Killer Piece on Faux's faux Popularity - about the Same # Viewers as PBS

[UTUSN]

*******QUOTE*******

http://slate.com/id/2116177/

.... Wallace could be writing about Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity when he explains that KFI's Ziegler "is not a journalist—he is an entertainer. Or maybe it's better to say that he is part of a peculiar, modern, and very popular type of news industry, one that manages to enjoy the authority and influence of journalism without the stodgy constraints of fairness, objectivity, and responsibility that make trying to tell the truth such a drag for everyone involved." These radio and cable entertainers do precisely what they damn Mainstream Media reporters for doing: They "interpret, analyze, and explain" news inside their narrow political context. ....

Kobylt's popular afternoon show on KFI, Wallace writes, is "based around finding stories and causes that will make white, middle-class Californians feel angry and disgusted, and then hammering away at these stories/causes day after day." Framed that way, it makes sense why such topics as the Scott Peterson murder trial, Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, Ward Churchill's big mouth, France, "America hatred," illegal immigrants, the elite media, the judiciary, and liberals possess such talk-radio staying power.

Nobody on television does a better job of executing the talk-radio formula than Fox's O'Reilly. Take a look at a list of recent headlines from O'Reilly's "Talk Points Memo" segment, which opens the show: "More Danger From the ACLU"; "Grim Picture on Illegal Immigration"; "Undermining the War on Terror, Part 97"; "Using Doctors To Hide Sex Crimes in Illegal Abortions"; "The Univ. of Hawaii Should Be Ashamed"; "Too Many in the U.S. Media are Anti-Military." Almost to a one, his commentaries throb with the dark fury of an aneurysm in Joe Sixpack's brainpan. ....

Although Fox's radioized formula seems incredibly popular, the folks at Annenberg, Pew, FAIR, the Shorenstein Center, and Media Matters for America who monitor the media for incipient fascism can relax. In prime time, Fox News rarely attracts an audience larger than about 3.5 million, which is to say about 26 million less than the average combined audience for CBS, ABC, and NBC's evening news shows. Even PBS's interview program NewsHour, which deceptively bills itself as a news show, draws a reported 3 million viewers a night.

American demagoguery just ain't what it used to be when a show (O'Reilly's) that deliberately taps the accessible emotions of "anger, outrage, indignation, fear, despair, disgust, contempt, and a certain kind of a apocalyptic glee"—to lift from Wallace's talk-radio observations—can't dramatically outperform a public TV program (Lehrer's) that's designed to steer viewers into an early evening nap.

********UNQUOTE*******

[coloradodem2005]

1. O'Rielly always comes off like a condescending douche.

God those numbers could have fooled me.

[rodeodance]

3. but you also have to consider the slow creep of Fox to other countries-

all the Fox cable network--it recently got access to some parts of Candada and it broadcasted to our troops in Iraq. I do not know which other news channels are broadcasted to Irag. Does anyone?

[rodeodance]

2. he is very effective in raising my blood pressure!!

[UTUSN]

4. Here's Chickenhawk O'Loofah Receiving the VFW Errect Loofah Award

[Freedom_from_Chains]

5. One line says it all

"Kobylt's popular afternoon show on KFI, Wallace writes, is "based around finding stories and causes that will make white, middle-class Californians Americans feel angry and disgusted, and then hammering away at these stories/causes day after day."

The fact is there are a lot of people in America who need an convenient excuse as to why their life is in the toilet. Without such an excuse, their only recourse would be to look at themselves for answers, something they will go to great lengths to avoid.

[Brotherjohn]

6. I've always known this. The market is so segmented. But the problem...

... is that Fox's "No. 1" rating (at certain time slots, ON Cable), combined with such far-right ranting and incessant demands that the media is liberal and needs to be more objective (anytime their POV is questioned), have led the MSM (watched by those 26M more viewers) to regularly allow the most insipid, factually erroneous, and downright insane claims from the right to be presented in the name of "balance".

Television networks which once held some level of investigative ability and objectivity have been bullied by this shrill chorus coming from the right. The same goes for most moderate politicians.

The article states that those "who monitor the media for incipient fascism can relax" because Fox barely pulls more than PBS. But that is not the point. The "Fox news mentality" that has become the "way to go" (at least on cabel news) is the problem. The fact that even broadcast media have become reticent to challenge administration or conservative views for fear of being labelled "biased"... that is the problem. It allows unsubstantiated claims to be presented as valid.

Fascism creeps. It is not forced upon a people all at once.

Fox news has been rated "No. 1" (at times? in certain markets and timeslots? whatever). But all that means is they have a core audience and they appeal in such a way as to hook them in. But No. 1 on Cable means you're getting 3.5M viewers, while MSNBC gets 3M, while CNBC gets 2.8M, while NickToons and TVLand gets probably millions more (and even as "News" goes, they are outperformed by the broadcast networks and nearly by PBS).

The problem is that the rest of the (non-Fox) media have been bullied into behaving more like Fox because they think they have to be "No. 1".

They should all have their licenses revoked for failing miserably in their duty to provide a public service.

[donkeyotay]

7. An audience of 3.5 million?

But, but... I thought Fox Nitworks was riding a rising tide of middle Americans. I thought O-Really was speaking for US. An audience of 3.5 mil? Geewhiz, you'd think it was just subsidized propaganda or something. Don't these people BELIEVE in the market? Do their advertisers know about this?