The idea of an “objective” mass media was originally born in the 1920s, with the first radio, and a couple of decades later, television networks. The wire services and many big city newspapers soon quickly followed suit. But at some point, the media decided that having the right (in other words, left) ideology was more important than selling product.
Newsweek and Time were both relatively centrist news magazines that recently attempted reboots as supermarket versions of the leftwing Nation and the center-left New Republic political opinion magazines, respectively. So how’s that working out?
Today, AP reports, “Newsweek Circulation Plunges by 41 percent; Time, 35%.” Similarly, in the world of TV news, where once relatively centrist CNN has increasingly tilted further to the left in recent years, Fox’s late night “Red Eye Celebrates Third Year By Topping CNN Prime Time Last Week,” Mediate notes.
And that’s not the only base that Fox has stolen from CNN, recently.
And speaking of Fox and its discontents, “Arianna Huffington Denounces ‘Extremist’ Beck Yet Employs Sharia Advocate.”
Update: “Vanishing Viewers: CNN, MSNBC Down Over 50% in 25-54 Demo From a Year Ago.”
Related: Lileks on the dino-media: “Every horrid economic contraction brings a die-off, as bad economics combine with shifting tastes to winnow the herd.” Read the whole Bleat.
Related: Hugh Hewitt pens a “Memo to Arianna: Stop being silly.”
Another example: The WSJ has the highest circulation of any newspaper in the country (and it’s still rising, as far as I know). It has always seemed like a center-right newspaper to me. Now if they’d just broaden their coverage a bit. Perhaps an investigative series on global warming- after all, that has major financial impacts. Most of their coverage thus far on the topic seems to have been op/ed, but if there’s a topic just crying out for and in-depth investigation, it’s that one. No one else appears to be willing or able to do in, at least not in the US.
Time and Newsweak have been pushing the Left’s views for 25 years at least. Just because they say they are ‘centrist’ does not make it so. How long ago did Time proclaim that God was dead? The sooner the Industrial Media Complex dies, the better.
Do the media outlets expect us to give them our hard earned money so they can call us names and ridicule us ? No thanks..I do not want or need an editor “filter” between reality and myself, I can take reality. I was in DC and saw with my own eyes the size of the teaparty crowd that Time magazine refuses to even admit exist. So excuse us if we chose to act like Time magazine does not exist…and soon it won’t !!
The time has come, in fact, it is long past due…that people of conscience begin to stand up and be counted.
The red diaper babies who run Newsweek and the fellow travelers who run CNN have engaged in an orchestrated deprivation of objectivity, fairness and in far too many instances, truth…and have worked against the principles of ethical journalism for decades.
It is time to declare such behavior unacceptable. It’s time to pick a side.
I agree with Breitbart: it’s the content that’s bad. If I’m going to pay for information, I want to come out believing myself to be… better informed. Edified to some degree. Knowing more. Reading Time, Newsweek, (and it’s been a while since I have) and other such publications starts setting off mental red flags, which is tiresome. Reading something while constantly having thoughts like “where did that number come from?” “that doesn’t sound true”, “not sure I’m buying that” is a lousy return on investment.
I just bought a subscription to the local paper, so I can stay informed about local and county happenings. I’m happy to pay for that. For other news, I’ll stick with the internet. And Fox, when I have the time.
I used to read Time or Newsweek religiously, for 30 years, switching back and forth to take advantage of “new subscriber rates.”
Now I’ve gotten so that I don’t even want to touch their contemptuous ideologically-soaked rags at the dentist’s office. It’s like getting a root canal in the waiting room.