Decline of the American empire: The Old Media

[RawAlex]

I found this story through drudge, and it freaks me out.

Median age of viewers on the major news channels (CNN, Foxnews) is...

60.

http://www.variety.com/VR1117942664.html

It sort of explains the concept of ignorant old white men who keep getting elected, keep running the campaigns, and well, they are the only ones paying attention to the news media anymore.

Explains republican presidents very well.

Alex

[Bill]

I still watch some of the corporate news, mostly the broadcast networks, just to keep an eye on what the corporations want us to think.

But goddamn it's just getting worse and worse. The propaganda is getting really blatant, and the human interest stories, holy shit, could they be any lamer?

Like this thing with Porter Goss - it's all over the net that he was fired because he was caught going to poker and prostitute parties at the watergate hotel arranged by defense contractors looking to bribe their way into contracts. Who attended these parties - apparently only republican congressmen and cia officials.

The FBI discovered this investigating Duke Cunningham.

But do the major networks report this? Not a word yet, as far as I've heard. (not that I watch heavily)

[babymaker]

Originally Posted by Bill

I still watch some of the corporate news, mostly the broadcast networks, just to keep an eye on what the corporations want us to think.

But goddamn it's just getting worse and worse. The propaganda is getting really blatant, and the human interest stories, holy shit, could they be any lamer?

Like this thing with Porter Goss - it's all over the net that he was fired because he was caught going to poker and prostitute parties at the watergate hotel arranged by defense contractors looking to bribe their way into contracts. Who attended these parties - apparently only republican congressmen and cia officials.

The FBI discovered this investigating Duke Cunningham.

But do the major networks report this? Not a word yet, as far as I've heard. (not that I watch heavily)

I watch once in awhile too, just to see this weeks talking points lol. At least in the old days they were good at lying to us and covering their bias, but now it's just a joke

[Bill]

the last thing CNN had to say about Porter Goss was this:

Porter Goss said Saturday that his surprise resignation as CIA director is "just one of those mysteries," offering no other explanation for his sudden departure after almost two years on the job.

Although the ex-congressman declined to comment, intelligence sources have told CNN that Goss' resignation on Friday was triggered by differences with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte over plans to move staff, including analysts from the CIA's counterterrorism center, to other intelligence agencies.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/...ion/index.html

But even the New York Daily News, a gossip rag, has run an article about the poker and prostitute parties.

[SirMoby]

I think the networks are afraid to announce news that's unfriendly towards powerful people. I think there's a line in the sand and if you cross it you will have to answer to homeland security.

Plus people seem more interested in a prom queen disappearing then genocide in Darfur. It's easy to find a villain and a victim just like in Law and Order, CSI and all those other shows about crime.

[Simon]

Yes, I think the major news channels have lost their appeal for a lot of people. Fortunately, for those of us online (constantly?), there are plenty of other options.

But one thing I see happening is a division forming between those who use computers to get news from online news sites, blogs, etc, and those who don't use computers very much if at all.

It used to be that just about anyone could tune in to the "evening news" and know pretty much what everyone else knew about things. But too often these days I'm meeting people who are nearly clueless about things covered in the news.

These are people who don't watch network or cable news, but they also don't work in an environment where computers are part of their everyday life. As a result they either don't own a personal computer, or have one (often it's "for the kids") but really don't make much use of it.

We're winding up with a nation (world?) that's being divided into the regular computer users who are comfortable using their computers to get their news, and those who don't use computers or don't use them to read about what's happening in the world.

I know the kids are using computers regularly in many schools, but not all of them. And as long as there are jobs that don't require computer competence, there will be people without much access to anything but the news channels, and they're not interested in watching those.

Maybe the crossover of the Internet being available via the television in everyone's homes will help change the balance in that dynamic. I hope so. It's not much fun arguing with folks who have plenty of opinions without anything to base them on except "what they heard" and "what everyone knows."

[Surfn]

Originally Posted by Simon

...It's not much fun arguing with folks who have plenty of opinions without anything to base them on except "what they heard" and "what everyone knows."

