Is this REALLY the REAL WORLD Forum? What happened to the Nick Berg thread?

Not a surprise at all, but hugely dangerous to healthy democracy. We're only as free as our press and it's been in a downward spiral for the past 20 years. I think the FCC needs to make some rules about how much of a "news" channel's broadcast day can be devoted to speculative banter and punditry before they're no long allowed to call themselves a news channel. When such a large percentage of the population believes outright lies (like the Iraq 9/11 link) there's something terribly wrong with the press.

What press started the 9-11/Iraq crap? Pretty much nobody is (and ever has) said there's a connection. (Not saying there wasn't any press that reported it that way, I'm asking.) I hope you're overestimating how many people think there was a connection...

I don't know if there's an easy solution (especially it has anything to do with the crappy legal system and making even more laws) to media stupidity.

Yes Chip, I should have said, "with the exception of Fox News and others, the mainstream American media. . . ." But look closely at CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post, and the list goes on and on. These are biased news sources that tend to lean to the left.

If they've slowly been moving more towards the center it's thanks to talk radio, the internet and cable.

Mainstream media is biased to whichever direction makes them money.

Anyone who gets their news from one source is a fool.

Anyone who relies on purely the "outside" media is a fool.

Get your news from varied sources, and use your head to form your opinions.

Its just that simple.

Okies, was just catching up on this thread and seeing how I work in TV News I can cast a lil light on how it works..

Left, Right, Government run are some of the common myths..

TV News is 99% corporate run, and it leans to the dollar.

Folks in postitions of power and influence (such as the News Director - The executive producer - the station manager) sometimes are able to put their own spin on a particular story by way of thier position.. One instance is here our executive producer approved 8 stories dealing with Anti-Gay marriage, but only approved one Pro... and that only if we showed the 'opposing view' within the story (something the anti stories didn't have to do)... Its personal agenda on this level.

As for the overall view of whats covered and what isn't, and how it is decided:

A station 'owns' its newscasts -- and by that I mean that it owns all the advertising slots in and around it...
The higher the amount of viewers, the more money it can get from these spots.

News advertising spots are the lifeblood of the TV station. They generate the majority of the stations income..

which brings us to: Neilson Ratings -- aka 'sweeps'

This is where the amount of viewers is gathered and recorded - and this gives the base figure that advertising for those slots is calculated from..


In Practice:

Before ratings 'consultants' come in and advise the staff on what they've found their demographic to be - the ideal audience... and so the news for each show is catered to that group. The name of the game is to get as many people to watch your show as humanly possible for that 1/2 hour by all means fair and foul..

So, grabby catchlines, high spectulation and interest grabbers are the name of the game.. or as is said in Newsroom Jargon:

'If it bleeds, it leads'

because people love to watch explosions, flames, and all kinds of heinous crap... Never start your show with a feel good story unless its a heartugger, and of course theres no roadkill tonight.

Onto the Producers -- the people who actually 'write' the show..
I say 'write' loosly here because it's just pretty much copied holus bolus from the AP and scripted to suit the anchor and orientation of the people in power...
Sometimes it's comical how 'facts' are transposed -- or downright reinvented here.. never let the truth get in the way of a good story...

and onto the anchors and reporters

Usually hired based on the two huge job requirements - the ability to look good and read... never but NEVER allow your anchors or reporters to actually WRITE a story -- this would be the worst mistake EVER.. under no circumstances allow people see how vapid 90% of them truely are..

So long as the viewer likes thier look, that means more viewers!

.... no looking behind the curtain! Nothing to see here!

The industry called 'News' would be more correctly termed 'infotainment' -- only marginally in front of E.T.

There is NO decision made in any newsroom I've worked in to date that isn't made based on viewers numbers.. it's that simple.

Viewers = Ratings = Advertising Value = Profit.

That's the no bullshit reality of it. And they're all the same.

Siggy.

Very well put, Siggy

TV stations have to make many people watch while at the same time keeping the corporate investors happy. And they can not mess too much with people in Pentagon, CIA or White House, or those might not "leak" the next interesting story to the network, but to a competitor, might not give them the best "embedded journalist" slots and so on

I don't think anyone's saying they aren't money-leaning.

If the American people are turning more conservative, it's because the "left" has been getting further and further to the left for years.

Quite funny, how just now another thread was removed from this forum. I don't know if it was because of the flames in the thread or because of the link to a mainstream media website in Europe

*nevermind*

Actually, the left has moved way left because the right has moved way right. Moderates are an endangered species.

Local News from Austin, Texas...

How so? "The right" has moved more towards the left in the areas I'm thinking about, others I can't see a real difference. (God don't you love political spectrum conversations...right left...up down...)

Actually I can think of areas where maybe conservatives have gotten more extreme too. I think we're both right in terms of positions on issues.

As for the population turning more conservative/liberal...look what I found:

http://www.umich.edu/~nes/nesguide/toptable/tab3_1.htm

If that's accurate (who the heck knows), it seems we have more people going in BOTH directions since 2000 (biggest jump). Also seems like there's been a very subtle but steady shift towards conservatism over the last 30 years. "Middle of the road" IS near an all time low, as you said. (The all time low hit in 1980 when there was an all-time high of unthinking retarded monkeys who didn't have any opinion at all.)

I'm not surprised by this at all, it's exactly what I expected to see. The country's splitting into two halves...

This is probably a stupid topic, it's just about impossible to get hard facts about it.

There too? Didn't they learn from the San Diego teachers example??

Wow...California and Texas both doing the same screwup...you don't see that every day...