Posted on 08/24/2009 4:39:55 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
If there is one constant among conservatives – from generation to generation – it is continued disgust with the liberal mainstream media. This is for good reason, which has rarely been more evident than today, as institutions like the Associated Press, the New York Times and major television networks cheerlead shamelessly for President Obama and his left-wing agenda.
But conservatives should stop fretting. The liberal media is doomed.
The media’s liberal bias exists because the individual practitioners who join journalistic institutions are overwhelmingly liberal. They decide to study journalism in college because they are idealistic and are intrigued by the notion of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. They dream of filing Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reports that do just that.
You’ll find your odd conservative in a given newsroom, but the newsroom’s dominant culture will almost always lean left because the lifers who have worked their way through the ranks are the true believers, and they are liberal to the core.
The culture of these institutions will never change, and that frustrates conservatives to no end, but it doesn’t matter. These institutions are dying – to be replaced by a more independent, entrepreneurial, small-d democratic model of journalism that is already emerging.
It’s ironic when you think about it, but liberal mainstream journalists depend on the largesse of their corporate masters to continue plying their trade. They score a staff position, join the newspaper guild, work their way through the beat structure and keep amassing annual pay raises and increases in vacation time. Your typical liberal journalist wouldn’t know the first thing about the revenue-generating side of the business. If anything, he or she went into journalism in part because of a deep distrust of people who sell things. They think it’s their job to protect consumers from all the salesman out there, because surely they are nothing but a bunch of scam artists.
When these journalists get laid off, most don’t know the first thing about approaching their career in an entrepreneurial fashion. They simply bemoan the disappearance of the sort of job they’ve always had.
That’s why the new media model is tailor-made for the entrepreneurial conservative – the hard-working individual who is willing to bear down, report and sell advertising or sponsorships to capitalize a low-overhead operation. The dinosaur institutions that sheltered liberal journalists, and fostered a culture hostile to conservatives, will be all but gone within five to 10 years. The new rules will not block entry by conservatives on the basis of ideology. Your opportunity to get in the game will be determined by your work ethic and your entrepreneurial prowess.
This is not to say there will be no liberal journalists. There are liberal entrepreneurs. What people like Arianna Huffington and Markos Moulitsas have accomplished with online media is impressive indeed. But no one mistakes Huffington Post or Daily Kos for anything other than what they are – left-wing web sites. By the same token, when people read Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air, everyone knows they’re getting news from a conservative perspective.
It’s all fair game, and everyone is welcome to play. But no longer will liberal journalists be able to pretend they are objective and hide behind old-line institutions.
Newspapers are the first element of the mainstream media to begin dying, but they won’t be the last. Newspapers are dying because their business model is preposterous, and they’re so steeped in self-important arrogance that they’ve been completely unwilling to change that model. They lay off reporters by the dozen while continuing to operate the printing presses and distribution systems that are relics of yesteryear. Most newspapers now have online editions, but few have figured out how to capitalize them – certainly not enough to fund the massive overhead that remains within their newspaper operations.
Radio and television don’t have the same cost-overhead issues facing newspapers, but their relevance will nonetheless be challenged by individuals who can harness the power of the web – who can report more quickly, more fairly, more accurately and more cost-effectively. This will reduce the value of television and radio advertising time, because people will increasingly understand there are more trustworthy alternatives.
I expect there will still be some large media institutions, but they will no longer dominate the game or set the rules. And the few dinosaur liberal journalists who remain will be held increasingly accountable by their new, emerging competitors. We already see this with sites like NewsBusters, which regularly lays to waste the interminable bias of old-liners like the AP.
Within 10 years, most liberal journalists will be forced into other lines of work. They will surely bemoan the loss of the institutions that once bankrolled their journalistic malpractice, but the rest of the nation will be better off for the change.
This is not to say we’ll be ushering in an era of conservative propaganda accepted as straight news reporting. The Sean Hannitys of the world are not going to be taken seriously as journalists. But conservatives who know how to report news, source information and present it in a timely fashion are already getting their chance, and will soon get it all the more so.
Conservatives would be wise, therefore, to stop whining about the liberal media and start getting in line to replace it – because its days are decidedly numbered.
Remember that Hannity and O’reilly and Beck (and plenty of others) are not journalists and will freely admit that. They are opinion shows and they have on guests to help people form opinions. This format seems to be gaining in popularity while many of the “journalism” shows are struggling and failing.
People can often tell when they’re being told the truth and when they’re being lied to, even if they can’t clearly articulate what it is that makes them believe or doubt the veracity of what they hear. And once credibility is lost it’s very hard to regain. A bitter lesson for Dan Rather to learn.
Not unlike the dinomedia does while masquerading as journalists. Many of these journalists are such hard wired libtards they don't even KNOW they're out there in the ozone layer somewhere. And the ones that do know it, are such hard wired brats they are going to try their level best to force the world conform to their childish ideals. Then of course there are the hard wired commies who just want to destroy our country and our culture.
Their advantage comes in their heartfelt appeals to the unwashed's sensibilities. They are so attached to their utopian ideals it allows them to present very compelling arguments to the unsuspecting observer. Nothing can break through their internal defenses. Denial is their code, it ain't just a river in Egypt.
Do something. We need to become the media. Preaching to the choir here is of very limited value. Whining is not at all productive. It is a leftist thing.
I have heard of CNS - http://cnsnews.com/ - I’ve bookmarked them. Don’t you think Politico is better than Huff Po or DU though? The whole key for groups like that is if they bring on conservatives to their management. If they don’t, forget about it.
Fox news is better than nothing
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Hannity
Beck
Napalitano
Better than nothing.
Do something. We need to become the media. Preaching to the choir here is of very limited value.
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You can also support the vendors on conservative media, and tell them where you saw their ads:
CNS
FR
Newsmax
Washington Times (for all its warts) - which other dailies are still OK?
Libtards are essentially spoiled brats that want to change the world to their liking, whereas conservatives generally are willing to take on the world as it comes. Conservatives therefore don’t have the same drive to push their “agenda” on others. This of course leaves conservatives at a distinct disadvantage in any war of words.
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This is a very salient point. We can no longer leave the town square - or the town halls (don’t we know) to the libtards.
I’d encourage other FReepers to expand your bases of knowledge in all forms of communication so that we can be a stronger voice in the future.
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There is a pretty good listing of blogs, news and political sites right on our FR home page:
http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm
Better than nothing
I meant Fox “NEWS” as in the “news coverage” aspect of Fox News Channel. Although Hannity & co. are restrained and Beck is sticking his neck WAY out there & Fox may at some point decide to cut it off. We'll see. I'd LOVE to be wrong here.
The lib media is nosferatu. They will die only when forced, with stakes, garlic, holy water, and beheading.
To assume otherwise is to adopt the Start Trek red-shirt attitude.
I meant Fox “NEWS” as in the “news coverage” aspect of Fox News Channel. Although Hannity & co. are restrained and Beck is sticking his neck WAY out there & Fox may at some point decide to cut it off. We’ll see. I’d LOVE to be wrong here.
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Right. But it’s kind of like the editorial board at a newspaper being very telling about the news division and general prediliction of the paper. I hope Beck survives also. He’s a grassroots leader.
What do you think of Hannity keeping open a run for POTUS?
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