Can the leftist mainstream media survive?
JohnC
http://sayetright.blogspot.com/2005/04/hugh-hewitts-challenge-and-cbss.html
(Note: if you still think the media is not leftist, learn the reality
at http://www.mrc.org then come back here and read this)
Hugh Hewitt's challenge and CBS's Survival
Center-Right radio talkshow host Hugh Hewitt has posted a challenge to
bloggers and others to offer up suggestions on how CBS can pull itself
-- and by extension the other dying dinosaurs of the Old Media -- out
of its likely fatal ratings spiral.
In order to solve a problem, of course, one must first understand what
the nature of that problem is. At CBS and the rest of the Old Media the
problem is not one of cosmetics but rather one of philosophy and
therefore it is not something that can be quickly fixed with a new set
or by the promotion of the next leftist in line -- not even the one
with the nicest hair and shiniest teeth.
The problem isn't the "look" it's the leftism.
The bottomline that CBS (et al) must come to recognize is that leftism
is such an intellectually and morally vacuous philosophy that it can
only survive in, well, a vacuum. For nearly half-a-century the leftists
at the elite media enjoyed such a vacuum in the monopoly they held on
the dissemination of information.
In owning a monopoly the Old Media was able to play the old "bait and
switch" on its customers, promising to deliver facts and information
but instead providing only ideology masquerading as such. With nowhere
else to turn for information the consumer of news was stuck with the
leftists and the leftists could earn both profit and propaganda value
for their cause without fear of ever being exposed.
This was the era when the term "pack journalism" came into vogue. The
wolf pack, of course, offers no unique thinking but, instead, sees all
work together towards the common goal. By thinking alike and parroting
each other the leftists ensured that their manipulation of the news
would rarely -- if ever -- be challenged.
It is not a coincidence, of course, that the story of the latest MSM
deception, this one by the Managing Editor of CBS News, was broken not
by any of the Old Media clique who would never think of exposing one of
their own, but rather by the outsiders of the New Media -- most
prominently within the blogesphere.
The corrupt leftists, of course, do not see themselves as corrupt. Even
as CNN was engaging in a decade-long fraud in cahoots with Saddam
Hussein the arrogance of the leftist prevented them from admitting to
themselves what had become abundantly clear to the vast majority of
Americans. While poll after poll showed that even Democrats recognized
that the MSM was far to the left of them and virtually no one trusted
the Old Media any longer, the NYC elitists and their ilk were
steadfastly denying any bias -- much less corruption.
This is because many in the MSM were able to fool themselves into
believing that their spin and lies were simply part of their job. That
is, since the product they were selling was "truth" the objective of
their job was not to provide fact and evidence in a fair and balanced
manner but rather to supply only that which would lead the yokels and
yahoos outside the approved zip codes (typically starting with a one or
a nine) to understand "the truth." And since the leftist was so
intellectually superior to everyone else it was simply a given that
that "truth" was whatever the leftist himself believed via his leftist
interpretations.
Clearly the rabble and the rednecks couldn't be trusted with to come to
the truth on their own, after all these are people so stupid as to
believe in American exceptionalism, God's existence and universal
truths. To help these poor, uneducated dolts, then, the upper eastside
of Manhattan crowd would pre-digest the information for them and
regurgitate only that would which lead these illiterates to "the
truth." If Fox News Channel's slogan is "We Report, You Decide" the
elitists' was "You're Too Stupid To Decide So We've Done It For You."
If someone in the wasteland between Hollywood and New York was so
ignorant as to believe, for example, that the Vietnam War was a noble
effort to staunch the spread of Communism it was the Old Media's job to
disabuse them of this conclusion and guide them to "the truth" no
matter how much misinformation and disinformation that required.
Thus the Old Media was "only doing its job" in portraying the Tet
Offensive -- an overwhelming victory for the American troops -- as a
backbreaking defeat for the United States for such a portrayal, while
an outright lie, was needed to make the yokels (so stupid they actually
preferred American beer to French wine) outside of the Upper East Side
of Manhattan to see "the greater truth" that "war is not the answer"
and to debunk that nasty inconvenience to "multiculturalism" that is
the recognition of American exceptionalism.
