I’m so tired of conservatives endlessly invoking “the liberal media.” I wish I could just roll my eyes, but I need to address conservatives directly about this intentional self-delusion.
By “liberal media,” do you mean Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire media tyrant? Do you mean Fox News, founded by ultra-conservative Roger Ailes? Do you mean Lush Limbaugh, who has more listeners and sponsors than any other drug-addict in AmeriCo? Do you mean billboard-owning, record-smashing Clear Channel? (Can conservatives name a liberal counterpart that truly matches each of the previous examples in influence?) Do you mean the self-reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times, home of the aptly named blowhard Tony Blankley? Do you mean the Wall Street Journal?
I could add a list of conservative columnists who appear every day in more newspapers than any liberal columnist. Columnists who directly influence the current administration, like Krauthammer and Thomas. And I can cite a study to that effect, knowing there is a study proving anything and we all pick and choose. (Liberals admit we are all flawed human beings. Today’s conservatives divide the world between good — themselves — and evil — everyone else.)
Are conservatives who truly believe there is a dominant “liberal media” (as opposed to those who simply espouse that cynically to rouse the rabble) willing to think more deeply about this? Who pays for “the liberal media”? Most is driven by advertising. Who pays for ads? Mostly, businesses, especially big, national corporations. What political policies do corporations favor? Minimal regulation and minimal taxes. Aren’t those the primary planks of the Republican Party?
So, if the dominant media is liberal, why is it funded by corporations? Perhaps, they are simply stupid. Or, perhaps, it is in the interest of corporations to spend money on liberal media. Though cynical, that would be true if liberals partake of more media or are more responsive to advertising or spend money more loosely than conservatives. So, there might be more liberal media-consumers or a liberal minority might be the majority of customers of conservative corporations.
Conservatives believe America is a genuinely conservative nation and has always been so. They often speak of the liberal media, liberal politicians and the liberal judiciary as if liberals were a minority occupying the Silent and Moral Majority, bedrock conservatives. (An unfortunate consequence of this salt-the-earth war tactic is that conservatives steadily undermine confidence in all aspects of government.) How did this liberal minority come to dominate the conservative majority? Well, albeit by circular logic, the liberal media is a big part of keeping conservatives down. (Re-read second paragraph above.)
OK, leave aside how a natively conservative majority came to be dominated by a liberal minority. (I’m sure it involves the Civil War and forced integration; I imagine others blame Mexicans, gays, and Jews.) Three times in my life, I have seen the rise of the conservative tide. Conservatives believe it started with Goldwater. In fact, it started with Nixon and the odious criminal, Spiro T. Agnew. Today’s conservatives would not elect anyone as liberal as Nixon (choke-sputter-gag), who would be labeled a tree-hugger, communist sympathizer and dove/quitter. They would, however, gladly nominate Agnew for president; much of the “liberal media” nonsense originates with Agnew. It is also in those days that the power-hungry recognized the value of playing up the notion of native conservatives occupied by liberal outsiders. As vile as Nixon/Agnew, et al., were, they can’t hold a candle to Tricky Dick Cheney and Duhbya, though in the current case, it’s the veep who is dangerously powerful. As you may know from Wikipedia, conservatives over-reached and trusted the wrong guy, who was dethroned. (The liberal media — especially, the Washington Post and the New York Times — did play a key role, which inspires much of today’s enmity. And conservative columnists like James Jay Kilpatrick defended the Crook until he boarded the helicopter for the last time. Could Fox News have saved Nixon? Certainly, unlike today, Democrats weren’t stopped by “let’s just wait until his term is over.”)
The revenge of the conservatives was Morning In America, starring Ronnie Raygun, who might as well have been Jesus. Although there were no free speech zones then, it was a tough time for liberals. But, on a national level, we were merely drowned out and ignored for a decade. Things would get much worse.
The third wave of conservatism starts with Newty Gingrinch and collapses with King George. And yet, with all the power — an enflamed citizenry, both houses of Congress, the Presidency, an increasing percentage of the judiciary, Fox News, Rupert Murdock, more money than god, ad nauseum — with all this power and the smug certainty that they would hold that power for a generation, what happened?
Do conservatives blame Iraq on “the liberal media”? No, just the fact that all the Good News (gospel) out of Iraq is being filtered out by the same. While I’m stunned by those who believe we are “doing the right and honorable thing” in Iraq (and, next year, Iran), I’m outraged by the wimps who simply say, “Duhbya deceived us — he’s not really a conservative.” I know, he’s just an over-privileged party boy who has lead a pampered and sheltered life in which — inexplicably — people have helped him overcome his incompetence and ignorance every step of the way. (At least a few of those people have profited mightily by doing so. And what better way to prove government is bad than elect incompetents?) Now, the “true” conservatives pull a Peter on Jesus H. Duhbya — I don’t know him. Know him? You crowned him! Anyone half-awake in 2000 could see Duhbya’s unworthiness. Blame the liberal media? Blame conservatives!
Pulling back from my historical screed: How did the liberal media weather 40 years of mostly conservative rule and a purportedly conservative majority populace? Could it be that the media isn’t liberal or that the majority of media-responders are?
Why do conservatives continue to rail mindlessly against “the liberal media.” What do you blame the liberal media for? And would you rather have a conservative Pravda and Isvestia? Should media be a tool of those in power? In fact, isn’t it.
I would be interested in a coherent response from Deep Thinkers. (1) What is your evidence of a dominant liberal media? (Please cite someone other than Lush Limbaugh.) (2) What sustains that alleged dominance? mjh
PS: I believe the world is not black and white nor even shades of gray. It is brilliantly colored. The colorblind may not get that. I admit I’m flawed in reasoning and other respects. I admit I’m in the minority in almost everything I do. I admit there are some great conservatives and some shitty liberals. I admit we are all human. More unites us than divides us, but we’re obsessed with the divisions.
I’d come from work, still dressed in a business suit. I didn’t know then that undercover police officers had slipped in among us. But I did sense trouble coming when suddenly the cars disappeared. To prevent motorists from reading our signs, police blocked traffic on Central. Down the street I saw troops of police assembling and what looked like a SWAT van. I decided it was time to go. I headed for my car with sign in hand.
I didn’t get very far before a young police officer stepped across my path and pointed a shotgun in my face. He was terrified and shaking. I’ve always wondered what had been planted in his brain to make him view a man in a suit displaying a plea for peace sign as a threat justifying leveling his gun at my head.