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To: hispanarepublicana
This is a brilliant piece, though he isn't as alone as he thinks in perceiving these trends---they are the basis for a book I'ves sent to my agent called "First, the Bad News." But this represents a 360-degree circle back to where "news" was in the Jacksonian period, namely where EVERY publication was "biased" and people knew it and treated the contents accordingly. Papers carried the name "Arkansas Democrat" or "Columbus Republican."

What is more interesting to me is WHY the media shifted so sharply to the left in the 1960s from the (pretty much) objective press of the 1870-1860 period. (You can always find exceptions, i.e., the "Yellow Press") It's a long (and not completely satisfying explanation for these sentences:

"First came the of the movements of the 60s. Then the media was captured by the Left."

If you look at the shift, this occured BEFORE Watergate and even before the Vietnam War became unpopular. So something big was happening in the early 1960s.

31 posted on 09/13/2004 9:13:29 AM PDT by LS
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To: LS

The left shift happened with the Great Depression, and it took 25 years for that generation to bubble to the top of the institutions.


76 posted on 09/13/2004 10:09:14 AM PDT by Taliesan (fiction police)
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To: LS
This is a brilliant piece, though he isn't as alone as he thinks in perceiving these trends---they are the basis for a book I'ves sent to my agent called "First, the Bad News." But this represents a 360-degree circle back to where "news" was in the Jacksonian period, namely where EVERY publication was "biased" and people knew it and treated the contents accordingly. Papers carried the name "Arkansas Democrat" or "Columbus Republican."

Excellent observation. In point of fact, this is the situation that obtains globally. In Europe, Japan, etc. the newspapers and other media have a definite political slant, which is well known to everyone. They have their own audiences and are used to counterbalance one another. If we move away from this idea of so-called objectivity by the MSM, we would be better off. At least, there would be a major MSM voice castigating CBS and Rather about these forgeries. Even Fox feels compelled to restrain its criticism and just express some doubt.

With the liberals exercising a virtual monopoly over the MSM, a proconservative MSM outlet would carve out a significant part of the market. Fox has edged in that direction, but it seems intimidated by the attacks from the Left. Enough of fair and balanced and more of advocacy and adversarial journalism.

86 posted on 09/13/2004 10:45:35 AM PDT by kabar
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