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Do you think the media is more controlled by ratings or the neocons?

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El Mariachi Donating Member (79 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:37 PM
Original message
Do you think the media is more controlled by ratings or the neocons?
Some people think media will do anything for ratings.

Others think they're controlled by conservatives/presidency.

Well, truthfully, the media probably hyped up the case for war as much as the administration. Now, we're in a serious lull for new and interesting news. So, is it outside the realm of possibility that the media will now pounce on the administration for misleading the public as to the threat that Iraq supposedly posed?
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FlashHarry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:03 PM
Response to Original message
1. The almighty dollar.
Ratings first, which might actally save us.
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fishnfla Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:03 PM
Response to Original message
2. Do you think Wolfowitz killed Laci P.?
The ratings for all the news shows go UP by 30% when they start talking about the case. See this months Vanity Fair. Greta whats-her-face-is beating up on the other news shows.
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LARED Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
3. The people
that think the major media will do anything for ratings are right. The almighty dollar is their god, and they will put no other gods before it.
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warren pease Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
4. As somebody on DU wrote awhile back...
...they're whores first and conservatives second. They'll always roll for a buck.

And if there's a buck to be made in the Bush/liar sweepstakes, you can be sure the trollops will be there in full sanctimonious splendor.


wp
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dawgman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
5. unfortunately ratings....the media is following the national trends
in the mass media industry. FInd the meanest, basest most disgusting thing out there and people will watch. Reality TV, Jacl Ass, Girls Gone Wild, Fear Factor, South Park, Eminem, etc., etc. All of these shows try to be as outrageous as possible. TV and Radio "news" channels are no different.
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JDStutts Donating Member (62 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:29 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. And what is wrong with watching entertaining TV?
I like JackAss. It's funny as hell. Like I want to sit around and watch 7th Heaven. BLAH.
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dawgman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:36 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. there isn't anything wrong with it I love fear factor and south park
Edited on Sun Jul-13-03 04:39 PM by dawgman
but it's not exactly award winning stuff. It's the idea that the same ratings grabbing philosophy that drives networks to air these shows has crept into the "news" media that is bad for us. Nothing wrong with any of those shows.
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U4ikLefty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:37 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. Who says we aren't a diverse crowd!!!
;-)
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Sava Donating Member (158 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:36 PM
Response to Original message
7. Media... ratings and advertisement dollars
this is their sole motivation... the Neo-Cons and right wing agenda seems to have come into parallel with the media, but once the American people started expressing outrage against Bush and Co. the media will go with the flow.
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w4rma Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 04:59 PM
Response to Original message
10. dollar and because of that, neocons
Gore has shared their frustration. In an interview last December with the New York Observer, he described the conservative outlets as a "fifth column" within the media ranks that injects "daily Republican talking points into the definition of what's objective."

"The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party," Gore said. "Fox News Network, The Washington Times , Rush Limbaugh — there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,459345,00.html
http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=6665

Why Isn't Randi Rhodes Syndicated? The Dilemma of a Liberal Talk Show Host.

RHODES: Oh, I am so glad you asked. I am a ratings and revenue queen. Number 1 or 2 in the ratings usually. So what are the "mainstream" talking about? Well, they say Liberals don't make money because no one wants to hear them. Okay, let's think.

First, remember that more Americans are registered or identify themselves as Democrats than Republicans. So here's the dirty little secret of news talk. There are advertisers making huge "buys" on really low rated shows that air nationally. If advertisers only go where the listeners are why do they buy cable news, Oliver North, or Rush Limbaugh who has horrible ratings?

They are buying CONTROL of CONTENT. It's leverage, whether it's radio, cable or network. They control millions of dollars of any company's revenue source. So that if something is said or done to disrupt their global business, they take their advertising elsewhere, or threaten to and then shut down the message.

And, think about this . . . how many products are on TV that you can't even buy? Plastics, computer chips, prescription drugs, soybeans. I mean honestly. This is the story that NEVER gets told. People just think, "Well, if your good enough, you'll have a big audience and that's what advertisers want." "Whose being naïve now Kaye?" I am always number one or two in the market. Rush is somewhere around 21st. I replaced G. Gordon Liddy!

I hope this gets told over and over because it is how they control our news, our Information Awareness. Get it?

BUZZFLASH: Explain the allegations that Rush Limbaugh has stated, that if Clear Channel syndicated your show, he would take his program to another company. Could there be a Democratic or Progressive Rush Limbaugh type personality on the airwaves?

RHODES: Not at Clear Channel.

First, let me tell you where the story came from. I had two meetings with middle managers who both liked me and what I had done for our 'pod'. (At Clear Channel the territories are split up into 'pods'.) In two separate meetings I was told "The Rush story." Additionally, I should never expect to be syndicated by Clear Channel because Rush had said he'd just do what advertisers do. He'd go somewhere else. I was an unknown, he was a known.

