Ever since Head Crook Richard Nixon and his Even-More-Criminal Vice President Spiro Agnew went to war against the media for reporting honestly about the crimes the two were committing in office and the media recoiled at being called “liberal” for telling the truth, it has become increasingly clear that the elite political media flinches when the conservative beast twitches.
The irony of the criminals now in charge trying to "De-Zuckerfy" the network is that Zucker did more than any other media figure--I would argue more than the Murdochs--to elect Orange Hitler. Which is another reason that talking about CNN as even a moderate network is just so much bushwah.
The CNN clusterfuck hurts. I've always looked at them cynically, I used to drive by a few times a day to see who died, what natural or man made disaster is killing people...
I've deleted them from every device ( MSNBC and the guardian for me)
(Forgive me if I'm repeating my self, I have written this so often the past couple of weeks)
The kick in the tits is Chris Licht. Bastard ran Late Night with Stephen Colbert for 7 years, the most anti trump, magats, pro liberal, a beacon of progressiveness of all late night talk shows ( love me Seth meyers). WTF happened?
Oh and a slight correction to your list of "media" who front fallacies not facts, that dried up good and dead William Randolph Hearst. May he rest in hell.
The ‘news media’ is one of the easiest targets to assault. Trump wasn’t the first president to loudly decry unfair treatment at its hands. As in other areas, DJT, may have been the best at calling the press ‘the enemies of the people’. He seems to have won that one as many Americans agree with him.
In today’s piece, BAD NEWS FOR ALL OF US AT THE CRETIN NEWS NETWORK, TC goes beyond noting changes at CNN. He wrote,
‘When major news organizations are owned by big public corporations, all the incentives are to cater to Republicans to maximize the potential audience.’
Which news organizations owned which ‘big public corporations, I ask?
‘Paddy Chayevsky, who wrote “Network,” was once asked if he had written a “prediction” of where the news media was headed. He replied, “No, I was writing about today.” That was 44 years ago. “We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!” is now the battle cry of the Thousand Year MAGA.’ (TC)
If TC ever revealed the meaning of his slogan the ‘Thousand Year MAGA’, I missed it, so I looked up a “Thousand Year” and came up with this ‘Definition of millennium
1a: the thousand years mentioned in Revelation (see REVELATION SENSE 3) 20 during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth
b: a period of great happiness or human perfection’
I’m sure that there are other meanings, such as TC’s.
This piece raises issues about journalism or as TC puts it the quality of ‘the news media's’ product at this time in America.
‘… it has become increasingly clear that the elite political media flinches when the conservative beast twitches.’
‘This makes it hard to report political news unlike any political news ever needing coverage before in the country’s history.’(TC)
Shall we take TC’s point here at face value? There are other problems with getting political news or any type of news based on journalistic standards to the American people, and it is one of the biggest threats to our democracy
‘More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices.’
‘The transition of news from print, television and radio to digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. A large majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020.’
‘More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often. This is higher than the portion who get news from television, though 68% get news from TV at least sometimes and 40% do so often. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently, with half saying they turn to radio at least sometimes (16% do so often) and about a third (32%) saying the same of print (10% get news from print publications often).’ (PEWResearchCenter)
‘Some 79.3 percent said social media has a mostly negative impact on the journalism industry, and an overwhelming 94.3 percent of respondents blamed social media for spreading inaccurate news. The survey was the subject of a discussion at a Medill Centennial panel on Feb.Feb 9, 2022’
‘Western Washington University Journalism Senior Instructor Joan Connell, who teaches classes on media ethics, chatted with Western Today about the social media landscape as it pertains to journalistic ethics, corporate responsibility and accountability, and political agendas.’
Connell said the ability of social media to spread disinformation – and the willingness of people to believe almost any story as long as it fits their worldview, means society no longer works from the same unified system of facts for its decision making, with the last election being a prime example.'
“We have different segments of the population who have very different ideas about what the truth is. The election was stolen. The election was valid. Two very strongly held beliefs by different segments of society. So how does that get reported? One key question to me is how journalists can avoid being manipulated into promoting false versions of truth,” she said. Connell explained that the problem has less to do with politics and everything to do with social media.'
“Our information landscape, our media landscape, has significantly changed over the past 20 years and the determinant is not presidential administrations. It's the rise of social media and the segmenting of our public life into silos. Separating people into like-minded groups as Facebook and other social media companies do, it has divided us rather than united us,” she said.
She went on to say that 30 years ago, everyone tuned into the same news broadcasts and the information landscape was fairly unified, but social media combined with the rise of tabloid news changed everything.'
