Posted on 07/23/2006 9:05:02 AM PDT by Graybeard58
The Project for Excellence in Journalism is out with its annual report, "The State of the News Media 2006," and its findings are pretty grim for TV news. Viewership for the nightly news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC dipped to 27 million in 2005, a 1.8 million (6 percent) year-to-year drop that was "an acceleration of the pace of decline in recent years," the group found. The combined audience has shrunk by 48 percent since the advent of cable news programming in 1980 even while the U.S. population grew by nearly a third. Last week's Nielsen ratings offered further discouragement. Viewership was just 21 million, attributable in part to summer vacations but certainly reflective of the overall dismal trend.
The report tried to explain away the decline with the usual suspects: "longer work days, expanded commutes, growing competition from technology, the end of the Cold War, cutbacks in network news content and generational lack of interest in the news." The report did acknowledge the networks are being blown away by CNN and the Fox News Channel, which provide national and international news more immediately and conveniently.
Except for a passing reference to "some" PBS documentaries having "a decided liberal cast," however, the report ignored the real culprit: the network's manifest left-wing bias. Walter Cronkite, a lefty through and through, managed to anchor the CBS Evening News for nearly two decades without blatantly exhibiting his liberal tilt all the time. Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC and Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner at ABC -- lefties all -- exhibited the same sort of professionalism.
The biases of today's TV "journalists" are much more obvious. The industry can blame this free fall on an array of social and demographic changes, but the networks' decline into irrelevance is traceable to a growing awareness among viewers that the networks spin their "news" to promote progressive agendas.
BUMP this all day!!!!
FR is the perfect news place. Focus on a story lasts as long as I want to read it and I can read what my fellow commoners have to say about news and events.
Could we make them perhaps fall a bit faster?
It couldnt happen to a more deserving bunch.
Yes, and throw in the fact that their all corporate controlled, overpaid and lazy and you've got the recipe for disaster.
Americans aren't stupid contrary to what many people believe. They see the bias, but they also see the lack of solid reporting and facts. The endless partisan argument found everywhere is exhausting, so most don't bother and just turn the garbage off.
But then again, little Katie is going to anchor CBS....so I may be wrong here lol.
And I have NEVER been better informed.
Such a fall, that when I see 'networks' in a headline, I think TCP/IP, not ABC.
The current demise and layoffs at the print media (NYT) is great news as well. Let's hope the same demise takes place at the Los Angeles Times and the rest of the Liberal rags.
There is nothing "progressive" about liberalism. Any tinge of historical accuracy to the use of that term is long gone. We now have many decades of experience with the liberal programs of The Great Society and it is clear that not only has there been no progress, but the plight of those who were to be served has regressed. Therefore, I propose a change to the lexicon and liberals shall now be referred to as "regressives."
No matter how much money the MSM throws after people like Katie C. the ratings will still decline and they still won't get it.....oh well....we have FR
Pinging the Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™ list with Sunday Morning Good News...
I think this decline has less to do with "left-wing bias" and more to do with the simple fact that when people want to know what is going on in the world, they're going to turn on CNN, MSNBC or Fox. Or log onto the internet. They're not going to wait for the 6:30pm newscast.
My guess is that most of the viewers of the evening news are older folks who are more set in their ways.
I haven't watched the evening news in years. Bias has nothing to do with it. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I already know what is going on in the world.
No news is good news when it comes to those fellows.
Obvious conclusion. Almost the entire evening news audience are the oldest/older generation (as evidenced by the ads shown). As they depart this mortal coil, the audience will shrink even further.
The concept of waiting until 6:30 pm to watch 1/2 hour of news presented in a slanted, insult-to-the-intelligence manner is as silly as it is obsolete.
M$M... you can't even give it away.
The Stone-age press had its chance and drove us away. You can only insult your customers for so long before they resent you and your bias.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Shalom Israel
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