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The 'Media Party' is over (CBS' downfall is just the tip of the iceberg)
MSNBC ^ | Updated: 5:12 p.m. ET Jan. 11, 2005 | By Howard Fineman

Posted on 01/12/2005 7:46:09 AM PST by I Gig Gar

WASHINGTON - A political party is dying before our eyes — and I don't mean the Democrats. I'm talking about the "mainstream media," which is being destroyed by the opposition (or worse, the casual disdain) of George Bush's Republican Party; by competition from other news outlets (led by the internet and Fox's canny Roger Ailes); and by its own fraying journalistic standards. At the height of its power, the AMMP (the American Mainstream Media Party) helped validate the civil rights movement, end a war and oust a power-mad president. But all that is ancient history.

Now the AMMP is reeling, and not just from the humiliation of CBS News. We have a president who feels it's almost a point of honor not to hold more press conferences — he's held far fewer than any modern predecessor — and doesn't seem to agree that the media has any "right" to know what's really going in inside his administration. The AMMP, meanwhile, is regarded with ever growing suspicion by American voters, viewers and readers, who increasingly turn for information and analysis only to non-AMMP outlets that tend to reinforce the sectarian views of discrete slices of the electorate.

Yes, I know: A purely objective viewpoint does not exist in the cosmos or in politics. Yes, I know: Today's media foodfights are mild compared with the viciousness of pamphleteers and partisan newspapers of old, from colonial times forward. Yes, I know: The notion of a neutral "mainstream" national media gained a dominant following only in World War II and in its aftermath, when what turned out to be a temporary moderate consensus came to govern the country.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: mediabias
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1 posted on 01/12/2005 7:46:09 AM PST by I Gig Gar
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To: I Gig Gar

Thank you JESUS! Next the evil ACLU!!!


2 posted on 01/12/2005 7:48:08 AM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: I Gig Gar
Were Dan Rather and Mary Mapes after the truth or victory when they broadcast their egregiously sloppy story about Bush's National Guard Service?

They were not after the truth, and it wasn't a "sloppy" story, it was a criminal story!

3 posted on 01/12/2005 7:49:38 AM PST by beyond the sea (Andrea Mitchell is Barbra Streisand on peyote ......and the north end of a south bound mule.)
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To: RoseofTexas

For better or worse, the U.S. media is become more like Europe. Where you have newspapers that declare their allegiances off the bat and go from there.


4 posted on 01/12/2005 7:50:08 AM PST by Borges
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To: I Gig Gar

They will be sorely missed.


5 posted on 01/12/2005 7:50:40 AM PST by Piquaboy (22 year veteran of the Army, Air Force and Navy, Pray for all our military .)
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To: RoseofTexas
It's hard to know now who, if anyone, in the "media" has any credibility.

Right here for ONE!

6 posted on 01/12/2005 7:50:53 AM PST by beyond the sea (Andrea Mitchell is Barbra Streisand on peyote ......and the north end of a south bound mule.)
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To: Borges
Where you have newspapers that declare their allegiances off the bat and go from there.

That's not bad! As long as they come out and say it! It would be ok if 'The Slimes' came out and said it.

7 posted on 01/12/2005 7:52:19 AM PST by beyond the sea (Andrea Mitchell is Barbra Streisand on peyote ......and the north end of a south bound mule.)
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To: RoseofTexas
"We have a president who feels it's almost a point of honor not to hold more press conferences — he's held far fewer than any modern predecessor — and doesn't seem to agree that the media has any "right" to know what's really going in inside his administration. The AMMP, meanwhile, is regarded with ever growing suspicion by American voters, viewers and readers, who increasingly turn for information and analysis only to non-AMMP outlets that tend to reinforce the sectarian views of discrete slices of the electorate. "

I cannot explain to you just how satisfying it is for me to read that.

Starting in 1999 there has been a steady stream of events that real people could rejoice over. Here is but another one.

8 posted on 01/12/2005 7:53:28 AM PST by VaBthang4 ("He Who Watches Over Israel Will Neither Slumber Nor Sleep")
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To: RoseofTexas

ROTFLOL!
Howard really has a bee in his bonnet,
and THAT is worth the price of admission!


9 posted on 01/12/2005 7:53:31 AM PST by onyx
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To: I Gig Gar
already posted here
10 posted on 01/12/2005 7:53:35 AM PST by NutCrackerBoy
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To: beyond the sea

The New York Times was founded by a Chairman of the Republican National Committee.


11 posted on 01/12/2005 7:53:43 AM PST by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
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To: I Gig Gar

my main exposure to the msm now is via articles posted on FR.


12 posted on 01/12/2005 7:54:58 AM PST by drhogan
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To: NutCrackerBoy

It was posted YESTERDAY,
not a few minutes ago!


13 posted on 01/12/2005 7:55:00 AM PST by onyx
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To: I Gig Gar
At the height of its power, the AMMP (the American Mainstream Media Party) helped validate the civil rights movement, end a war and oust a power-mad president. But all that is ancient history.

And ever since, they have tried to shoehorn just about all events into one of those three worldviews: the civil rights movement, Vietnam and Watergate. But those dogs don't hunt any longer.

14 posted on 01/12/2005 7:55:09 AM PST by dirtboy (To make a pearl, you must first irritate an oyster)
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To: beyond the sea


.


And yet long time LIBERAL Los Angeles Times Media Critic DAVID SHAW still tells that...


RATHER's work's 'Shoddy, Slipshod' not LIBERAL..?

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1227809/posts

.


15 posted on 01/12/2005 7:55:43 AM PST by ALOHA RONNIE ("ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer/Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
The New York Times was founded by a Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Must have been a long time ago...

16 posted on 01/12/2005 7:55:48 AM PST by ContraryMary
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To: Grand Old Partisan
The New York Times was founded by a Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Both parties have changed drastically since then, as well as the leadership of the Times organization. Your point is irrelevant today.

17 posted on 01/12/2005 8:01:40 AM PST by bankwalker (You get what you believe.)
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To: Grand Old Partisan

The good old days, eh?


18 posted on 01/12/2005 8:01:44 AM PST by beyond the sea (Andrea Mitchell is Barbra Streisand on peyote ......and the north end of a south bound mule.)
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To: I Gig Gar

wow! - a brutally honest piece about the MSN from someone within the MSN? Kudos to Howard Fineman


19 posted on 01/12/2005 8:04:30 AM PST by ghost of nixon
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To: onyx
"It was posted YESTERDAY...."

And at one in the morning, if I may add that. I missed it as is sometimes the case with repost, so I, for one, appreciate it.

20 posted on 01/12/2005 8:04:36 AM PST by Bahbah
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