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.”
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