From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!CAD:ucbesvax!turner
Newsgroups: net.college
Title: Re: Flame, Anyone? - (nf)
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.742
Posted: Tue Mar  1 05:53:58 1983
Received: Wed Mar  2 05:57:14 1983

#R:ucbesvax:2900008:ucbesvax:2900013:000:2468
ucbesvax!turner    Mar  1 04:32:00 1983

	Point taken.  I think your idea of "accumulated bias" theory is
    about as far as I would want to go.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

	There is, as you point out, a similar rightist argument.  In its
    detailed form, it accuses the media at large of promulgating an
    ideological/theological bete noir of theirs: Secular Humanism.  In the
    eyes of the Moral Majority, it's the next worst thing to Godless
    Communism, if not effectively identical.

	The operation of accumulated bias in the media has to be combatted
    with weapons that the Moral Majority lacks, else this sort of thing
    would be used by them.  The far right in this country seems mostly
    interested in whatever fabrications will gain it the most attention.
    ("The New Missile Gap", "Sexual Promiscuity Taught In Schools", etc.)

    	This National Enquirer mentality extends to muckraking T.V.
    journalism (e.g., 60 minutes), which tends to avoid issues which might
    upset its liberal constituency.  Proxmire has been exploiting this
    sort of mentality for decades.

	The media is therefore not characterized in this country so much
    by a leftward/rightward/centrist bias as it is by this attitude of
    exploiting existing mentalities, rather than fostering newer and
    broader ones.  The narrower an audience, the better -- marketing is
    more efficient when you know your audience.  This is the bias of
    advertising.  (Are YOU really getting your 60 minutes worth?  No.)

    	Do attention-getting tactics such as the anti-Kirkpatrick demon-
    stration actually do much to change this?  I don't know.  But maybe
    they have the effect of straining people's perception of the world.
    When things are not as they should be (e.g., students docile) even
    TV newscasters take note.  I remember, over a period of about three
    years, the inflection of Vietnam casualty reporting on the nightly
    news changing from guarded optimism ("we're winning this war, I
    guess") to obvious disdain ("where do they get these numbers, anyway?").
    In the process of killing all those Vietnamese three or four times
    over, something happened.  A mentality was shaken.  This is important,
    even if it isn't "constructive".

	I'm rambling.  (I'm burning out on this issue.  Some of you are
    glad to hear that, I know.)  In closing, I guess I'll just paraphrase
    America's adopted uncle:

	"That's Not Quite The Way It Is"
	    Michael Turner