Media Agenda?

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Ann2011
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04 Feb 2014, 1:33 am

I have noticed this phrase popping up a lot; and often attached to "Liberal." So what is the media agenda? Is it liberal? If so, why? There must be an equal number of conservatives who go into broadcasting.
I just find it hard to believe that media outlets are somehow politically organized to promote a certain agenda.

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Moviefan2k4
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04 Feb 2014, 2:38 am

Most of the American media is slanted very firmly to the political left. Major corporations like ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN consistently present conservative values in a negative light, mostly focusing on the behaviors of a few on the lunatic fringe, who give true patriots a terrible public reputation.

The entertainment industry isn't any better, either. In 2011, Breitbart News columnist Ben Shapiro wrote a book called Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV. He details interviews with many in the television world who openly admitted having a firm bias against what they perceived as "the religious right", deliberately placing such themes into their programming. A few names in this regard include Marta Kauffman, Fred Silverman, and David Shore. One story involves "Law & Order" star Michael Moriarty, who lost his job on the series after standing against the leftist storm in Hollywood. Other actors mentioned include Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, and Dwight Schultz, to cite just a few.

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em_tsuj
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04 Feb 2014, 2:59 am

Recently, I went on a tirade about how Fox News is just a propaganda machine for the Republican Party. Today, I turn on MSNBC and they are trying to blast the popular Republican governor of New Jersey. I am equally angry about that, btw. I don't like how they try to pass off leftist propaganda as news. It is just opinion. Cable news outlets do have political agendas, but I can't say that all news outlets have an agenda, other than making money.

em_tsuj
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04 Feb 2014, 3:06 am

Moviefan2k4 wrote:

There is a difference between being biased and having an agenda. "Having an agenda" implies an organized conspiracy. I do agree that the media does tend to be liberal, but I don't think there is an organized effort. I think it is more subconscious (the network executives and reporters believe a certain way and it affects their news coverage). Of course I could be wrong.

The only exception I make to this general statement is Fox News (right leaning) and MSNBC (left-leaning). They are organized to present a certain political message to a certain segment of the population (preaching to the choir, I think). It is obvious to anybody who watches either one of those networks.

Master_Pedant
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04 Feb 2014, 3:56 am

em_tsuj wrote:

MSNBC MIGHT be liberal, but they aren't leftist.

Most of the media seems to give a lot of air time to rightwing economic "experts" who present the deficit as some impeding catastrophe and ignore the issue of poor demand in the economy & the need for stimulus. I'd also imagine the media class is largely from an upper class milieu - they might be social liberals and may be left of Republican politicians, but when it comes to bread and butter issues that matter to American families journalists are much more aligned with the propertied classes.

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Master_Pedant
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04 Feb 2014, 4:00 am

Peter Hart wrote:

So what emerges is a sense that elite journalists are well-off, don't live near many religious people but seem particularly attuned to criticism coming from the right–which is precisely the purpose of right-wing media criticism.

The striking thing about the responses is that they so little addressed what would seem to be the fundamental question: Does what is actually in the media suggest a liberal bias? Tapper's comment about the dearth of poverty coverage is correct, and runs counter to the notion of rampant media liberalism.

So ask yourself: Did left critics of the Iraq War dominate the debate over the invasion? No. Do liberal or left guests outnumber the right on the Sunday chat shows? No. Well, what about on PBS? No. NPR? No. Have left critics of US foreign policy ever suffered from media overexposure? No.

So what kind of liberalism are these reporters talking about? It seems that they're admitting that they live in an elite, culturally secular milieu that is unrepresentative of American life. Fair enough. Right-wing media critics have been saying that for years, and obviously this has had some effect.

But these reporters are part of a media system that generally discounts serious critics of bipartisan, status-quo Washington, relies on maintaining access to government officials, and more often than not fails to adequately challenge those officials. The fact that those reporters might not live near many evangelical Christians might be true, but it's hard to see how that has any connection to the work they do–or the kind of news we get.

http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/12/19/med ... -say-that/

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Stannis
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04 Feb 2014, 4:04 am

Ann2011 wrote:

The editorial line of a particular media outlet is almost never impartial. It is driven by a multitude of factors such as the market demographics they are going after, the political ideology and business interests of the owners of the outlet, and whether content runs contrary to the interests of advertisers. Consider that the mainstream media is owned by huge conglomerates with an economic stakes all over the place, for example in the defence, and surveillance industries, and you might get some partial sense of why the public that consumes this stuff is so ill informed.

For an in-depth analysis of media censorship, please watch the documentary, "Manufacturing Consent," and the associated book written by Noam Chomsky. It explains various filters which operate within the mainstream media that effectively prevent important journalism from reaching the public.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AnB8MuQ6DU[/youtube]

Or it can be downloaded for free here:

https://archive.org/details/NoamChomsky ... gConsent_0

Last edited by Stannis on 04 Feb 2014, 12:29 pm, edited 11 times in total.

Master_Pedant
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04 Feb 2014, 4:12 am

http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/books ... tID=215112

Seems like it'd be a pretty solid book on the topic.

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Moviefan2k4
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04 Feb 2014, 5:57 am

em_tsuj wrote:

When conservatives in Hollywood have to remain quiet about their personal beliefs to keep their jobs and support their families, that's proof a concentrated effort definitely exists. Gary Sinise co-founded an organization called Friends of Abe, that's so secret they don't even have their own webpage. The only reason outsiders even know about it is because Kelsey Grammer briefly mentioned it on a talk show once.

