The news media are losing their search for truth

[1Lord1Faith]

The mainstream news media espouses diversity in everything but it’s own industry.

Today’s mainstream news media seem to reflect increasingly the values of our increasingly doctrinally progressive academic institutions. Last year, some 96 percent of media outlet political donations, according to the Center for Public Integrity, went to Hillary Clinton.

Increasingly, top journalists, as Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes noted, are often young, highly educated ingenues who “literally know nothing” and can be easily misled by attractive figures like President Obama. Nate Silver’s concept of a “liberal media bubble” reflects the increasing concentration of media in fewer places and the related collapse of local journalism. More than half of all media jobs are now located in counties where Clinton won by over 30 points, notes Politico. In 2008, these counties had less than a third of all media jobs. To many in newsrooms, the Trump constituency seems to them to be people from another, inhospitable planet.

ocregister.com/2017/05/07/the-news-media-are-losing-their-search-for-truth/

Can media myopia be cured? Unlike other industries, the national media has a directive beyond just staying in business: Many newsrooms really do feel a commitment to reflecting America fairly. Sometimes, correcting for liberal bias can be smart business as well. For instance, by rightly guessing that there was a big national broadcast audience that didn’t see their worldviews represented in the mainstream networks, the Fox News Channel came to dominate cable TV ratings. Adopting Fox’s anti-mainstream media message to his political needs, Trump ended up running on a Foxesque platform, making a vote for him into a vote against the elite media—his trash talk was always directed at the national press, not the local. Similarly, Breitbart has seen huge success sticking it to liberals, implicitly taking the side of the “real America” against the coastal bubbles. Breitbart now attracts more than 15 million visitors a month, according to comScore, which isn’t far behind more established outlets like the Hill’s 24 million and Politico’s 25 million.

But is this really America, either? It’s worth mentioning that Fox and Breitbart—and indeed most of the big conservative media players—also happen to be located in the same bubble. Like the “MSM” they rail against, they’re a product of New York, Washington and Los Angeles. It’s an argument against the bubble, being waged almost entirely by people who work inside it.

Is America trapped? Certainly, the media seems to be. It’s hard to imagine an industry willingly accommodating the places with less money, fewer people and less expertise, especially if they sense that niche has already been filled to capacity by Fox. Yet everyone acknowledges that Trump’s election really was a bad miss, and if the media doesn’t figure it out, it will miss the next one, too.

politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/25/media-bubble-real-journalism-jobs-east-coast-215048

The good news is that these two articles are coming from inside the bubble. The bad news is that journalistic integrity is not mentioned as the driving force of this introspection on their part, but the fact that they seem to be a little embarrassed that they didn’t see the Trump Presidency as being a possibility.

The Politico article does a good job of showing one of the reasons why there is an echo chamber in the mainstream media more so today than ten years ago.

Is American media trapped?

 

[PJH_74]

The mainstream news media espouses diversity in everything but it’s own industry.

The good news is that these two articles are coming from inside the bubble. The bad news is that journalistic integrity is not mentioned as the driving force of this introspection on their part, but the fact that they seem to be a little embarrassed that they didn’t see the Trump Presidency as being a possibility.

The Politico article does a good job of showing one of the reasons why there is an echo chamber in the mainstream media more so today than ten years ago.

Is American media trapped?

Are you exempting the huge empires of conservative talk radio? I’m quite sure they went for Trump after the primaries and had a huge influence. I’m also quite sure they ascribe to no journalistic standards at all.

 

[Crusaderbear]

Look to today’s pc culture, ‘agree to disagree’ is unheard of. Success is based on consensus agreement - which rarely means the truth.

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

The media is here to make money ,

Not to many allow truth get in the way of a good story,

And when they can’t find anything worthy to report they then find stupid people ,

And make them Famous

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Are you exempting the huge empires of conservative talk radio? I’m quite sure they went for Trump after the primaries and had a huge influence. I’m also quite sure they ascribe to no journalistic standards at all.

No, and from the tone of the Politico article I think conservative talk radio would be put right there where Fox News and Breitbart were put:

Breitbart has seen huge success sticking it to liberals, implicitly taking the side of the “real America” against the coastal bubbles. Breitbart now attracts more than 15 million visitors a month, according to comScore, which isn’t far behind more established outlets like the Hill’s 24 million and Politico’s 25 million.

But is this really America, either? It’s worth mentioning that Fox and Breitbart—and indeed most of the big conservative media players—also happen to be located in the same bubble. Like the “MSM” they rail against, they’re a product of New York, Washington and Los Angeles. It’s an argument against the bubble, being waged almost entirely by people who work inside it.

 

[joeybaggz]

T Is American media trapped?

Yes, by its own choice. it started with the retirement of Walter Cronkite, and it has been sliding down the slippery slope of political correctness and left wing liberalism ever since.

P.J.O’Rourke once said, “giving money and power to politicians is like giving whiskey and the car keys to a teen age boy.” And since the main stream right and left coast media are firmly in bed with the politicians of the left, what’s happening in the media is inevitable.

Shalom

 

[ChurchSoldier]

The growth of talk radio, and the advent of the Internet has allowed the heretofore unheard voice of conservatives my and mainstream America to be heard.

You can tell it is effective not only because the MSM is really concerned, but social outlets such as FB and YouTube are censoring or demonetizing conservative viewpoints.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

The growth of talk radio, and the advent of the Internet has allowed the heretofore unheard voice of conservatives my and mainstream America to be heard.

You can tell it is effective not only because the MSM is really concerned, but social outlets such as FB and YouTube are censoring or demonetizing conservative viewpoints.

Conservative Talk radio has been around forever. The syndication of guys like Rush and Beck is newer. But they exist with their audience in just as much of an echo chamber as MSNBC and their audience. So who is the conservative voice being heard by?..its being heard by other conservatives. There is a market for it, so it exists. My point is that that is exactly why it exists. Conservative talk radio does not exist because of a journalistic integrity ideology held by its owners. That’s the point made in the Politico article.

Beck is different because he does not operate in this New York, DC, California bubble. And he doesn’t stick to right and left talking points.

I’ve heard that FB is desperately trying to rework its algorithms in order to avoid putting its users in an algorithmic enduced echo chamber.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Yes, by its own choice. it started with the retirement of Walter Cronkite, and it has been sliding down the slippery slope of political correctness and left wing liberalism ever since.

P.J.O’Rourke once said, “giving money and power to politicians is like giving whiskey and the car keys to a teen age boy.” And since the main stream right and left coast media are firmly in bed with the politicians of the left, what’s happening in the media is inevitable.

Shalom

What’s happening with traditional MSM does look like a drunk teenager driving the wrong way on the Interstate. Both Fox and CNN are headed for an ugly death, IMO. They have no real journalism for their size, and they seemingly have no clue what the public wants in their news. They will eventually turn into tabloid television, if they haven’t already.

The Washington Post is hiring 60 journalists this year because of its growth, and in anticipation of the Trump administration’s tactics of disseminating information.