I begged for and got (6 months later) a meeting with a senior manager. He told me the "Rush story." So that's where it comes from. Now, when Oliver North was on the air, he stated that Rush was syndicated because Rush was a better talent and got better ratings. (This is insulting because of the fatness of the lie) . . . I then told him that Rush had threatened to take his show elsewhere if I were to be syndicated by Clear Channel. He said "I've heard that but I can't comment." So everyone does seem to know "The Rush Story." (North and Rush are friends).

Control the Content . . . we have business that cannot be disturbed by a questioning public.
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/01/03_Rhodes.html

Meanwhile, the Web site www.allyourtv.com posted a commentary on Wednesday by Rick Ellis saying that he had been leaked an internal NBC study that described Donahue as "a tired, left-wing liberal out of touch with the current marketplace."
The report allegedly said Donahue presented a difficult face for NBC at a time of war, saying a nightmare scenario would be one in which his show becomes "a home for the liberal anti-war agenda at the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/5263274.htm

While "Donahue" does badly trail both O'Reilly and CNN's Connie Chung in the ratings, those numbers have improved in recent weeks. So much so that the program is the top-rated show on MSNBC, beating even the highly promoted "Hardball With Chris Matthews."

Although Donahue didn't know it at the time, his fate was sealed a number of weeks ago after NBC News executives received the results of a study commissioned to provide guidance on the future of the news channel.

That report--shared with me by an NBC news insider--gives an excruciatingly painful assessment of the channel and its programming. Some of recommendations, such as dropping the "America's News Channel," have already been implemented. But the harshest criticism was leveled at Donahue, whom the authors of the study described as "a tired, left-wing liberal out of touch with the current marketplace."
http://www.allyourtv.com/0203season/news/02252003donahue.html

NOW In Depth - Massive Media PBS
Solid Ratings Don't Protect Progressive Radio Voices
What's Wrong With This Picture?
Podvin on the Media 1-31-02
Harper's editor laments rise of corporate news purveyors
Commentary: The Surrender Of MSNBC
The Wayward Media

HUSTLER: What has happened to the the news media in this country?

PALAST: I vomit every time I see Tom Brokaw.

HUSTLER: And Dan Rather-

PALAST: I feel sick at heart when I see Rather, because he's actually a journalist. He came on my program, Newsnight and said, "I can't report the news. I'm not allowed to ask questions. We're gonna send our children and our husbands into the desert now, and I can't ask a question, because I will be lynched." This is what Rather said in London. He looked defeated and awful, and I was thinking, Why am I feeling sorry for this guy who is worth millions? He should turn to the camera and say, "Well, now for the truth. Over to you, Greg, in London." The problem is that he can't report the story of the intelligence agents who are told not to look at the Bin Laden family, not to look at Saudi funding of terror.

HUSTLER: What makes Rather afraid to do his job?

PALAST: It's not just that there are brutal shepherds like Rupert Murdoch out there to beat the dickens out of any reporter that asks the wrong questions; it's all about making news on the cheap. You know, for some of these editors, cheap and easy is a philosophy of life. To do a heavy-duty story on Bush, and his oil and Bush and his gold-mining company is beyond them. A little bit of the Harken stock scandal came out, but that story was already seven years old. To some extent they know that there are certain things you cannot say. Rather says he would be necklaced for telling the truth.

HUSTLER: He said that? What did he mean?

PALAST: In South Africa, under apartheid, if someone didn't like you, they put a burning tire around your neck. That was called "necklacing." On my show, Rather said, "If I ask any questions, I'll be necklaced." And I'm thinking, Oh, that's a good image. It's sad, but if Dan Rather doesn't have the cajones to ask a question, then you name a reporter who's gonna step out and ask about what's going on. It's not that the corporate guys say, "Don't run that story," although that has happened to me many times in North American media, but also the shepherds pick the lambs who won't ask the questions. For example, there was a reporter, some poor producer, who wanted to run a story about how Jack Welch had lied about polluting the Hudson River. The story didn't run. Shockeroo. That was for Dateline NBC, owned by General Electric, of which Jack Welch was the chairman of the board. Or as in the case of Venezuela, I was stunned to come back from Caracas to find a picture on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle of 100,000 people marching against the president of Venezuela. Sounds like he's a terrible guy and people hate him. What they didn't say was that half a million people were marching for him. At least the Soviet Russians knew that the stuff in Pravda was coming out the wrong end of a toilet, whereas, we live under the pretense that The New York Times prints all the news that's fit to print.
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=181&row=1

...
Robins was talking serious politics on a morning chat show - and clearly hackles went up. By 8:24 Robins was explaining "We're fighting for freedom for the Iraqi people right now so that they can have freedom of speech, yet we're telling our own citizens they have to be quiet"

Lauer could have called it quits there -but he went on "When you see pictures of Iraqi's dancing and celebrating -does it change your mind?" "No" Said Robbins - "I'm ecstatic that they feel this freedom, I hope we have the resolve to get in there and make it work."

