Why are Freepazoids so convinced that CNN is "liberal"?

[UdoKier]

I utterly fail to see it. It's about a half-click left of the ultra-right-wing Fox and its sad copycat MSNBC, IMO.

What do these people think when they hear an actual liberal program like Democracy Now! or even Al Franken? That it's communist?

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Because everything to the left of Hitler is "liberal." nt

[FreedomAngel82]

3. Any network

that isn't fox news is "liberal." :eyes: Only fox news is "fair and balanced." :eyes:

[LondonReign2]

17. Yeah, Fairly Unbalanced Fox...

..whose panel yesterday consusted of:

Incredibly Right Wing and Reliably Wrong: Fred Barnes
Even further Right and More Wrong: Charles Krauthammer
Slightly less Right: Mort Krondicke
Solidly Right Wing Moderator: Brit Hume

I mean, how more balanced could you be? If this is balanced, no wonder they think everything else is liberal.

[cry baby]

2. Probably because Ted Turner used to own it.

I guess most people don't know that he no longer has control of it.

[Bunny]

5. Dear God, he sold it how many years ago?

And those asshats still haven't figured that out. They probably think he's still married to "Hanoi" Jane, too. :eyes:

[MemphisTiger]

12. Exactly, when I tell freepers that big Ted is no longer in command

they just say it's still biased. I guess if Rush says something enought time people believe it. What a bunch of dumba$$e$

[Demit]

4. Because that's what the rightwing echo chamber tells them to think

It's as simple as that. Why go to all the trouble to judge for yourself when Rush explains it all for you?

[JI7]

6. they think Bill O'Reilly is liberal

[iconoclastNYC]

16. Exactly

My brother the freeptard said that to me last x-mas...that he's too liberal. I just laughed and changed the subject.

[Poiuyt]

7. That is one of the right wings greatest achievments

They've turned the media into conservative outlets, but they can still convince America that it's liberal.

[9119495]

8. At least MSNBC had the decency to give us Olberman

They are a shade better than CNN in my book.

I suppose it could also be the the liberals clean the cons clocks on shows like Captial Gang--but that is just because our ideas are better.

[Cocoa]

9. because the decades-old strategy is working

starting with Nixon, the RW has been pounding consistently on the "liberal media bias" theme.

[Salviati]

10. Because that's what they're told...

and it is the halmark of freeperdom to believe anything you're told by the republican noise machine, regardless of whether it conflicts with reality, common sense, or even other things they've told you to believe.

[mmonk]

11. You win the prize

[Salviati]

19. Alright!

:woohoo:

What'd I win? Maybe one of these?

[Buddyblazon]

13. I've wondered the same thing.

When I hear that argument, I literally start laughing.

[Az]

14. Primarily due to all the propoganda

This goes back to the Nixon era. This is when the right began in earnest to create a sense of the media being tainted by the left. This was when the first book was written stating as much.

Since then they have pumped this notion into the public consciousness while doing everything they could to destroy the investigative capability of the news. This was largely enabled by cutting the controls and restrictions. Effectively turning the freepress from a obligation to the people into an profit making branch of the media.

As soon as it was more profit motive than obligation the corporations began cutting the budgets to increase the profit. They upped the image but lowered the quality. The same route Corporations take with any product.

So the perception of left leaning persisted. In large part due to the fact that facts keep turning up that don't agree with the right's position. With the appearance of Fox news there was suddenly a station that presented the facts in a different way. The other stations have had to play catch up with fox because they are not about the news. They are about market share and ratings.

Thus while not as bad as Fox they have become more like Fox. Enough that we choke when we hear the claim that the media is biased to the left. But still with the occaisionaly unspun fact reported so that the right continues to wail about the bias to the left.

[aaronnyc]

20. Good analysis

I would add 1 thing to that analysis. By continuing to claim that the media (news and enterntainment) is biased against them, it adds to the perception that many rightwingers have, that they are being victimized by "powerful liberal elites." This notion of being victimized by the liberal media has not only helped to push the news media to the right, but it has encouraged this huge movement of people voting for Republicans, because they have feel victimized for having "traditional values."

