McCain waves stick at TV over news coverage

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter ^ | 02/16/2005 | By Brooks Boliek

[Mo1]

McCain needs to keep his hands off of the this

[Mo1]

Thanks for the link! Wonder whatelse the Maverick has up his sleeve...

If McCain is involved??

No Good

[dighton]

Silly viewers, irrationally wanting some non-McCain programs!

Let's make everything the McCain Channel.

[MizSterious]

Really. Bias is, in my opinion "the" issue--although the marketplace is dealing with it somewhat.

As for local news--our stations tend to "cover" a lot of their networks' own entertainment shows--"The Bachelor" "Survivor" etc.--and not much that I'd actually call "news," local OR national. The exception is during tornado season, when they do an excellent job. The rest of the year--they might just as well call it a "magazine" and quit trying to call it "news."

[monday]

McCain is a reactionary whose only answer to every real of perceived problem is MORE government regulation. He is freedoms enemy # ONE. I HATE him.

[NeoCaveman]

While I agree most news is biased to the left, leftist McPain's solution, as always, involves government intervention.

Yes it is. He needs to retire.

[OldFriend]

McCrazy jumped a long time ago.

If he's up there bloviating you can be sure of two things, he's either attacking the president and his administration or he's going to cost you money.

[Colonel_Flagg]

While 55% of the broadcasts contained a presidential story, just 8% of broadcasts contained a story about a local candidate race for U.S. House, state house seats, city council seats and other local and regional offices. Eight times more coverage went to stories about accidental injuries, the Lear Center said.

I'm no MSM fan to be sure, but this survey sounds like it was set up to obtain a certain result. They examine major-market (with a few exceptions here) broadcasts and then wonder why little coverage is given to city council, state house and regional offices?

The answer to that question is simple: I'd suspect that the vast majority of audience in such markets find these kinds of stories uninteresting because they are too narrowly focused. And as for the comments about accidental injuries, everyone knows that in television, "if it bleeds, it leads".

Yes, we have a significant problem with political reporting in this country. But the problem in my mind lies more with bias than with the amount of reporting being done.

[polymuser]

"If McCain gets involved, the problem will get worse."

"A la McCain-Feingold....."

You mean, like swiftvets.com?

I'd guess McCain will help the right yet again. Fire, Aim, Go John!

[OregonRepublican]

Im telling you if McCain runs against Hillary I will NOT VOTE... he is on the same path as Hillary just at a slower pace... both are poison and I wont choose poison.

[Cold Heat]

McCain is reaching again.

He needs to go. He can't save broadcast from cable competition.

He is nuts. Just plain nuts.

[Thebaddog]

McCain is short sighted in the sense of looking for the nearest microphone is short sighted. He loves the sound of his own voice, not ours.

[Alia]

JJ -- the "mandatory coverage of aggrieved minorities" issues was part and parcel of the McCain-Feingold "issue". I saw the stuff, I posted in my link, way back when.

And now I have another wonder: Remember that so-called "secret session" by Dems? Will it require "paid access" to access via newer broadcast medium and laws? Or will the public be vicariously paying for this "elite access" via newer legislation, and usual, masked taxation.

[SunkenCiv]

It's BS. There's more channels than ever before, including at least three (with al Jazeera) which are 24-7 news. Also there are internet sources of news, which are often quicker on the draw and obviously more diverse (and easier and faster to access on demand). I love McCain's little tirades, they're endearing.

[6SJ7]

Like a parakeet, if one places a mirror in front of McCain, he will busy himself for hours. What an attention seeker.

Pretty bird, awk! Polly want a sound bite!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Since McCain feels so strongly about a lack of media coverage for local candidates, all he needs to do is put out a public service announcement calling on people to call and e-mail their local TV stations. But no. In true govt. bureaucrat form, McCain says that govt. intervention is the answer. He is so full of crap.

I agree that local media coverage sucks. The first 20 minutes of the "news" is a rundown of all the terrible car accidents, crimes, plane crashes, and industrial accidents. Then they throw in a weather report. After that, they throw in some health "news" and various lies about global warming or other enviro-scams. The local political candidates get plenty of coverage, but it's all coverage of the mudslinging and any juicy rumors with a hard left slant. Then they do a last roundup of the favorite car accidents and crimes of the day, and so ends the hour of "news". I quit watching it, except for maybe the weather occasionally. I'm not going to watch 58 minutes of tripe for 2 minutes of something maybe useful.

McCain and the other libs are utterly baffled as to why their media is crashing and burning. Here's a hint. What little actual news that is shown has a hard liberal bias. Most of it is just liberal nonsense. And I am sick of the live news reports from the scenes of crimes and accidents where the reporter is just beaming with glee over the death and carnage, the more deaths the better (for them).

[JesseJane]

Alia, as always, excellent food for thought on many levels. Viewing some of the topics of discussion coming out of the WEF in Davos, it's clear to me that there is an effort to figure out how to tame and properly "control" the new media frontier, without really understanding what it is. They do seem to agree that it is a jungle filled with wild beasts and something THAT MUST be boxed in, and dismantled piece by piece. Certainly only the elite can decide what's good for us. No doubt in my mind what happened in Davos WILL NOT stay in Davos. We will perhaps find it's effects in one of the scenario's you describe. But I now, not for a minute, believe policy in the US is being shaped soley by its own citizens.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I love McCain's little tirades, they're endearing.

They scare me. He is in a very powerful position and he uses the power thereof. He's also on the sside of those who are pushing the Global Warming Hoax as was so evident from his very selective committee hearing on the topic. HE HAS AN AGENDA!

[JesseJane]

Bias is the crutch the left depended on, and Balance is probably feared by all candidates.. An informed public will demand an intelligent debate. How many politicians are truly up to that?