Rally to Shift the Blame

Jon Stewart goes after an easy target.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/business/media/01carr.html?_r=2&src=tptw

--much snipped--

But here’s the problem: Most Americans don’t watch or pay attention to cable television. In even a good news night, about five million people take a seat on the cable wars, which is less than 2 percent of all Americans. People are scared of what they see in their pay envelopes and neighborhoods, not because of what Keith Olbermann said last night or how Bill O’Reilly came back at him.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing,” Mr. Stewart said, and then went on to say, “not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate,” he said.

All due respect to Mr. Williams and Mr. Sanchez, not many people know or care who they are.

True, any poll of American attitudes toward the press would suggest a lot of people share Mr. Stewart’s distrust of media, and if they had a Rally to Restore Respect for the Media, it would draw two people. And one of them would be a hot dog vendor.

MORE AT LINK

Seriously--the influence extends beyond the immediate viewership. Rush Limbaugh attracts, in an average quarter-hour, around 3 million listeners. By the NYT's pure numbers reckoning, he is insignificant. In their reporting and editorials, however, he is often mentioned.

Quite a mystery!

They don't, however, hold rallies in DC about them.

Sorry, the news outlets really do invent (or scare up) their own shit and then they report it as news.

carry misspelled signs? How clever of them.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/rick-santelli-tea-party-time/

While he's not the one who funded and fueled the baggers, his part in the mythology is no secret.

I believe the estimates made on the number of participants in the TP "movement" are ridiculously inflated. Just the same, the people that profess to be members of TP are quite aware of Santelli's rant. This single YouTube link has over a million views:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA

While I agree, the right-wing media has produced far more hysterical political rhetoric, that doesn't mean the left has created none. I suppose I could list examples of over-the-top, highly partisan bits made by people, pundits and bloggers on the left but the idea of doing so brings me back to why I dearly loved the event held this last Saturday on the D.C. Mall.

I'm growing a bit weary of partisan media. In all of this FOX/MSNBC/CNN blah, blah, blah, you know who makes me the saddest? CNN. There was a time I could turn to that station when all I wanted was straight, plain news. No opinions. No spin. Now, there's no place to turn for simple, fact reporting objectivity. I miss that, dearly.

I love Keith and Rachel and Ed I love Jon Stewart. I don't have to agree with any of them unless I choose to agree with them. I'm okay with that.

be wonderful.

Criticize the media and it will criticize you back.

My guess is that the hundreds of thousands who were there or later watched online disagree. Might also have something to do with declining circulation and viewership.

bury...

criticizing other cable entities is certainly a mystery.

A lot of very rich people have got to be laughing their asses off over the whole thing.

I didn't think they were trying to save the world..