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Preserving a Vision: Part II (Thomas Sowell)
Townhall.com ^ | 5/31/06 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 05/31/2006 5:34:45 PM PDT by Gordongekko909

Conservatives who point out the declining audience for the big television network newscasts, and declining public trust of the media in general, often underestimate how much clout the liberal media still have.

For example, while the economy has had near-record highs in growth rates and in the stock market, with near-record lows in unemployment and inflation, polls show that the public thinks the economy is in big trouble. A steady diet of gloom-and-doom spin in the liberal media has worked. The death of media influence has been greatly exaggerated.

More is involved than partisan attempts to undermine the Bush administration. For decades, the liberal media and the intelligentsia have had to struggle mightily against good economic news. Their whole vision of the world -- and of themselves -- is at stake.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: liberalmedia; sowell; thomassowell
Sowell on media bias! Is this more Thomas Sowell than you can handle? No it isn't!
1 posted on 05/31/2006 5:34:45 PM PDT by Gordongekko909
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To: 2ndreconmarine; Alissa; balrog666; beyond the sea; BraveMan; brf1; Capriole; CarolinaGOP; ...
Thomas Sowell *PING*

FRmail me if you want on or off the Thomas Sowell Ping List.

2 posted on 05/31/2006 5:35:19 PM PDT by Gordongekko909 (I know. Let's cut his WHOLE BODY off.)
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To: Gordongekko909
Based on Polls created by, conducted by, and reported on by the same Junk Media. Say Dr TS, Ever heard Garbage In, Garbage Out? Amazing what you can get for a poll result by increasing the Democrat and Independent portions of the respondent samples. Say Dr. When they poll a 45% D-45% R-10% Ind and get the same results. THEN I will worry. As long as they sample 1/3 more Dems and "Inds" then Repbs they are wasting our time.
3 posted on 05/31/2006 5:38:46 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (I would rather be an Iraqi in a Hidatha guarded by Marines, then a subject of Al-Qeda anywhere.)
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To: Gordongekko909
Sowell seems to be saying that the medias polls on how the public views the economy proves that they have the power to influence what people think.

Let me get this straight. The media commissions polls whose results prove the public believes the media.

What do you expect the results to be? Would the media pay for polls and then release them if the polls proved that the people don't believe the media?

Proof that the media has power would be a big decrease in spending because the people believe the economy is bad. Proof the media has power would be entering a new recession caused by a big down turn in personal spending. People who believe the economy is bad will stop spending and start saving. They believe that soon they will be laid off and have to make payments on unemployment checks.

If the media had power to influence the publics views on the economy, the economy would be in the dumpster.

People buy with their wallets and vote their wallets.. not with media reports.

Anyone who thinks otherwise can't read election returns.
4 posted on 05/31/2006 5:47:27 PM PDT by Common Tator
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To: MNJohnnie

You and I are informed on the media, sadly a majority of the population is not.


5 posted on 05/31/2006 5:48:39 PM PDT by oxcart (Journalism [Sic])
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To: Gordongekko909

Even the GD Wall Street Journal is preaching gloom and doom, and kissing immigrant @$$. I don't know what's gotten into those boys.


6 posted on 05/31/2006 6:59:08 PM PDT by Hardastarboard (Why isn't there an "NRA" for the rest of my rights?)
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To: Gordongekko909
Thomas Sowell
The poor are the very lifeblood of the left, attracting activists, support among the intelligentsia, and -- perhaps most important -- allowing the left to indulge in self-congratulation as people who "care." But, if they really cared, they would want to know what the facts are and what the actual consequences of their various nostrums are.

c_I_c:
As Rush has been pointing out, it is no joke that the Democrats are so desperate to have more poor people to boast of their "compassion" for that they are determined to import them from Mexico - or anywhere else - by the tens of millions.
Thomas Sowell
People who truly cared would want to know what the actual consequences of minimum wage laws are -- on which there is evidence from around the world that it creates unemployment. . . .

Most of the people in the bottom 20 percent are not full-time, year-around workers . . . There are, in fact, more heads of household who are full-time, year-around workers in the top 5 percent than in the bottom 20 percent.

. . But why risk a heady vision over mere facts?

c_I_c:
Liberals are motivated to nurture the idea of their own superiority much more than they are motivated by any actual desire to help people stop being poor. IOW, they cultivate their own "self-esteem" in the same way that they assay to cultivate the "self-esteem" of schoolkids. All show, no go.

People wonder why "the MSM" is populated exclusively with liberals; it is in fact obvious. Journalism makes its money by superficiality ("there's nothing more worthless than yesterday's newspaper") and negativity ("If it bleeds, it leads"). And that is a perfect description of the liberal. All show, no go.

The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.


7 posted on 06/01/2006 3:38:59 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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