This is, of course, what Dan Rather was thinking when he tried to sell
forged documents and portray a mentally disturbed Democratic Party
partisan with multiple contacts at the highest levels of the Kerry
campaign as "an unimpeachable source." Rarely does a leftist actually
come out and say it but Rather did. When caught red-handed he implored
the dolts to ignore all the facts and evidence and simply get the
"bigger truth." That "bigger truth," of course, was the leftist
position that George Bush should not be reelected.
What Rather failed to recognize (but what CBS and the Old Media must if
they are to survive) is that this isn't the 1970's, 80's or 90's and
the spoken or unspoken collusion between a handful of leftist, NYC
media pretty-boys is no longer a guarantee of protection from a handful
of like-minded zealots.
With the advent of alternative voices it is no longer possible for the
leftists to sell misinformation and disinformation in the guise of
"journalism" secure in the knowledge that the other networks share
their ideology and agendas. Try as they might, for example, in the
twenty-first century these sources could not convince the American
people that the war that liberated Iraq was a "Vietnam-like quagmire"
now that these same viewers could turn on the Fox News Channel and see
for themselves that American troops were standing in Baghdad in what
was, in fact, historically unprecedented time.
It is because leftism cannot survive in an environment where it is
challenged that the last bastions of leftist domination of the news are
formats where debate and discussion is impossible. Conversely, every
venue where debate and discussion is part of the format the
intellectual and moral vacuousness of the leftists is quickly exposed
and its purveyors uniformly rejected by the people.
So it is that the last gasp of leftist controlled media-- the Old Media
-- includes the twenty-three minute a night network newscasts where the
likes of Dan Rather and Peter Jennings dictate "the truth" to viewers
without interruption or counterpoint. This same ideology espoused on
the cable news channels, though, with their hour-long debate and
discussion formats. sees the consumer of news turning off the leftist
CNN in favor of the more reasonable and reasoned -- and accurate -- Fox
News Channel.
Similarly the leftists continue their hold on the print media where the
likes of the New York Times puts down on paper whatever their
politically motivated agenda demands and, as if gospel, "it is written"
but when these same arguments are put forth on talk radio programs,
where they must be defended against twenty or thirty challenges by
intelligent and engaged listeners, the leftist talk show host is soon
vanquished.
To solve their problems, then, and to have any chance to be of
relevance in the future the Old Media -- and CBS in particular -- must
go beyond cosmetic change and come to understand that the days of the
leftist monopoly and unquestioned "facts" are gone. Consumers of news
want facts and information not ideology and to test these facts they
want anchors who are not just willing but able to stand up to challenge
from thoughtful and intelligent sources.
This is going to be difficult for the elitists in the Old Media to
accept, however, as, in their arrogance the very definition of
"thoughtful" and "intelligent" is simply anyone who agrees with them
and tells them how smart they are. So the next thing that CBS must do
is reject the arrogance that is so prevalent CBS News insider Bernard
Goldberg used the word as the title of his book.
This will be a difficult choice for the elitists at CBS (et al) who are
basically being given a choice between chucking the narcissism that is
at the core of their being or losing the battle of the news shows to
the likes of Fox and other non-leftists news sources that are sure to
appear as the Old Media is more and more exposed in their folly.
CBS will have to, at the very least, feign respect for the non-leftists
outside the approved zip codes and to the growing numbers within those
zip codes who have come to recognize that truth is simply not a premium
to the ideologues of the MSM. Few businesses (outside of a monopoly)
can survive when they hold their customers beyond contempt -- often to
the point of hatred.
What specific changes should CBS make? Should they go with viewer calls
or in studio guests who honestly represent an opposing point-of-view?
I'll leave that to the marketing department. But unless and until CBS
and the rest make the decision to become purveyors of truth rather than
hucksters for ideology shiny teeth and pretty hair just ain't gonna do
it.