By claiming that the "liberal media" is the true elite in America -and therefore the cause of their victimization- they have succesfully been able to obscure the fact that huge coorperations (and the government which supports them), are the real elites who should be held accountable. Thus, people get more upset about Janet Jackson's breast falling out, than they do about any coorperate corruption.


There is another (less important) advantage of this stratagy. The continued claims that the media was made up of liberal elites, also encouraged conservatives (not the ones in power, but the ones who have been fooled into voting for those in power) to think that they have to rely on obviously partisan news sources like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to get an honest account of news and politics. Any anti-Republican story which is exposed in the MSM, they simply dismiss, and attribute it to being a scheme of the liberal media.

[TygrBright]

25. Hey, where do I join a...

..."powerful liberal elite?"

The only liberals I know are powerless un-elite (whatever) schmucks like me.

Dang, I'm hangin' around in the wrong circles, obviously.

unenlightenedly,
Bright

[thinkingwoman]

15. because Rush said so. nt.

[NightOwwl]

18. CNN is even worse than Fox; at least Fox doesn't try to hide its bias.

In presenting the results of a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, CNN.com used a visually distorted graph* that falsely conveyed the impression that Democrats far outnumber Republicans and Independents in thinking the Florida state court was right to order Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed. In fact, a majority of all three groups agrees with the court's decision, and the gap between Democrats on one hand and Republicans and Independents on the other is within the poll's margin of error.

According to the poll, conducted March 18-20, when asked if they "agree with the court's decision to have the feeding tube removed," 62 percent of Democratic respondents agreed, compared to 54 percent of Republicans, and 54 percent of Independents. But these results were displayed along a very narrow scale of 10 percentage points, and thus appeared to show a large gap between Democrats and Republicans/Independents:

BTW, here's the graph CNN posted after being called out by Media Matters.


http://mediamatters.org/items/200503220005

[tsuki]

21. I read a report on DU that Fox has 2 million viewers and CNN has

775,000 viewers. Out of how many hundreds of millions?

They are both trying to woe the same 10% of the nation and leaving the other 90% high and dry.

[housewolf]

22. Because they have been indoctrinated into the belief

that "all" the media other than "their" media has a liberal bias.

And they are indoctrinated so well that they can't watchh it and decide for themselves. They see everything through their anti-liberal glasses.

[libertypirate]

23. perception is 90% of reality....

Speak the same horse shit over and over. Well...

[Catherine Vincent]

24. They're delusional.

It started when Clinton was president and CNN was basically middle of the road. But now that evil Bush is in the White House, they expect the networks to ignore all of his misdeeds. That's why they ran to Faux News. Idiots.

[DemBeans]

26. really?

Gee, they must be tuning in to that notorious liberal, Paula Zahn!

If the most "liberal" voice on CNN is Aaron Brown, this tells you how far to the right CNN really is. I stopped watching their corporate spew after their terrible hatcheting of Gore in 2000.

[Cleita]

27. Because they were told so

and they believe it without question. It's very clever of the GOPirate marketers. If CNN actually has to report something they don't wan't to because it has gained legs, then they can say well what do you expect of those "liberals". FAUX doesn't have to do that because they can spin anything to look favorable to the right.

[Tactical Progressive]

28. Because Dems don't continually counter the absurdity

which they should be doing at all times.

I always say - CNN attacked Clinton day and night, and now promotes and protects Conservatives while they still go after Democrats.

Republicans have made the 'liberal media' part of every other subject they talk about for the past twenty years at least. They attach it to every conversation they have.

Don't blame Republicans. They're not going to stop. In fact, if you blame them they'll think it's effective and they'll do it even more. Simply point out the truth, that the mainstream media is Republican and the only reason it even looks like they're not is because Republicans themselves have become ultra-right Conservatives.

The media is Republican. The Republicans have become far-right extremists. Say it constantly.

[leftofthedial]

29. Rush told them so

[Patiod]

30. Ugh. I resent having to listen to it in airports

When I was in Italy, the (even more conservative) International CNN was one of the only English-language stations my hotel carried. Ugh ugh ugh - one Bush apologist after another, all day, all night.

Ended up watching German TV, which showed US shows with German dubbin or subtitles, plus borderline porno movies unedited. Italian TV hurt my head.