Ain't that the truth

[RawAlex]

Opinion based reporting is the other trend in "news" that really takes away from the value of the information. The Fox News Channel spends a huge chunk of it's total time each day on opinion discussion with talking heads. From O'Really to Greta, it is all "in depth" coverage that quickly stops being coverage and starts being "here is a harvard janitor with his opinion on a shooting that happened on the other side of the world".

Speculation, opinion, and "what if" fantasies are not news.

The whole "white girl abducted on holiday island" thing got so far out of hand. Little has been released, what is in the media is a combination of speculation by these "newsies" plus the rantings of an upset and unstable mother, and the cross pollenation of opinion breeding with opinion to create near fact and innuendo. In the end, all that is known is that an 18 year old girl went on holiday, went to party with one or more boys not sure and never appeared again. How can this have taken up over 100 hours of Fox News time?

The other part of this is the partisan nature of the news and opinions expressed. Even in the worst of Katrina, even as the President ducked out to California to do a public meet and greet to receive a gift guitar, and even as the FEMA head at the time screwed things up beyond understanding, never once did Fox suggest that maybe the president could have done more, been more attentive, or somehow accept even the smallest amount of responsibility for the situation. They couldn't bring themselves to do it.

Even now, with the President's poll numbers lower than a snake's belly, they still continue to be the republican whitehouse official press organ, gaily spinning out victory after victory and all but ignoring the defeats and challenges.

I guess it plays well to the majority conservative over 60 crowd they are talking to.

Alex

[Linkster]

Originally Posted by SirMoby

I think the networks are afraid to announce news that's unfriendly towards powerful people. I think there's a line in the sand and if you cross it you will have to answer to homeland security.

.

Thats because they learned their lesson very well with the Anthrax the government sent their way last time - good distraction to being an investigative reporter

[virgohippy]

The one thing I've noticed from the kids in my generation is that they're just burnt. There's really no reason to watch the news because very few feel they have any ability to do something about it anyway. Ask one of them sometime if they vote... then ask them why not.

What did the generation approaching 60 go through which makes them so much more active in this process? 40 years ago they were in thier young adult years... what was happening then?

Those young adults have gotten older, and now they're more worried about their own personal security and safety than they are about social reform.

[juggernaut]

Maybe it's just me and I'm getting older. I don't think younger people care. I don't think they ever really cared after the 60's and lets face it, most of the kids who showed up at the rallys in the 60's were there for the drugs and had no real idea what the rally was about. It's the same today. Younger people would perfer to stay home and talk on myspace or text on cell phones instead of watching the news. But the real sad thing is they do not realize that sitting on their asses and doing nothing is not going to help them get anything. I can't wait to see what a home around here is going to cost my nephew in 20 years. When these kids wake up and start paying attention to what's going on and how it's going to effect their lives over the next 20/30/50 years then it's going to be to late for them to change anything. They will be too caught up looking for the next appliance box that they are going to be sleeping in. Or they'll just turn over and go to sleep in the same bed they were sleeping in when they were 5.

[RawAlex]

Nobody their age is really talking to them about it. The current role models are people like Eminem or 50 cent or whatever: Get rich or die trying. There is nobody out there at 20 or 22 or whatever attempting to change the world in any powerful way, the current protest movements are run by the grey haired versions of the 60's peaceniks and dope smoking hippies (my father's words). Nobody has ever really come along and filled the void since that time.

The result? From the kids view, the anti-war thing is run "by your parents" and racial equality is run by Jesse Jackson or whatever. Not very many younger people have taken a position or gotten enough of a following to take power - nor is the media very interested in playing these younger people's views to their near geriatric audience.

The kids tune out, and instead they learn how to rob, lie, steal, and kill from other sources.

Alex

[virgohippy]

I dunno... Tupac and Dr. Dre have some pretty heavy political messages in their lyrics sometimes.

But you do make a good point about older generations making it difficult for political involvement to seem like a daring and new thing.