Media Serves As A Platform For The Right

Just after the 2010 mid-term elections, Ari Melber published a prophetic piece related to the extent to which reporters leveraged the 2010 “shellacking” into “the language of the midterms.” Melber’s focus was omission of the tea party from those reporting the landslide midterms vs the greater GOP, The GOP tea party infestation had not been sworn-in to the House and Senate, and reporters, within days of the election, set the stage for what has metastasized into a virtual GOP Sunday Morning news show monopoly. And, we sit and wonder why we hear and read reports of the prospect of the GOP gaining seats in the US Senate in 2014.  

Melber wrote for The Nation:

Elections have a way of setting agendas.

While the candidates elected last week will not actually wield power until January, the political world is already adopting the language of the midterms. 

That’s especially true for political reporters, who frame the questions thrown at the White House’s freshly shellacked podium. 

To get a snapshot of the new language, The Nation counted up the most frequent words that reporters used in their questions during three major post-election sessions. 

We used the day-after press conference with President Obama, a similar outing with press secretary Robert Gibbs, and a trio of Sunday talk shows—Meet The Press, State of the Unionand Fox News Sunday.

Below is a snapshot of the New Change created through the website Wordle.

Read more 

Melbers work in now way related to what’s to come in this piece, but retain the details of this cloud for a bit. 

It would be totally fascinating to see a cloud related to political appearances on the Sunday Morning news shows.   Steven Benen, MSNBC, has studied the predominance of the GOP on Sunday Mornings. The data reflects the essence of Melbers Wordle cloud a full three years later. Benen’s data also reflects the very reason I have stopped watching the Sunday shows since well before President Obama’s first election to the presidency.

Benen’s review reflects the 2013 Sunday Morning winners. 

 

As indicated 10 of the top 13 Sunday Morning fixtures are Republican.

Read Benen’s analysis and comment, here. 

It appears electronic media leverages public sentiments in developing news stories, booking guests and slanting stories. While MSNBC, sets on the Left of a political ideology spectrum, we find CNN and Fox News on the opposite point, “the proliferation of Sunday Ideology sharing.” Of course, MSNBC doesn’t present a Sunday Morning show comparable to those in the Benen reviews; NBC is a stand-in. The network serves as a stand-in for MSNBC with one major problem: David Gregory as Meet The Press host. Gregory is as conservative as any major news host and his broadcast also serves as a GOP ideology platform.

You recognize the danger, of course. Both Gallup and Pew Research published studies in 2013 showing people get their news from television.  Linked

If people get the preponderance of their Sunday morning news from television, and the major networks (via Meet The Press, Face The Nation and Sunday Morning, State of the Union, Ans Fox News Sunday) is their any wonder 47 % of the 60% of eligible US voters flocked to the voting booths and cast votes for Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan? How about the prospect of so Americans many finding fault with the Affordable Care Act on general principles well beyond website problems? If you think our absence of inertia on slowing climate change is due the fact no one really cares, think again. When was the last time you saw or heard a report on climate change from either of the networks delineated above? 

 

What do you think of the millions who actually believe the nation has a voter fraud issue? We fall for such because the networks occupy on-camera seats with people who are there to spread an agenda and to spread ideology. Heck, the only cases of fraud that made the media in 2012 from the right and which perpetrator was a white person.

If I may give another much more poignant example.  Let’s visit the bayou bigots, Duck Dynasty, for a few minutes. The Arts and Entertainment Network (AKA A&E LIVS Network) [ LIVS Low Information Voters network], suspended Phil Robertson for bigoted anti-gay and insensitive (and inaccurately/indifferent) comments about the African American experience in the deep south.  

Robertson’s GQ interview set the media ablaze and awakened the nation’s Right comparable to the ACA and Benghazi.

First, Robertson is in his mid to latter 60s. I have read he grew to adulthood in the American South. How could he miss life as depicted to the right?

Robertson has also been reported via the Interent (NOT NEYTWORK NEWS) in the following manner.

Duck Dynasty star: Girls should carry a Bible, cook and marry ‘when they are 15′  (Video embed via this link and scroll down)

Crooks and Liars reports that Robertson is no hypocrite as he was 18 years of age when he started  dating his current wife at age 14. 

As you know A&E (LIVS Network; Low Information Voters) network has reversed the Robertson suspension; he will be full-fledged head of the klan (excuse the pun) starting next week.  

We have commented on Robertson based on the absence of reporting character issues.  If I am not mistaken there are men in prison as you read this convicted of sex with under-aged girls. while there may be no scriptures related to sex with under-aged girls, we find it acutely disturbing Robertson platformed his comments with a version of the Bible in tow. Some, the networks have failed to report the ‘full’ Robertson story, we suspect many people who will ‘thump’ to church this weekend have no idea of his positing on guys getting them at age 15.  

Ultimately, the networks are failing the nation. We realize business is business and some networks are vying for viewership, we suspect others are like Fox News adopting and postulating political positions. The Benen data above illustrates the extent of right-wing monopoly of the Sunday News shows and networks like Fox and CNN are shaping our political paradigms. Their work on behalf of conservative America is as dangerous as it comes. 

When we consider the social mores and economic catastrophe of Republicanism, we have the right to feel media should take on a role of investigation and revelation. What we have today is promulgation of Right-wing punditry and demagoguery with network revenue commensurate with viewer ratings.  As we move farther and father to the Right!