see dealerships full of hybrid cars. Very few people want them. Good business owners know that to be successful they must offer customers what they want. People these days are looking for real news and common sense, and that’s why you see conservative media flourishing.

(Emphasis is mine)



Keep writing those LTTE NewJeffCT. :yourock:

[gratuitous]

6. You gotta love those replies

Not a fact to be found in any of them.

[NewJeffCT]

9. I'm sure

they have heard similar on Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and other places, though. So, if they keep repeating it often enough, some will think it true.

[otohara]

10. Did you see this?

Source: Indiana University

Last modified: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
'Liberal bias?' IU professors find network TV election coverage favors Republicans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 24, 2009

Broadcast media: To arrange a live on-camera, studio interview with the professors via Indiana University's broadcast facilities, please contact George Vlahakis at 812-855-0846 or [e-mail] .

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A visual analysis of television presidential campaign coverage from 1992 to 2004 suggests that the three television broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- favored Republicans in each election, according to two Indiana University professors in a new book.

Their research runs counter to the popular conventional notion of a liberal bias in the media in favor of Democrats and against Republican candidates.

Maria Elizabeth Grabe and Erik Bucy, both associate professors in the Department of Telecommunications of IU's College of Arts and Sciences, report their findings in their book, Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections (Oxford University Press).

"We don't think this is journalists conspiring to favor Republicans. We think they're just so beat up and tired of being accused of a liberal bias that they unknowingly give Republicans the benefit in coverage," said Grabe, who also is a research associate in political science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. "It's self-censorship that journalists might be imposing on themselves."

Read more: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/9993.html

[lunatica]

11. Why respond? You'll just confuse them with facts 'cause they've made up their minds

The conservative bias in the media is a fact which has been studied by statisticians. Conservative guests outnumbered liberal ones by 2 to 1 at the very least.

I remember when the media was liberal, at least with the truth, so when some dick brain said those words the first time they had a point. But now it's just as talking point and the ditto heads don't ever believe what their lying eyes show them. They only believe what their lying pundits tell them.

[Postman]

14. I have to agree with Mock.....

The media coverage of Bush's inauguration wasn't as complete as Obama's.

We didn't get to see Bush's Limo get pummeled with eggs on national television as Michael Moore showed in his movie Fahrenheit 9/11...