“The reality is, emotion drives engagement, and online content is designed to get an emotional response - so that further polarizes people. We no longer have that shared public square. We have our little bubbles of ‘like mindedness’ where we get our news.’ (WesternWashingtonU) See link below.
That is my nickel on this subject – for the time being because there’s a lot more to this major deficit in the type of news the American people are following today.
whew, Tom. I've said it before: your eloquence gets considerably more eloquent with a nice head of rage. I suspect mine does too. but all of this is incredibly important, since most viewers are just there to VIEW and haven't ever been encouraged to look behind what they're used to viewing. it's all true, although I've been rattled for a long time by the kind of people CNN has "hired" in order to seem "balanced" for quite awhile now. but yes, it's already gotten a lot worse and will certainly get worse than that. and has anyone else noticed that the number of commercials on EVERY cable news outlet has pretty much doubled in this last half-year or so? on programs I've recorded, I get to count the commercials as I fast-forward and it's very often about NINE, with every show signing off almost five minutes earlier than, say, last year. but at least I've developed some expertise about the names of expensive drugs for troublesome auto-immune conditions and, occasionally for chemotherapy drugs which non-physicians don't need to know about.
“What CNN and Facebook - as well as ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest - fail to get is that the Thousand Year MAGA doesn’t want “fair and balanced” treatment.
From Wiki: "Malone's political beliefs have been described as libertarian.[38] He is on the board of directors for the Cato Institute. He donated US$250,000 to Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, with colleague Greg Maffei, Liberty Media, and Liberty Interactive each donating a further US$250,000."
I encourage your readers to do their own research on John Malone. He is known as the "Darth Vader" of media. He is also the largest landowner in the US - owning acreage twice the size of Rhode Island.
TC, you have explained this well. Harwoods last words are excellent further emphasis. And what most of America doesn't grasp - just doesn't accept - is that this Republican MAGA party does literally want to eliminate us - it wants us to die. And yes, after that, they want to "dance on our graves."
For these folks, old fashioned democracy doesn't work. Diversity is a damnation. All the "others" are a threat to their narrow bigoted selfish ass fascist existence. The irony that they think "God" is on their side is not lost on anyone who really believes in true Christian values. Or most other faiths that teach tolerance and love. Anyone else remember when "church goers" would send missionaries to help develop water supplies and enhance farming techniques? Now they see the "foreigners" as the Earth's excess baggage to be tossed over the side. I am sure there are still some very fine "Christians". But most have gone silent.
The idea that there are two sides to democracy now is just as horrific and ignorant as the statement: "There were good people on both sides" (TFG referring to the Nazis in SC).
This is indeed a war for the soul of America. Joe is speaking up. I hope he inspires.
A couple dozen years ago I knew Ted Turner, I even had a family relationship with him, all of that is long gone, the Ted Turner I knew was a tough business man and a visionary. Probably more than anything Ted loved the land, he truly believed in being a steward of it, and that's what he did with his vast wealth, he bought land, lots of it, hundreds of thousands of acres. At one point he owned more land than anyone else in America, then John Malone who had been his nemesis for decades decided to start buying the things that Ted liked, he now owns the Braves, Hawks, TBS, CNN, everything that Ted had owned having to do with broadcasting including the buildings that Ted built, Malone now owns. Liberty Media is his company and he runs it probably much the way Ted ran his, his stamp is all over it, that's a shame because John Malone is no Ted Turner, and we really need the people that control our media outlets to have integrity, and a love of this land, not just the bottom line, just look at the mess that Rupert Murdock has made of our democracy if you need an example. Nothing that I hear coming out of TBS from the inside is in any way good, it's a shame really. Ted may not have been a saint but compared to the malovelnce personified by John Malone, he sure seems like one.
Great piece, TC. I glanced at it and thought; I know this; I don’t need to read it. But thankfully I did. You have peeled back the different layers of the disease to show the full dynamic that’s at work… much better than many media reform activists (no names necessary).
I think you are correct. There is no way to include the Nazis in a liberal democracy. Conservatives, yes, but the Nazis can only be defeated, never included. If their outlook becomes sufficiently antithetical to mainstream thought, they will deny their beliefs, just as the German Nazis did in 1946, but their numbers are too close to half of the population for that to happen today.
The irony of the criminals now in charge trying to "De-Zuckerfy" the network is that Zucker did more than any other media figure--I would argue more than the Murdochs--to elect Orange Hitler. Which is another reason that talking about CNN as even a moderate network is just so much bushwah.
