Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site whuxl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!whuxl!orb From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re: Liberal media bias Message-ID: <290@whuxl.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Oct-84 10:21:11 EDT Article-I.D.: whuxl.290 Posted: Tue Oct 16 10:21:11 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Oct-84 05:37:27 EDT References: <160@rlgvax.UUCP> <> <558@loral.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Bell Labs Lines: 62 > What bothers me more is the liberalism of the electronic media. There > are really a very few nationwide sources of radio and television news > reporting, and the accent there is decidedly liberal. The reason that this > concerns me is that television news in particular tends to reach the sector > of the population least willing to supplant the news so obtained with deeper > knowledge derived from the written press. The persons who tune in the even- > ing news paying slight attention as if it were little more than audible > wallpaper develop little enough awareness of current events due to the > abbreviation of the stories to fit time requirements, but also are open to > the slant an intentionally or unintentionally subliminal messages in them. > Particularly, visual effects, juxtapositions and other implicit cues regis- > ter more when the observer is not fully conscious of the telecast, and the > more so when that is the chief or perhaps only news source. I am in total agreement that the shift from newspaper reading to TV as the major source of most people's news is a bad thing. I would argue that it is precisely this shift that accounts for Reagan's popularity despite abyssmal policies. His technique of getting his picture taken beside the Chesapeake Bay to show his Environmental concern despite the worst Environmental policies in a decade seems to be working, there and in other areas. If getting his picture taken can cure our countries problems then I wish he would go to the Treasury and get his picture taken by the National Debt! Maybe it will magically disappear! I do not think the electronic media are liberal--let's look at the Iranian hostage situation as the perfect example--every day for months they began their broadcasts with "the 100th day of the hostages". Since we have deployed Cruise missiles we are only ten minutes away from nuclear war--do we hear every broadcast begin "this is the 300th day our country is ten minutes away from nuclear war"? TV news reporting is not necessarily liberal OR conservative--it is shallow and sensationalist. I am very disappointed with the local New York TV stations--every broadcast leads off with some fire or accident. I would estimate such coverage is half of their broadcast time. How does that inform people on anything important? It is much easier for TV to focus on the sensational and visually dramatic than to analyze general issues. They could do actual research and provide some facts and figures- but that would take too much work and TV stations have far fewer reporters than newspapers. Hence it is always easier to just send a cameraman out to some accident to take some gruesome footage. > > Second observation: since it was a nightly event to see the steelworker > Joneses in Pittsburgh tearful and fretting when things were going sour, is > it not equally appropriate to interview the same or different families when > they return to work? > > Ray Simard this is a good example of what I am talking about. I don't think that focussing on particular cases informs us about the general issue of unemployment. Barry Bluestone is an economist who has done statistical studies of hardhit industrial areas. He found that most of those former steelworkers and other bluecollar workers laid off ARE going back to work--to jobs like McDonald's. The major increase in employment in this economic recovery has occurred in precisely such low-level service jobs--NOT in good jobs. (tho some autoworkers and others have been recalled-- I will not deny that fact) Unfortunately the number of Americans reading newspapers has been steadily declining for years. Tim Sevener whuxl!orb > Loral Instrumentation, San Diego > {ucbvax, ittvax!dcdwest}!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!simard *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***