Why does the media support Republicans?

[Rocknrule]

Is it because their corporate masters support them? Or is it because they are paid/bribed/threatened/blackmailed into doing so?

[pinto]

1. Fear.

[SeattleGirl]

5. Agreed.

But I think they are more afraid of their Repuke bosses and losing their jobs than they are of Dubya and his cabal.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. not so complex. The GOP actually owns them, pays their salaries.

if your job is at risk, what would you do?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. Yep. Owns.

It's not rocket science.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

3. It's because the "reporters" are wimps. That' all. They're not as

tough as they think they are.

:popcorn:

[RagingInMiami]

16. Not true

Many are wimps, but many are not. The problem is, they are censored.

[RagingInMiami]

18. Self-Delete

[Crazy Guggenheim]

20. How many of them knew about Jimmy-Jeff and did nothing about it?

I guess too bad for them.

:popcorn: :popcorn:

[RagingInMiami]

23. Trust me

I'm a journalist. I spent seven years working for the mainstream media, most recently with The Arizona Republic. I covered law enforcement.

If you have a hot story and they don't want you to run it, it won't get run. The older, experienced journalists play the game because they realize it's their job and they have families and mortgages.

The younger ones simply buy into it.

I was in the middle. Old enough to know better, young enough to get the hell out.

I'm now I'm a freelancer writer/photographer and I have no regrets.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

27. Thanks for getting out. But many of the reporters have no excuse

when it comes to money. Other than that, why are the media people turning around now? Besides, the point still remains that I can't believe them. Very sad.

:popcorn:

[RagingInMiami]

30. The media works on the mob mentality

They're competive with each other, but when it really boils down to it, they're one giant clique.

If you ever hang out with a group of journalists, chances are they're going to be bitching about their jobs rather than discussing a big story.

Journalists look at the world as if they are in a bubble. We are taught to be always be objective, even though that is rarely the case anymore. I am a very objective reporter as far as getting both sides and giving each side fair play, but I'm not afraid to let my true feelings show.

My stories are always dead-on accurate.

That is why I had to quit the Republic. They are the worst paper in the world. A paper that size. The 13th largest newspaper in the country. Owned by Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the world.

They wrote an editorial supporting the wiretaps. What a fucking shame.

The real problem with the media is corporate ownership.

But what those big companies didn't realize when they were busy buying up all the newspapers, radio stations and TV station in the country, a new media would emerge from the Internet.

What started out as blogs has turned into the best source of news anywhere. Like DU, for example.

So now these companies are looking to control the Internet so we have to be ready to fight legislation and what ever moves they make.

And for all we know, tomorrow, these six companies may be bought out by Dubai.

http://medialit.med.sc.edu/bigmedia.pdf

[reality based]

4. Money

[havocmom]

6. Example: NBC owned by General Electic, which makes a lot of stuff

used for weapons guidence and who know what else with military applications.

It's all just business, and with the war on, business is GOOD!

[Cha]

7. This is the best article on

why the media does what it does..

Snips~

"Mainstream reporters tend to see both liberal and right-wing critics as a bunch of whiners who "just don't get it." And in many cases, they're right. But being mainstream reporters, they tend to believe--nay, know--that they are always right. In fact, journalism is just about the only field whose practitioners routinely justify themselves on the basis of the fact that they receive criticism from "both sides." The possibility that they might be screwing up in two (or more) ways simultaneously appears to be beyond their imaginative capabilities."

"All this is reason to welcome the new study by David Brock's Media Matters for America, titled If It's Sunday, It's Conservative. MMA conducted a content analysis of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBS's Face the Nation and NBC's Meet the Press, classifying each one of the nearly 7,000 guests from Bill Clinton's second term, George W. Bush's first term and 2005 as either Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive or neutral. Its key finding: "The balance between Democrats/progressives and Republicans/conservatives was roughly equal during Clinton's second term, with a slight edge toward Republicans/conservatives: 52 percent of the ideologically identifiable guests were from the right, and 48 percent were from the left. But in Bush's first term, Republicans/conservatives held a dramatic advantage, outnumbering Democrats/progressives by 58 percent to 42 percent. In 2005 the figures were an identical 58 percent to 42 percent." And remember, this study doesn't include Fox!"



Eric Alterman explains it so well..
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060306/alterman

[reDEMption]

8. Elaborate self-interest

Some media supports the right, some supports the left, some go back and forth and have pundits on the left and right in the same newspaper.

They are interested only in themselves. They coddle the Republicans because it makes Democrats mad and, thus, unleashes a firestorm of articles, columns, rebuttals, accusations, justifications, and name-calling--ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING that will sell more ads, newspapers, coverage, and sponsored products.

[NYCGirl]

9. Because the GOP currently has all the power, and the press is lazy. NT

[Berserker]

10. well

Corporate=media
GOP=corporate how much more clear can it be?

[Nutmegger]

11. The corporations are all owned by rabid Repukes

Murdoch anybody? :puke:!!!!!!!

[Meldread]

12. Because Democrats don't do anything about it.

The Media is all about ratings and selling advertising. The Republicans put out their message, which is predominately fear based, and fear sells. However, the media isn't the REAL guilty party; the guilty party is the Democrats because sensationalism also sells. If the Democrats were to take a strong stand against the Republicans and come out swinging and be forceful the Media would report on that.