The CNN clusterfuck hurts. I've always looked at them cynically, I used to drive by a few times a day to see who died, what natural or man made disaster is killing people...
I've deleted them from every device ( MSNBC and the guardian for me)
(Forgive me if I'm repeating my self, I have written this so often the past couple of weeks)
The kick in the tits is Chris Licht. Bastard ran Late Night with Stephen Colbert for 7 years, the most anti trump, magats, pro liberal, a beacon of progressiveness of all late night talk shows ( love me Seth meyers). WTF happened?
Oh and a slight correction to your list of "media" who front fallacies not facts, that dried up good and dead William Randolph Hearst. May he rest in hell.
The ‘news media’ is one of the easiest targets to assault. Trump wasn’t the first president to loudly decry unfair treatment at its hands. As in other areas, DJT, may have been the best at calling the press ‘the enemies of the people’. He seems to have won that one as many Americans agree with him.
In today’s piece, BAD NEWS FOR ALL OF US AT THE CRETIN NEWS NETWORK, TC goes beyond noting changes at CNN. He wrote,
‘When major news organizations are owned by big public corporations, all the incentives are to cater to Republicans to maximize the potential audience.’
Which news organizations owned which ‘big public corporations, I ask?
‘Paddy Chayevsky, who wrote “Network,” was once asked if he had written a “prediction” of where the news media was headed. He replied, “No, I was writing about today.” That was 44 years ago. “We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!” is now the battle cry of the Thousand Year MAGA.’ (TC)
If TC ever revealed the meaning of his slogan the ‘Thousand Year MAGA’, I missed it, so I looked up a “Thousand Year” and came up with this ‘Definition of millennium
1a: the thousand years mentioned in Revelation (see REVELATION SENSE 3) 20 during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth
b: a period of great happiness or human perfection’
I’m sure that there are other meanings, such as TC’s.
This piece raises issues about journalism or as TC puts it the quality of ‘the news media's’ product at this time in America.
‘… it has become increasingly clear that the elite political media flinches when the conservative beast twitches.’
‘This makes it hard to report political news unlike any political news ever needing coverage before in the country’s history.’(TC)
Shall we take TC’s point here at face value? There are other problems with getting political news or any type of news based on journalistic standards to the American people, and it is one of the biggest threats to our democracy
‘More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices.’
‘The transition of news from print, television and radio to digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. A large majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020.’
‘More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often. This is higher than the portion who get news from television, though 68% get news from TV at least sometimes and 40% do so often. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently, with half saying they turn to radio at least sometimes (16% do so often) and about a third (32%) saying the same of print (10% get news from print publications often).’ (PEWResearchCenter)
‘Some 79.3 percent said social media has a mostly negative impact on the journalism industry, and an overwhelming 94.3 percent of respondents blamed social media for spreading inaccurate news. The survey was the subject of a discussion at a Medill Centennial panel on Feb.Feb 9, 2022’
‘Western Washington University Journalism Senior Instructor Joan Connell, who teaches classes on media ethics, chatted with Western Today about the social media landscape as it pertains to journalistic ethics, corporate responsibility and accountability, and political agendas.’
Connell said the ability of social media to spread disinformation – and the willingness of people to believe almost any story as long as it fits their worldview, means society no longer works from the same unified system of facts for its decision making, with the last election being a prime example.'
“We have different segments of the population who have very different ideas about what the truth is. The election was stolen. The election was valid. Two very strongly held beliefs by different segments of society. So how does that get reported? One key question to me is how journalists can avoid being manipulated into promoting false versions of truth,” she said. Connell explained that the problem has less to do with politics and everything to do with social media.'
“Our information landscape, our media landscape, has significantly changed over the past 20 years and the determinant is not presidential administrations. It's the rise of social media and the segmenting of our public life into silos. Separating people into like-minded groups as Facebook and other social media companies do, it has divided us rather than united us,” she said.
She went on to say that 30 years ago, everyone tuned into the same news broadcasts and the information landscape was fairly unified, but social media combined with the rise of tabloid news changed everything.'
“The reality is, emotion drives engagement, and online content is designed to get an emotional response - so that further polarizes people. We no longer have that shared public square. We have our little bubbles of ‘like mindedness’ where we get our news.’ (WesternWashingtonU) See link below.
That is my nickel on this subject – for the time being because there’s a lot more to this major deficit in the type of news the American people are following today.
https://westerntoday.wwu.edu/features/social-media-and-journalistic-ethics-in-the-age-of-disinformation
I love the phrase “1000 Year MAGATs.” It is true; they just want to burn it all down.
