🚀 go-pugleaf

dlow@ppg01.sc.hp.com (Danny Low) writes:
>The "press" stopped being just the newspapers since the invention of
>radio. Even newspapers are more than just the editorial page. Most
>of a NEWSpaper is supposedly carrying NEWS. Also it is not the
>number of liberal or conservative "press" that matters as the
>size of their audience. One half hour news broadcast on any ONE of
>the networks is seen by more people than ALL the conservative
>newspapers in the entire country. 

I doubt your last sentence -- have you seen how low the ratings for
network newscasts are these days and compared them to newspaper
subscription rates?

If ratings count, then surely the fact that more people see Rush Limbaugh
than network news broadcasts must figure into your equations?  Or the fact
that most of ABC's and CNN's paid political commentators are conservatives
or moderates?  People that are given license by the broadcast media to
express their opinions rather than to just report the news are almost all
conservatives or moderates (radio talk show hosts, TV political
commentators like George Will, etc).  People claiming to represent the
"left" on CNN shows are generally neoliberals (not very different from
neoconservatives) of the New Republic stripe.  The guest who has received
the most air time on ABC's Nightline is that noted liberal Henry
Kissinger (not surprising since Ted Koppel once worked for Kissinger and
seems to practically worship the man).

>There is no question that the most influential "press" in this country
>(such as the broadcast news) is very liberal.

I question this assumption.  I assert that, in fact, the broadcast media
are for the most part very resistant to change of any kind, making them
appear liberal during the Reagan administration (lots of resistance to the
changes Reagan wanted to make) and rather conservative now (lots of
resistance to changes Clinton wants to make).  This has been called
"centrist bias" by some commentators.

>Restricting the concept of
>the "press" to just newspapers is misleading and is a statistical lie.

Baldly asserting that the broadcast media are "very liberal" just because
Nixon and Reagan have been asserting it all your life is even more
misleading.  I won't accuse you of lying since I'm sure you believe what
you're saying.

-- 
-- Joe Buck 	<jbuck@synopsys.com>
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