There is also the fact that Washington and the Media live in a giant bubble outside the mainstream of America. They all hang out together, have the same friends, go to the same parties, same country clubs, so forth and so on... they are not in touch with mainstream America. Overtime if you repeat the same shit over and over, you'll eventually believe it, and as the media has echoed the Republican message for so long (and it is made worse by the lack of a Democratic counter message) they've bought into it. They believe their own BS.

In fact, I think that is the primary problem with the Democratic Party. They've swallowed Republican Propaganda - the Republican Party has done the same. They've propagandized themselves into becoming irrelevant.

Go out there and talk to average people. They know what is up. They aren't idiots. Things that are plainly obvious to them seem to fly right over the heads of those in the media and Washington. If the Democratic Party wants to find its way out of irrelevance then it'll learn to tap into that.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. The Bush Administration has been threatening the media

And they've been doing this since they stepped in the White House.

[WildEyedLiberal]

14. Simple answer:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

More complex answer: when media is a for-profit capitalist venture, its first goal is to deliver a profit for its owners, who are vastly wealthy and Republican, and to please advertisers who bring in the bulk of the revenue, which means not upsetting their cash cows. It is not lucrative to question the status quo, or question the policies or your advertisers/owners who keep you in business and making money.

[graywarrior]

15. They've been beaten by their pimps one too many times.

[leftofthedial]

17. a little of both, but it's mostly that they ARE repukes

and they are owned by repukes

and their bosses are repukes

and the dems are incompetent

[RagingInMiami]

19. FCC deregulation

Bush supports it, dems don't. This enables the huge companies to own newspapers, TV stations and radio stations in the same market. The word on what gets published and broadcast comes from the top down.

Most reporters don't care as long as their "competition" is not allowed to write or broadcast the story.

[MelissaB]

21. I was making a useful and pretty post when my computer started acting up,

so all you get is this. I've got to get my kids to bed.

Look here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=386840

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2360972


and here: http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml

[upi402]

26. WOW!

Thanks! Mine's asleep!
Kids are the best!!!!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

33. despite your glitches, nice post. All too true.

[madokie]

22. Mostly the last 13 words

So sad we live so close to the danger of today, so sad.

[upi402]

25. ho don't care

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[stillcool]

28. Here's one reason....

It’s scary to hear someone carry-on like Pat. But it’s sort of strange to realize that Pat and Wolf Blitzer go way back together. Yep! Wolf used to work for Pat Robertson's CBN way back when Pat was setting up his news bureau and Wolf was the 700 Club’s reporter from the Middle East. He was a lot younger in those days, but in those beginning days Pat exposed Wolf Blitzer to a viewing audience that topped the Nielsen ratings at 28.7 million monthly viewers! That’s a great way to launch one’s career. But Wolf Blitzer likes to keep that part of his career kind of quiet. He doesn’t list the 700 Club’s news bureau in his biography. He doesn’t tell CNN’s audience that Pat was like an angel to him when he was just an independent reporter starting out. But those of us who watched Pat’s show could never forget Wolf Blitzer’s reports. He was presented to us as such an expert—we were just so proud of him! And look how high he’s gone. You’d think he’d give Pat a little credit. No doubt he says “Thanks” by inviting him on CNN!

After all, Pat started a J-School (Journalism School) and Bob Slosser, who had worked for the New York Times became the President of CBN University and Bob Slosser shared Pat’s vision of a new America. Slosser was at the graduation of the first graduate from the Institute of Journalism, it was a young lady named Eliza Wright. And the Governor of Missouri, a fellow named John Ashcroft gave the graduation speech on May 20, 1985! (My how these folks go way back together—and it shows what loyalty can do!) Bob Slosser told the 700 Club audience that day:

We’re going to change the way the country thinks, we’ve bought into this secularism thing and that’s taken us right down the wrong path. I believe that this institution and those like this…will change the way this country thinks!”

http://www.yuricareport.com/Media/OnPatRobertsonWolfeBlitzerAndDavidCorn.html
Katherine Yurica is a writer and a news intelligence analyst. She is also the publisher of the Yurica Report.

[stillcool]

29. ...and here's another...

The Media

Journalism is a perfect cover for CIA agents. People talk freely to journalists, and few think suspiciously of a journalist aggressively searching for information. Journalists also have power, influence and clout. Not surprisingly, the CIA began a mission in the late 1940s to recruit American journalists on a wide scale, a mission it dubbed Operation MOCKINGBIRD. The agency wanted these journalists not only to relay any sensitive information they discovered, but also to write anti-communist, pro-capitalist propaganda when needed.

The instigators of MOCKINGBIRD were Frank Wisner, Allan Dulles, Richard Helms and Philip Graham. Graham was the husband of Katherine Graham, today’s publisher of the Washington Post. In fact, it was the Post’s ties to the CIA that allowed it to grow so quickly after the war, both in readership and influence. (8)

MOCKINGBIRD was extraordinarily successful. In no time, the agency had recruited at least 25 media organizations to disseminate CIA propaganda. At least 400 journalists would eventually join the CIA payroll, according to the CIA’s testimony before a stunned Church Committee in 1975. (The committee felt the true number was considerably higher.) The names of those recruited reads like a Who's Who of journalism

http://www.aliveness.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html

[Warren DeMontague]

31. Money. nt

[Dr Fate]

32. For the same reason you do what your boss tells you to.

The guy who signs your pay check gets to tell ya what to do for 8 or so hours a day. It's as simple as that.