It was at this point that something happened that has perhaps never happened before in the history of morning television.

The music swelled under Robbins... Mid-sentence answering a question that had been asked just 10 seconds earlier... "We have a terrible track record" said Robbins, clearly not able to hear that music was coming up to literally 'play him off the stage'.

The camera cut to a wide shot. Lauer was leaning in and very much in conversation. Either Lauer was ignoring what must have been the deluge of invectives in his earpiece, or he just determined that he wasn't finished with this line of questioning.

But the music ended. The bumper music ended and the studio was in the two shot as Robbins said..."It's for some reason not in our best interest to keep it going and pursue it to the next level." Lauer nodded, and the camera faded to black as Robbins - mid sentence - had his microphone turned down.

A conversation about free speech. An anchor asking reasonable questions. A guest responding in equally reasonable tones. No attempt to close out the discussion - to say "Well thank you Tim". This was not a filibuster. Robbins was not hogging the spotlight.

Someone in the control room simply decided that it was time to pull the plug. And without grace or ceremony, or even the face saving of letting Lauer say "We're out of time" as morning shows do on so many occasions.

A conversation about free speech and free expression was cut off mid sentence as the network went to black.

Television history was made, as million of Americans got to watch in real time just how powerful and inescapable censorship can be. Robbins wasn't revealing troop locations, or giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Remember the war has been won - by all accounts. He was discussing freedom, free speech, and why his appearance has been canceled at the Baseball Hall of Fame. NBC should invite him back and let him finish his thought - or admit at least who was on the phone to master control demanding that they pull the plug.
http://www.rense.com/general37/dark.htm

Tampa cable won't air ad criticizing Bush tax cut

TAMPA - (AP) -- A TV commercial critical of President Bush's tax plan won't air in Tampa after the city's major cable provider expressed concerns about the script.

The commercial was produced for MoveOn.org, an online political activist group, and was slated to air about 10 times a day this week on cable systems in 23 cities, said Lanicia Shaw, executive assistant for Zimmerman and Markman, a Santa Monica, Calif., advertising agency handling the commercial.

The ad is a reenactment of an event in Eugene, Ore., a month ago in which 50 parents lined up outside a clinic to sell their blood plasma to help pay a teacher's salary.

''George Bush's tax cuts for the rich have meant less money for education,'' the commercial contends.
...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/5862591.htm

3. How important is "truth" in mass media reporting compared to ratings?
The media doesn't care about outing the real stories - nor about ratings. The truth GETS ratings - but it doesn't win friends in high places. We got more information about the war in Vietnam through "MASH" and "Star Trek" allegories than on CBS news.
The corporate owners of the networks will make a killing on their stealing the digital spectrum, given away for nothing by the Telecommunications Act. (For details, see my website www.GregPalast.com) They are willing to give up ratings points by serving up snooze-news with Tom Brokaw rather than gain audience share but lose their tickets to White House dinners.
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=145&row=1

Wall Street Journal:
War Produces Rift in Media Between U.S., Other Nations
...British television reporter Geoff Meade asked the officer what he would say to Iraqis and other Muslims who might welcome such images. Some U.S. reporters looked stunned at the aggressiveness of the question. A hush fell on the room. The general eyed him coldly and parried the query. Afterward, says Mr. Meade, a veteran correspondent with Sky News, a service of British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, "Somebody joked to me that I'd find myself at the back of the room along with the French and the Germans."
...
"We believe people need to see the truth, and there's no need to make the truth cosmetic because it's not pretty," says Nawal Assad, a producer at al-Jazeera's London office.

...callers on Italian talk shows criticized as censorship the U.S. government's request to U.S. networks to refrain from showing the images. In Germany, the press has engaged in lengthy dissections of U.S. news organizations, often concluding that the U.S. media has gone through "Gleichschaltung," an ominous word used to describe how the Nazis took over key public institutions, including the media (rough translation: "bringing into line").
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB104854123024458400-email,00.html

...
"We worry about what people think about us too much in this country. We have an inferiority complex, it seems," Murdoch said at the Milken Institute Global Conference. "I think what's important is that the world respects us, much more important than they love us."
...
Murdoch also warned that the world should be prepared for more terrorist attacks.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16243-2003Apr3.html
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MetaTrope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-13-03 11:48 PM
Response to Original message
11. Sock it to us, W
Anybody else happen to pick up the new DVD collection of THE BEST OF ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN? The liner notes by producer George Schlatter archly state, "I continue to have meetings and discussions about LAUGH-IN 2004 and I may do it if I can get the proper assurances that we would be allowed to be as outrageous, irreverent and meaningful as we were 35 years ago. It seems strange that with all of the new permissiveness as to language, subject matter, clothing and the lack thereof, the networks are still very nervous about disturbing the status quo the way we used to in the beginning of our LAUGH-IN adventure."

Damn liberal media...

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