Jon Stewart on the mainstream media

Well, apparently it happened a couple years back, I could have sworn it was more recent. Anyway, here's the link (with video from Fox and Friends) from Media Matters.

http://mediamatters.org/research/200807020002

 

I think most reporters are "liberal" in the loosest definition of the word. They kind of have to be to do their jobs well. They want to know more, interview someone else and capture the scope of a story. They also are biased in favor of a good story - Underdogs, people overcoming adversity, finding a new and better way to do something. It goes back to the Bible (probably before), Jesus' birth, David v. Goliath, Noah's Ark.
I'm not saying a "conservative" wouldn't find stories like these compelling and tell them - but the little guy vs. Corporation X would be considered "liberal" story.
One of the reasons the Randy Weaver story had legs was that he was one guy and his family against the FBI - your political views may view it differently, but it is a classic "liberal" storyline along the lines of McCarthyism and the civil rights movement.

 

Just another parallel to Fox's all-too-frequent habit of labelling lifetime R's as D's when caught in various humiliating situations . ..

 

God that is awful. And here I was thinking it's bad when they "accidentally" put (D) next to a republican politician's name when he does something bad, and when they use B-roll footage of the wrong black person.

 

Is this a joke? Really. Where's the blue font?

 

I dunno, I don't think they made the noses "hooky" enough. And of course they forgot the horns completely!

 

Look, Fox came up with a business plan that was unique, brilliant and politically-motivated unlike any broadcast media group's business plan before it.

Murdoch did not think the media spoke enough to him as a conservative. He thought it would make sense to find a niche in the cable news world by having a network that spoke to his interest because he thought there were many like him who would watch. To cater to his interest, the reporting would have to be biased. But that's OK, because it would be good for business.

And it worked! Fox has cornered the conservative niche market. Say what you want about the three networks and CNN before Fox, but those networks all tried to draw viewers from across the political spectrum. Fox was the first to attempt to draw a specific niche. Now, it's interested in growing that niche and making it more mainstream, which means growing the Republican Party.

So yes, it has become a promoter of the Republican party as part of its business plan.

And this is hardly a secret.

And no, no other network has been willing to take the same plunge, though NBC has come close, then pulls itself back.

 

Stewart owns up to his mistakes...
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-21-2011/fox-news-false-statements?xrs=synd_facebook

 

I think this was the study Stewart was referencing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/fox-news-viewers-are-the-_n_798146.html

 

NBC is owned by Comcast now ... rated the worst company in America, no surprise.

 

Murdoch's real brilliance was playing both sides of the field. He put shows on Fox that offended the very viewers he was courting with Fox News.

 

At the end of the day, Murdoch's a businessman first, a political person second. For him, Married with Children had an audience because he thought there was a market for raunchy comedy that the three traditional networks weren't willing to air (he was right). He'd be a good Moneyball GM: He finds what is undervalued in the market and exploits it.

For news, the choice was obvious. There is a right-wing orthodoxy that does not exist on the left. That orthodoxy can be catered to with consistent themes across a news network. You cannot do that as effectively with the left because the left is more diverse with its interests. It's a much larger coalition. That's also why it's easier to portray the media as having this large conspiracy. Anything that covers the interest of the many groups that form the democratic coalition get lumped together as "liberal." It's really hard to advocate anything that isn't specifically conservative without it coming across as part of the liberal agenda to conservatives.

EDIT TO ADD: The above is a slight oversimplification. Of course there is some diversity of thought on the right. But relative to the diversity on the left, it's very orthodox.