It sure would be nice to think that all those 1%ers are just shoveling money into a fire that few will see.

It seems to me that the network of Cronkite and Rather gives Repubs more air time than they deserve. They seem to think that crusty old McCain is worth hearing from.

But when I do; I pay close attention to the advertisers. A lot of prescription drugs. A lot of car insurance. Quite a few banks. Fucking Chuck.

I expect advertisers have more control over the news than the networks. I wouldn't imagine just the ads that run during the news have influence over the news either.

Sometimes I'm surprised when I see an ad for something that doesn't even need to be advertising. GE for example, blue cross, blue shield, the local utility. I wonder what news story they are preventing.

The whole main stream liberal media BS was never true anyway, but it should be pretty obvious that you aren't going to see a negative news story on a network sponsor, and all of the businesses that are causing the problems, are the advertisers.

and I'm a 50+ white male. I used to never miss the news.

something like it in the weather channel current weather and local forecast...but it turned out that the weather is just like the news for a 50+. It's indistinguishable from well remembered reruns.

I spent the majority of my time flipping channels looking for something to watch that did not offend me or bore me to tears...
But then I don't like car chase, explosions and people yelling and screaming and killing people...and there was no news about things that mattered and no real weather on the weather channel.
So I chucked the whole thing and now all I have is the Internet and Netflix where I don't have to constantly search for something to watch.
Really I think the cable TV will just fuck up your mind and waist your time.

We just have high speed internet, Netflix, and an off-air HDTV antenna on the roof. The 15 to 20 channels we get off-air are enough TV for us. We pretty much stick to PBS Newshour and Jeopardy. And our local PBS station broadcasts two 'auxillary' channels...so we get plenty of nature and cultural programming too. We don't miss cable, nor the high monthly bills. Why pay twice (100+ bucks a month for cable service, and then also have to watch dumbass commercials (we're sans Tivo)) to watch garbage cable-programming?

I recall last year when there was an outbreak of tornadoes & they were running a "show"..about tornadoes.. all from past clips all mooshed together.. nevermind about the REAL ones happening right then..

it is far to skewed and life is just plain too short.

I use that more and more to get a sense of "who" the networks believe is watching a particular program. In this case, when I start seeing all the boner pill ads, that tells me "old guys"/caution/beware.

GE doesn't own NBC to make money in media -- they own it so they can control the public debate and manufacture consent for wars and large public expenditures. They have blacklists of people that are not allowed on the network. They can refuse ads. All of the major networks changed hands after the Fairness doctrine was abandoned because there was no reason for a large military contractor to own them before that. Propaganda doesn't work if you have to 'give equal time to opposing viewpoints.' Reagan was a spokesman for GE before he was the president that vetoed the codification of the Fairness doctrine and GE owns NBC.

http://www.gorowlett.com/rowlettdemocrats/rreagan.html

If a corporation goes through the trouble of owning Reagan and destroying laws that would force democratic debate then they aren't , 30 years later, going to sell access to their propaganda machine at any price.

The primary business of the MSM is to sell audiences to advertisers but that business model is under pressure as the value of an ad impression continues to drop. The real reason to own a network at this point is to use it to make money in other areas of your business, eg. war. The real propaganda isn't the ads it is the programs -- Trump, Pat Buchanon, Dancing with the Stars and the TODAY Show -- worship of the faux rich and lots of happy horseshit.

it's going to be hard to disagree with the wingnuts when they're bank rolling the station you work for, for the next 10 years.

And let's start boycotting the corrupt businesses who pass on their bribes to the consumer.

but national news has become a big farce. Even the locals put things in their broadcast that is total cow poop. I am 60+ and it saddens me to know that what used to be legitimate news is now just corporate sponsored media celebrities shilling for the corporate elite. If people around my age are taken in by this crap and in turn we get a messed up bunch of people running this country because of ignorance, most of us, young and old, will suffer greatly. I know it takes two years to get an OK to move to Canada (at least), but I keep thinking that I'm too old to protest like I'd want to in the streets, so I might just have to migrate somewhere, but where? I dunno.....

In fact, I have generally found it is the next generation, the "Reagan" generation, if you will, who tend to skew more Republican. Those who grew up in the era of Vietnam and Watergate tend not to buy that stuff so much.

We need to break up big media corporations.

Waste of money to check whether anything is true or not. Just quote what they say. Surely important people, like politicians and celebrities and corporate spokespersons, wouldn't ever, EVER lie to us.

to a properly-functioning propaganda machine.

or read the transcript here:

http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-big-money-big-media-big-trouble/

You're right when you say give the watchers what they want. This was one of the points made in the interview with Marty Kaplan.

that's my take on it.

From a product perspective, truckloads of money are dumped into consumer preference studies; finding out what the demographic wants, strictly from a base-motivations standpoint.

Creature comforts and limbic system stimulations are what the fat and greasy citizens want; meet those two needs, and you can overlay any impellent you want.

With regard to media in general, I see two forces working:

**Entertainment programs which ARE liberal---SOCIALLY liberal.

**"News"fotainment programs which are Conservative --- they are in the service of the corporate/legislative Powers That Be. (And in thinking about them just now, how to characterize them, the image of an angry mob comes to mind.)

The ink would rub off on our hands. We'd make hats out of the pages. We'd pick up images from the funnies with Silly Putty. And the Sunday funnies were in color.

Oh, by the way, GET OFF MY LAWN! (You darn kids.)

Everyone over 50 is white and elite? Who knew that every poor person or person of color dies by 49...

There are plenty of old, young, black white yellow blue purple, rich and poor schmucks who watch crap like Fox News.

don't watch news either. I am over 50 and get all news from the internet and take it all with a grain of salt. I don't allow them to get me excited over something they are trying to claim is the unprecedented Biggest Thing to Ever Happen, which happens every night.

The sooner we're done with them, the better.

I never do that anymore.