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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

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