I’ve been noticing CNN’s change this past year. They went from “centrist” to “right of center.” I noticed it even on Don Lemon’s show!
I cannot handle one more minute of their coverage framed as if this is politics as usual. All their spin doctors are frustrating to say the least.
I don’t watch them anymore.
I remember when the news wasn't expected to be a profit center. 24 hour "news" channels have done us no favor.
whew, Tom. I've said it before: your eloquence gets considerably more eloquent with a nice head of rage. I suspect mine does too. but all of this is incredibly important, since most viewers are just there to VIEW and haven't ever been encouraged to look behind what they're used to viewing. it's all true, although I've been rattled for a long time by the kind of people CNN has "hired" in order to seem "balanced" for quite awhile now. but yes, it's already gotten a lot worse and will certainly get worse than that. and has anyone else noticed that the number of commercials on EVERY cable news outlet has pretty much doubled in this last half-year or so? on programs I've recorded, I get to count the commercials as I fast-forward and it's very often about NINE, with every show signing off almost five minutes earlier than, say, last year. but at least I've developed some expertise about the names of expensive drugs for troublesome auto-immune conditions and, occasionally for chemotherapy drugs which non-physicians don't need to know about.
“What CNN and Facebook - as well as ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest - fail to get is that the Thousand Year MAGA doesn’t want “fair and balanced” treatment.
They want to dance on these people’s graves.”
Truth.
From Wiki: "Malone's political beliefs have been described as libertarian.[38] He is on the board of directors for the Cato Institute. He donated US$250,000 to Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, with colleague Greg Maffei, Liberty Media, and Liberty Interactive each donating a further US$250,000."
I encourage your readers to do their own research on John Malone. He is known as the "Darth Vader" of media. He is also the largest landowner in the US - owning acreage twice the size of Rhode Island.
TC, you have explained this well. Harwoods last words are excellent further emphasis. And what most of America doesn't grasp - just doesn't accept - is that this Republican MAGA party does literally want to eliminate us - it wants us to die. And yes, after that, they want to "dance on our graves."
For these folks, old fashioned democracy doesn't work. Diversity is a damnation. All the "others" are a threat to their narrow bigoted selfish ass fascist existence. The irony that they think "God" is on their side is not lost on anyone who really believes in true Christian values. Or most other faiths that teach tolerance and love. Anyone else remember when "church goers" would send missionaries to help develop water supplies and enhance farming techniques? Now they see the "foreigners" as the Earth's excess baggage to be tossed over the side. I am sure there are still some very fine "Christians". But most have gone silent.
The idea that there are two sides to democracy now is just as horrific and ignorant as the statement: "There were good people on both sides" (TFG referring to the Nazis in SC).
This is indeed a war for the soul of America. Joe is speaking up. I hope he inspires.
Well said, sir.
A couple dozen years ago I knew Ted Turner, I even had a family relationship with him, all of that is long gone, the Ted Turner I knew was a tough business man and a visionary. Probably more than anything Ted loved the land, he truly believed in being a steward of it, and that's what he did with his vast wealth, he bought land, lots of it, hundreds of thousands of acres. At one point he owned more land than anyone else in America, then John Malone who had been his nemesis for decades decided to start buying the things that Ted liked, he now owns the Braves, Hawks, TBS, CNN, everything that Ted had owned having to do with broadcasting including the buildings that Ted built, Malone now owns. Liberty Media is his company and he runs it probably much the way Ted ran his, his stamp is all over it, that's a shame because John Malone is no Ted Turner, and we really need the people that control our media outlets to have integrity, and a love of this land, not just the bottom line, just look at the mess that Rupert Murdock has made of our democracy if you need an example. Nothing that I hear coming out of TBS from the inside is in any way good, it's a shame really. Ted may not have been a saint but compared to the malovelnce personified by John Malone, he sure seems like one.
Great piece, TC. I glanced at it and thought; I know this; I don’t need to read it. But thankfully I did. You have peeled back the different layers of the disease to show the full dynamic that’s at work… much better than many media reform activists (no names necessary).
I think you are correct. There is no way to include the Nazis in a liberal democracy. Conservatives, yes, but the Nazis can only be defeated, never included. If their outlook becomes sufficiently antithetical to mainstream thought, they will deny their beliefs, just as the German Nazis did in 1946, but their numbers are too close to half of the population for that to happen today.
All of this has me thinking I will be watching CNN with a different view
point. Anderson 360 usually the only one I enjoy.