Andrew Breitbart: 'The Left is, in Essence, the Media'

Life Site News ^ | LOS ANGELES, California, May 7, 2010 | Kathleen Gilbert

[marktwain]

“15 years? I must be a lot older than you. The liberal media narrative has been going on since the 1960’s, and probably the 40’s (think Walter Durant and Pulitzer Prize) . There were a few moderately conservative outlets such as the Chicago Tribune, but that didn't last long.”

I say 15 years because they have only been losing credibility to any degree since about 15 years ago. Before that, they *gained* credibility for a considerable period despite their bias. Remember when Walter Cronkite was the “most trusted man” in America?

I agree that the media have been part of the left since the New Deal.

[abb]

For over thirty years, I’ve been saying that were I to get a financial windfall, I’d set up a scholarship system for (bonafide) conservative J-school students.

We don't even have to do that. We can do it ourselves and create our own networks and publications. We do it here every day. We have the technology...

[abb]

I told him that there is no conspiracy to help the Democrats, they ARE the Democrats.

It has been said the media is the PR arm of the Democrats. It think it's the other way around - the Democrats are the political arm of the media.

[Madame Dufarge]

When facing mistreatment by the media, Breitbart urged conservatives not to play by the rules as defined by the mainstream media. "These people don't fight fair," he said. "The left does not fight fair, and so I'm basically saying to conservatives, you don't have to fight fair.”

I don't understand why so many conservatives don't get this instinctively.

We've put up with the left far too long, as if we were indulgent parents of spoiled brats.

We're too near the abyss to make nice with the forces that work for our destruction.

[Bronzewound]

Newsweak’s for sale; maybe Rush can consider buying it since he saved all the money not buying an NFL team. Turn it over to Breitbart, let him staff it and publish it from a Conservative perspective.

I like that idea.

[orinoco]

They sure did but Reagan was a great communicator and spoke directly to the American ppeople, bypassing the slanderous left wing media. Because of this ability, Reagan was called the “Teflon President”.

[Arkady]

Can’t be said enuff. We know the media isn’t journalism, but the truth is they are a political party & should be treated as such. The media don’t carry water for libs, the libs carry water for the media!
This goes back at least 100 years.
The media gave us kennedy, dethroned lbj, took down nixon, derailed ford, gave us jimmuh, fought against reagan, defended clinton, hated bush, tried their best to force the gore on us, made ridiculus people like kerry,dukakis, mondale seem plausible, loved shrillary but hated sarah, and annointed hussein.
Attack & correct the media & maybe we have a chance. That’s job #1.
When I was young, i used to feel sorry for those behind the iron curtain, getting their news from pravda. Ha! Pravda was better than rather & walter crommyite!

[ErnBatavia]

Oh, I ain't dumb enough to "bequest" anything.....this is something I'd do while alive and in total control!

You're right -- many dead benefactors must be rolling in their graves as they see their largesse spent.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I told my nephew, an editor for a local TV station, when he mocked what he thought I was saying, that there is a conspiracy among the media to help the Democrats. I told him that there is no conspiracy to help the Democrats, they ARE the Democrats.

Of course - but it helps if you understand the homogenizing institution which causes political group-think in journalism. And that would be the Associated Press.

Think about it: in the founding era, newspapers were fractiously independent of each other. Then along comes the telegraph and the AP newswire, and printers had a choice to make: remain independent and be marginalized, or join the AP and be prosperous and influential. Of course, if you join the AP then you pay big bucks for the service - but you can easily recoup that investment provided that you exploit it by promoting the AP. And promoting the AP means promoting the stories from reporters who don't work for you. IOW, you have to promote the conceit that journalism - all of journalism - is objective.

So what you have just done is to join the Borg. You can have a conservative editorial page if you want to, but that will be strictly a side show - the main event is the front page, and all the rest of the "editorial content" of the paper which will be scarcely distinguishable from one newspaper to the another. You will not be in the opinion business (as your predecessors in the founding era were), you will be in the news business.

You - all of AP journalism - will insist that "news" is objective. But is it? Can it possibly be so?

