Today is what they call in the news business, a “Monday”.
Sorry…that’s what we all call today. I meant, today is what they call in the news business a “Slow News Day”.
A lack of young white girls being abducted, no new discoveries of the next comfort food that will cause premature impotence and death (not necessarily in that order) and no new quotes from a former Alaskan Governor about opposing health care reform because she just hates humans.
So what does a 24 hour news channel do? What does a news website do? Well, musical comedy is right out. And lord knows Daddy doesn’t need another lanyard for his keys or a knitted wallet…and don’t get me started on macaroni art.
Nope, what the MSM does is run in circles around hypothetical stories which they create themselves.
“Has Obama already sold out the public option?”
“Will Obama’s Financial Reforms Fizzle?”
“Is there racism involved with Obama calling Kanye West a ‘Jackass’?”
And that’s just Huffington Post (if I made the above headlines 40 point font in Screaming Baboon Ass Red and added lots of exclamation points it would have given it away too easily).
The current thumb twiddling game for both liberal and conservative news entities on a slow news day is “Question if Obama will be a failure”. Now, for conservative media, this is a natural, right after “Question gravity because it is just a theory” and “Question if our veiled racism is getting a bit obvious”.
But for “liberal media” to be beating the drum of sowing doubt in Pres. Obama…simply for website clicks or network ratings does expose the charade a bit. News is a purely commercial enterprise now. It used to be accepted as a modest profit generating public service, a duty and a responsibility. It is now an arms race between networks as to who can get the hottest chicks to deliver the news at least slightly better than Sarah Palin would perform at a spelling bee.
And on the web, for some sites (that start with a “Huffington” and end with a “Post”…but I won’t say which one) it’s about generating conflict and heat to get as many people whipped up and blogging as possible. Encouraging Obama haters to spew racism and hatred (which these Republican trolls do to ridiculous extremes just to amuse themselves at the outraged reactions of liberals ) gets more people staying on the site to defend all that is good and right from anonymous 47 year old men living in their mother’s basement wearing their Batman mask and cape with no pants on.
The term I use for this cynical business strategy of encouraging the harassment of the majority of your users just to get more ad revenue is “Clicks and Dicks”.
And it works, it’s so easy to get drawn into wanting to use the power of words to slap the orange Cheetos powder right off the jowly cheeks of those trolls. But really…what’s the point? They’ll just be back stuffing their face with Cheetos and calling Obama a Manchurian Candidate Socialist Dog Groomer later that day.
Instead of politics causing conflicts over issues, politics IS now conflict first, issues second. It’s all about the fight now (as the clueless Town Hall rubes proved howling for government to keep out of Medicare), thanks to the media’s help in shaping it and the public that way. If you’ve never seen the video of Jon Stewart ripping the facade off of the old CNN yellfest, “Crossfire”…and effectively putting a knife through its heart…it was canceled shortly after that…watch:
Hate is a multibillion dollar industry and it never has a recession. Though it does have official holidays…in fact most holidays if your family is anything like mine.
Hate is entertainment.
Hate is news.
And hate can even be sex…if you’re married to a Southern Religious Conservative.
Can’t we just all get along…without ratings and per click rates? Please?
Click the poll below if you think we can or can’t.
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And by the way, your hair looks ridiculous! Don’t agree? Post on this blog and let your voice be heard!
I hate to say this, but it’s our own fault. I have been weaning myself off the Huffington Post for the past month. I don’t comment much any more — maybe two or three a day if I feel I have something useful to say. And I don’t really get my news there, either.
If progressives want the news media to be a real news media, they have to start voting with their presence and their dollars. The Real News is trying to set up an alternative network that specializes in in-depth investigations, discussions, and coverage of news stories. It’s a member supported, non profit venture. If that effort got the attention that HP gets, it would be in the process of building a pretty strong base.
Common Dreams is another good source of progressive news, even though it spotlights its bloggers and op ed pieces. But the news column and newswire are good sources of progressive news.
Sites like HP, Talking Points Memo, and Raw Story have abandoned the original mission that made them strong in the first place– in favor of growing their finances. It makes me wonder whether the appeal of hard core progressive news only goes so far. At some point a commercial venture has to compromise.