Another story told in Shapiro's book involves one of the most brutal political slap-in-the-face moments the TV leftists ever got. Gary David Goldberg originally created the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties" to push his ideals of 1960s ultra-left "flower power". The main focus of the series was going to be Steven and Elyse Keaton, played by Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter. However, audiences quickly started relating much more to the children in the show, especially straight-laced Reagan and Nixon worshiper Alex (Michael J. Fox). So, the show was drastically restructured to place all the kids at the front, with Baxter and Gross in a support capacity.

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Master_Pedant
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04 Feb 2014, 6:15 am

Moviefan2k4 wrote:

Wonder if these poor, woefully oppressed rightists would like to have a word with a certain actor's union rep who through a-list hollywood talent under the bus during the McCarthy hearings?

Moviefan2k4 wrote:

Another story told in Shapiro's book involves one of the most brutal political slap-in-the-face moments the TV leftists ever got. Gary David Goldberg originally created the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties" to push his ideals of 1960s ultra-left "flower power". The main focus of the series was going to be Steven and Elyse Keaton, played by Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter. However, audiences quickly started relating much more to the children in the show, especially straight-laced Reagan and Nixon worshiper Alex (Michael J. Fox). So, the show was drastically restructured to place all the kids at the front, with Baxter and Gross in a support capacity.

So, by that breakout character logic, Americans of the 1970s share the values of a leather jacketed motorcyclist because he was the most popular character of his show? Or, Americans of the 2000s could really relate to a matricidal infant?

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Moviefan2k4
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04 Feb 2014, 6:22 am

Master_Pedant wrote:

I wonder if these poor, woefully oppressed rightists would like to have a word with a certain actor's union rep who threw A-list Hollywood talent under the bus during the McCarthy hearings?

What are you talking about?

Quote:

Historically, younger people have often embraced rebel figures, but it depends on what the characters are standing against, and why. Also, how do infants kill their own mother?

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Stannis
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04 Feb 2014, 6:28 am

Moviefan2k4 wrote:

em_tsuj wrote:

When conservatives in Hollywood have to remain quiet about their personal beliefs to keep their jobs and support their families, that's proof a concentrated effort definitely exists. Gary Sinise co-founded an organization called Friends of Abe, that's so secret they don't even have their own webpage. The only reason outsiders even know about it is because Kelsey Grammer briefly mentioned it on a talk show once.

Another story told in Shapiro's book involves one of the most brutal political slap-in-the-face moments the TV leftists ever got. Gary David Goldberg originally created the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties" to push his ideals of 1960s ultra-left "flower power". The main focus of the series was going to be Steven and Elyse Keaton, played by Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter. However, audiences quickly started relating much more to the children in the show, especially straight-laced Reagan and Nixon worshiper Alex (Michael J. Fox). So, the show was drastically restructured to place all the kids at the front, with Baxter and Gross in a support capacity.

The media has a gatekeeper function which I am not totally opposed to. Cultural norms of civility and tolerance are to a large part laid down by the media. This confers on the media some responsibility not to normalise certain behaviours. Bigoted and racist speech would fall into this category.

Moviefan2k4 wrote:

Master_Pedant wrote:

I wonder if these poor, woefully oppressed rightists would like to have a word with a certain actor's union rep who threw A-list Hollywood talent under the bus during the McCarthy hearings?

What are you talking about

This short documentary gives a good background on what Master Pedant is talking about.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxdwFvwUTI[/youtube]

MoonGateClimber
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04 Feb 2014, 8:18 am

Today the government uses the IRS as the blunt object used to bludgeon conservative groups. It has been investigating Friends of Abe for two years regarding their tax-exempt status, and has had access to its security-protected website containing all the members' names. Now it's the conservatives who are outcasts and have legitimate fears that their political orientation in a sea of outspoken liberals will sink their careers.

It's ludicrous to use McCarthy's actions of 60 years ago as justification for this current Inquisition.

Ann2011
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04 Feb 2014, 8:35 am

Stannis wrote:

For an in-depth analysis of media censorship, please watch the documentary, "Manufacturing Consent," and the associated book written by Noam Chomsky. It explains various filters which operate within the mainstream media that effectively prevent important journalism from reaching the public.

This reminds me of the quote, "the medium is the message;" Marshal McLuhan said this.
link
I've never really understood what he meant. Maybe that media communication is so tainted by the messengers and their platform, that nothing said can be trusted.

Stannis wrote:

Consider that most of the mainstream media these days is owned by huge conglomerates with an economic stake in things like the defence, and surveillance industries, and you might get some sense of why the public that consumes this stuff is so ill informed.

Why specifically defense and surveillance? Wouldn't the conglomerates have other areas of interest; or is the profit greater there?

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Stannis
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04 Feb 2014, 9:08 am

MoonGateClimber wrote:

What is Friends of Abe?

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04 Feb 2014, 9:25 am

Stannis wrote:

What is Friends of Abe?

From Wiki:

Quote:

The 'Friends of Abe' is a support and networking group for politically conservative members of the Hollywood elite. The organization was formed in 2004 by actor Gary Sinise. "Friends of Abe" is a reference to "Friends of Bill", a group of political friends and donors of former President Bill Clinton, while "Abe" refers to Abraham Lincoln. The organization fiercely protects its list of members.

I somehow doubt that the IRS ever investigated 'Friends of Bill'.

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