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 ...
I just read all the posts, and the thread nanny thingy was a waste of my eyes!
All I wanted to read was the comments on Howard's article. Seems to me that one thread nanny comment was enough.
Thanks for posting this, onyx.
Get a life.
At the same time.....Academia.
This is a great article. The party is over!
I knew the handle looked familiar. There are a few of these lurking about. Some people are just natural born arguments and need to interject their poo poos to dampen everyones ego they can tread upon. Always entertaining to see a fellow freeper take them down a notch or two.LOL Doubt you have heard the last though. They generally also have to have the last word.
LOL!
This one irked me, primarily because the poster
of this article is new here and the thread nanny
crapola is tiresome. Furthermore, it's a job for the mods.
Did you pick the wrong guy. I have never attempted to post an article.
There's a newbie HTML thread that has a lot of tips for posting. If you search HTML I think it'll turn up.
I would put it that "the AMMP (the American Mainstream Media Party)" came into existence with "objective" journalism. Because the AMMP claims the virtue of objectivity it is inherently self righteous. Only the establishment could cut a caper like that and expect to be believed by a free people. And I would suggest that liberal politicians have always been people who had no other political "principle" than to follow the naturally superficial, naturally negative, naturally arrogant AMMP.The norm is "biased" news where customers can evaluate products that correctly label themselves at the outset.Liberals always tended toward the Democratic Party, but then there was the very substantial "Rockefeller wing" of the Republican Party as well. Of course the shift came in the 1960s, with the nomination of Goldwater by the Republicans followed immediately by the Johnson Administration. By the end of the Johnson Administration the AMMP was making anyone who wasn't "liberal" - was not sympatico with the AMMP - feel uncomfortable in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party of Truman, John F. Kennedy and Scoop Jackson became the party of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and Howard Dean. The party which can win only with a southerner, if not two southerners (Clinton/Gore) on the ticket to give it the appearance of balance.
The Republican Party became the party of Kemp, Reagan, Gingrich, and George W. Bush (and of George HW Bush, only so long as he remained "in the shadow of Ronald Reagan"). The party of Richard Shelby and the conservative, once-more solid, South.
I would style it not "biased" - that is the AMMP's preferred term - but "philosophical" or "humble." It is arrogant to presume to claim the virtue of objectivity; to eschew that vice by admitting that your perspective has a name which does not presume virtue is humility. By claiming the virtues of objectivity and moderation, the AMMP betrays its arrogant self righteousness - its sophistry. The humble claim only to love wisdom, rather than presuming that you already have it, is "philosophy."Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.