I read lately the sad news that my local Pacifica station is struggling to keep its audience. KPFK in Los Angeles is one of the best radio offerings around, carrying Amy Goodman and Free Speech Radio News. This coincides with the emergence of KTLK in Los Angeles, a progressive talk radio station that carries Randi Rhodes, Ron Reagan, and Thom Hartmann. Serious broadcasting has a hard time competing with entertainment.
And whose fault is that? it’s ours. We can only do so much as individual listeners. Progressives have yet to band together to fight the destruction of our media. The right has corporate money. The left has organizing.. We organized to get Obama elected. We organized to get civil rights passed. When we fail to organize, the progressive agenda is always trumped by corporate money. It happened with Prop 8. It happens every day with our news.
The internet gives us a comfort zone. We know there are other people out there like us. We have a place to talk. But we still need to organize to get things done. The health care reform process proves this every day. We’re going to have to work just as hard to get a real news organization established — and to keep it alive — in this country.
You are absolutely right. I’ve been posting allot less on HP in particular for that reason. We are empowering them.
DailyKOS is still good but I hate their colors and comment system. Fivethirtyeight with Nate Silver always has a balanced and technical view of things that I love. Thinkprogress is also pretty good.
Just last night someone on HP posted and I agree that one of the reasons HP is popular is because it has a much better comment system then most sites, especially DailyKOS and Fivethirtyeight for example. It shows what big corporate money can do.
I think the WordPress comment system is one of the best too BTW.
That’s a really good observation about the comment system. The main reason I go to HP is for the discussion. It’s like another social networking site. And even HP has recognized that the social networking is the strength — they’ve started that new social thing on the site.
It would be amazing to have a serious news outlet with that kind of comment system.
lately my perspective is to tell people that they’re wrong on HP, and tell them WHY here on POV. they’re the up-n-coming pool of political social networking, so we have to keep our feet in the water and make occasional waves to keep the rest in check. but lately i tell people that if they want truth, to step over to the VIP hot tub and hang out for a while.
Good strategy. I find I can get sucked into the bickering, especially when I see outright lies and no one is posting a strong rebuttal. A lot of people don’t know the facts, and it’s really hard to walk away when I have a link handy.
I almost use HP just to contact the friendly people I have associated with over the last couple of years rather than a serious blog any more. Their policies of censoring words and limiting comments to 250 words is too stifling for me to express myself.
thank you for posting this Stewart clip. I’ve never seen it. Mr. Stewart is one of the few media personalities that has his head screwed on straight. I wish we could somehow empower him to do more. He is a perfect example of what is wrong with our country as a whole.
Of all the people in broadcast journalism, it is the guy from a COMEDY show that exhibits the most integrity. The one voice, which should be the most repeated and respected because of its content and tenor, is in fact discounted right from the beginning because of its framing within a comedy show. Instead, the public gives credibility to propaganda gushers like Limblow and Insannity, because their shows are framed as news commentary.
Mr. Stewart and his counterpart, Mr. Colbert have provided a much needed anchor for me, as I have become more politically active. They provide the balance to offset the ignorance and lies I wade through each day while trying to enlighten people to the truth of current affairs.
The only other voice in the media I have found to be a source of truth is Mr. Bill Moyers. I think I’ll post today with some critical links.
thanx, AD
Right with you on all the above, t-d!
Along with Bill Moyers having the most thoughtful and insightful show on television about our society, he is the last of that generation of trusted and conscientious journalists.
Now we’re in a time where comedians are the most trusted men in news.
Kind of funny, actually. But thank goodness we have them!
Yep those are the only people you can really “trust” and it’s a sad testament to the demise of the fourth estate that two get their points through with comedy and parody.
Bill Moyers is about the only source of domestic straight honest news.
I watch BBC America News which is a quasi-foreign news broadcast without the spin of American news.
I wish I got CNN International. Kalima says they are excellent covering world news events.
Yup the ridiculousness of the MSM which very much includes commercial blogs like HP jump the shark every day no matter what the reality of that day brings.
A. Huffington actually said the president did not understand how to get regulatory changes on Wall Street because he changed the words in his address from “fight” to “resist”. Her minions all nodded in agreement with her adolescent logic like she was some adroit Nobel winning economist.
Of course even simple logic begged the question. Did President Obama understand what he was up against BEFORE he made the final edit to his speech?