Claiming that journalism is objective is a self-negating prophecy. For if anyone attempts to be objective, the first thing they must do is to seek to identify and discount any reasons why they might not be objective. And claiming to be objective is the very antithesis of that.

What tendencies in journalism prevent the possibility of journalistic objectivity? First, journalism is inherently superficial - because of its deadlines, and for the reason that the news business is only about whatever the potential audience hasn't heard or read yet. So objectivity might, I would argue generally does, require depth of coverage of things with which reporters and editors - and readers - could be easily bored.

Second, journalism tends to accentuate the negative, in order to prevent the potential reader/hearer from feeling free to ignore the report.

And journalists are at heart cardboard heroes who pick fights with safe, nonthreatening targets such as Christians rather than, for instance, jihadists.

Exactly like "liberal" politicians. There is no difficulty is understanding why "objective journalists" agree with "liberals" - the causation works the other way. Journalists have their inherent biases, those biases create a natural propaganda wind - and politicians with no principles other than their own self-promotion must be expected to toady to the journalists' predilections.

[Mr_Moonlight]

I’m just curious, not that I mind, but how exactly did I end up on your ping-list? Is it the New York link on FR between us or is it something else, something I posted in the past? Just curious.

BTW .. good post regarding Journalism and its historical place in our culture and how its been perverted into a monolith of disinformation and propaganda. I have a BA in Journalism (Broadcasting) mainly just because I wanted to ‘play with the toys’ as it were .. I’m a techie, not a cultural activist ... /laughs ... maybe that’s how I got on your ping-list :)

As an anecdote, in Journalism school one instructor who worked for a local TV station did a lecture about how to cover a ‘great story’ ...

Instructor: “Fires. Fires are good, fires are great, fires make terrific entertainment” ... “Point the camera in the direction of the oncoming fire-truck with its red lights flashing and siren screeching and then cut to the leaping flames”

I remember thinking to myself during this lecture session: “What the F ??? This is totally insane!!! .. some poor shlub is watching as their life’s possessions get reduced to burnt out rubble and this guy is going on about how it’s *great entertainment* ???”

— MM

[mojo114]

FReeRepublic channel sounds good. But look how long it takes to raise money for on quarter fundraising. If every person that posts on FReeRepublic gave something, we would not have do a it every quarter. And, we could afford to do a FReeRepublic anything.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[stephenjohnbanker]

I think the tea party crowd should picket the networks, with placards detailing their lies. I would be there to help.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“The conservatives make a good demon because we are not really threatening like Islam and other real threats. “

Good point

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

As an anecdote, in Journalism school one instructor who worked for a local TV station did a lecture about how to cover a ‘great story’ ... Instructor: “Fires. Fires are good, fires are great, fires make terrific entertainment” ... “Point the camera in the direction of the oncoming fire-truck with its red lights flashing and siren screeching and then cut to the leaping flames” I remember thinking to myself during this lecture session: “What the F ??? This is totally insane!!! .. some poor shlub is watching as their life’s possessions get reduced to burnt out rubble and this guy is going on about how it’s *great entertainment* ???”

I’m just curious, not that I mind, but how exactly did I end up on your ping-list? Is it the New York link on FR between us or is it something else, something I posted in the past? Just curious.

You tell me you have a BA in journalism, and you make intelligent contributions to the discussion of the tendencies/tendentiousness of journalism such as the above - and then you wonder why I want to discuss this issue with you! You are a perfect fit for my interests which led me to create a ping list in the first place.

. . . and even at that, you aren't getting as many pings as some folks, who I think (some of whom have made extremely clear) that they want them.

i'm sensitive about the possibility of unwelcome pings, tho . . .

[Mr_Moonlight]

i'm sensitive about the possibility of unwelcome pings, tho . . .

No no no ... it wasn't 'unwelcome' as it were, I was just curious, that's all ... Thanks for the ping, as I *do* like to discuss these matters such as the mendacity of today's 'Journalism' ...

(note how the above reads like an old style UPI or AP tele-type machine?) ... hehehehehee :)

[the invisib1e hand]

'The Left is, in Essence, the Media'

No wonder they call him a genius.