There's this theory many liberals have which suggests that the media is biased against us because they're owned by corporations and therefore do the bidding of their corporate masters. And while that would make a bit of sense, it fails the general rule of all conspiracies: If a conspiracy involves lots of people keeping a big secret, the conspiracy probably isn't real.
And so, if the corporate masters of CNN (Time Warner) and MSNBC (NBCUniversal) and the New York Times (New York Times Company) were all telling their employees to stifle liberal policies while pushing pro-corporate policies...don't you think we'd have heard about it from at least some of their former disgruntled employees?
We're all familiar with Bill Sammons' email directives telling Fox reporters how to push their propaganda, and that's from a fairly secretive network that keeps a tight lid on leaks. So how is it that this is just limited to Sammons? Where's the CNN, MSNBC, and NY Times memos on these subjects? Bozo nitwit Bernie Goldberg has made a career out of exposing the so-called liberal bias of the media. Why haven't we seen the opposite?
Are we really to believe that there are literally NO real journalists who get inside these organizations and decide to expose the truth? Not one liberal makes it through the cracks, even as low level production staff or admin assistant; and they're able to keep them ALL tight lipped about this grand conspiracy that every corporate media outlet is a part of? That seems highly unlikely.
When All Else Fails, It's Probably Incompetence
Because yeah, it's a plausible theory. But there are LOTS of plausible theories, and just because a theory is plausible doesn't mean it's true. And in this case, not all the facts match the theory. Some facts fall WAAAAY outside the theory, and so the people who espouse this theory simply ignore those facts or rationalize them away.
And what's my theory on the subject? What else: Incompetence. When something screwy's going on, the most likely explanation is that incompetent people are involved. And in the case of the media, that's almost definitely the best explanation.
And here's a test case for you: Watch the video below and tell me whether it's more likely that these people are in the pocket of corporate masters, or if they're complete airheads who wouldn't know real news if it bit them in their plastic faces.
And first off, I'm sorry, but I doubt these people are sophisticated enough to pull off anything more complex than a surprise party; and certainly aren't part of some cabal keeping us misinformed. These people aren't just playing dumb. That's how they really are.
The Real Media
While there are intelligent people within the field, the media as a whole are just simple-minded pack animals that follow the herd. When they breathlessly await Palin's emails while following her vacation bus; they truly believe that's where the "real" story is. The reason they're not exposing Wall Street isn't because they're under orders not to do so. It's that they don't even understand what the problem is. And the reason they support tax cuts for the rich is because they are the rich, and they don't think they should pay more taxes.
These people are celebrities posing as journalists, working in part of the entertainment industry in order to sell commercials which pay their salaries. And if they believed they could make more money by selling liberal policies and explaining complicated issues to their viewers, they'd do so. But that's boring as hell and doesn't sell commercials, so that's why they won't do it.
Besides, these people aren't intelligent enough to understand the truth; let alone attempt to explain it to anyone. But they get better ratings than the vast majority of liberals complaining about them, which is why you'll see the airheads and not the intellects. If you haven't learned that sad truth by now, then it's about time you did.
And it's important for us to get this straight. As it always is in life, you can't solve your problems until you properly identify them. And the longer we believe that there's some conspiracy keeping the media from telling our story, the longer it'll be until we understand how to work them to our advantage.
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2 comments:
Uh, Doc, there are several well-documented stories out there about NBC news either reporting favorably or not reporting unfavorably on its parent company, General Electric. ABC takes it easy on Disney and its subsidiaries. This isn't a well-kept secret. It's not a grand conspiracy, it's just corporate business - vertical integration, I believe is the corporate buzzphrase.
This isn't a directive that has to be pushed from the top, either. The high-level execs just hire "company men," who will know well enough how to, let's say, direct the flow of the reporting. It doesn't have to be a conspiracy if it's a corporate culture.
Really, Google up something like "nbc news ge" and check out the reports. It's nothing insidious, obviously, but there's a definite history of corporate favoritism.
In fact, let me Google that for you.
John, I'm not referring to reporters being nice to the corporation they work for. I'm referring to corporations supposedly being nice to Republicans because Republicans are pro-corporate; which is the theory many liberals espouse as fact every day.
Sure, NBC will be nice to GE (though technically, GE is now a minority owner of NBC), but are they nice to ALL corporations? And more importantly, are all these groups biased in their coverage in order to help Republicans? Because that's the issue under discussion.
Again, the theory of nitwit bias has far more evidence than that of a corporate bias towards Republicans. Yet many liberals treat this as fact, and use it as evidence of how hopeless it all is. It's that sort of futility I'm fighting against.
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