Last week, a friend of mine claimed 90% of journalists in the media voted Democratic and that, therefore, the media was liberal.
I could have questioned this statistic, but that wouldn’t have done any good. We’d simply be fighting over whether reporters vote one way or another. This has nothing to do with media bias.
Here’s how I explained media bias and how Elise Labott at CNN was suspended for having the wrong bias.
I asked him if he’d ever DJ’d on a radio station before. No, he said.
I have. Not for very long. But I was fortunate enough to attend a high school where we had a small FM radio station and where you could take broadcasting classes.
Now everyone thinks being a DJ is really amazing because you get to play what you want. Everyone has this idea that DJing is like Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam!
Radio is a business. Here’s how the business works.
- Each station has a format – adult contemporary, top 40, AOR, classic rock, oldies, country, contemporary Christian, urban, etc.
- Each format has a playlist and DJs (if there are any) play what’s on the playlist. Typically, there’s a top song that needs to be played once an hour and then a list of 15-20 other songs that should be played in rotation during that hour. Maybe once an hour, the DJ can rotate in one song from a list of alternates.
- Something similar to this exists at every station regardless of format. DJs don’t play what they like. They play what the program director for the show “programs.”
If you don’t believe me, turn on any station and listen to it for three hours or so. I guarantee you’ll hear several songs repeated.
This also explains why every classic rock station in the U.S. sounds the same.
Even talk radio shows have a format. Though it’s a bit different. Talk radio tends to focus on topics of the day with a certain slant (conservative, Christian, liberal, shock talk, comedy, topical).
CNN’s format change
How does this apply to CNN?
We tend to think of news as “just the facts.” This isn’t the case and hasn’t been for a long time. Cable news networks have a format.
CNN grew their audience around the Gulf War in 1991. The network became famous for beating the other news organizations to coverage. Their format was originally dominated by this idea of being “first.” Their slogan used to be “Be the first to know.”
Fox News grew its audience with its coverage of 9/11. Their format is geared towards conservatives and integrates with their many conservative pundits. When you turn on Fox, you know what you’re going to get – news filtered through a conservative view. Their motto “Fair and Balanced” is actually a tongue-in-cheek response to the conservative view that news is liberal and needs a counterpoint to “balance” out liberal news.
MSNBC grew much of their audience in response to the George W. Bush years. Similar to Fox, they featured several liberal pundits.
In 2013, CNN went through a format change. Probably because “first” was no longer a strong value pitch given the advent of the Internet. Cable news, by and large, looks slow compared to the Internet and CNN was getting crushed in the ratings.
So CNN revamped its news format and also invested heavily in other programs such as Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown and documentary programs like The Hunting Ground.
What is the new news format? Well, it’s heavily fear based. During the Ebola crisis, CNN became the “go to” network for fear. In fact, it seemed as if Fox and CNN were competing to see who could “outfear” the other.
Andy Borowitz at the New Yorker joked that CNNs new motto was “Holy Crap, We’re All Gonna Die.”
The motto “If it bleeds, it ledes” is famous in news circles. CNN seems to have taken this to the next level with their new “First in Fear” coverage.
CNN seems to understand the future of news is on the Internet and is abandoning the format to pursue an aging audience with fear-based coverage.
CNN suspends journalist
Elise Labott was suspended for the following tweet:
Elise was suspended after Erik Wemple from the Washington Post complained about her tweet being “biased.”
By biased, what Wemple really means is that her tweet has the wrong bias.
CNN’s new format is already biased
As Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept notes, neither CNN nor MSNBC has put a single person on air to dispute the CIA’s lies about Edward Snowden being responsible for the Paris attacks.
CNN didn’t have any problem with their White House correspondent Jim Acosta asking this question:
I think a lot of Americans have this frustration that they see that the United States has the greatest military in the world. … I guess the question is — and if you’ll forgive the language — is why can’t we take out these bastards?
Clearly, a neutral question: “Why can’t we take out these bastards?”
You don’t have to watch CNN long to realize how fear-based and pro-war the coverage is:
We need “overwhelming force”!
Just look at who they have on as guests.
CNN’s State of the Union yesterday featured the following guests:
- Bob Kerrey – a former democratic Senator in favor of ground troops
- Marsha Blackburn – a right-wing Congresswoman
- Hugh Hewitt – right-wing talk show host
- Farah Pandith – Council on Foreign Relations, George H.W. Bush appointee
Why do you need a right-wing talk show host on a Sunday news program? What expertise does another “host” add?
The only discussion seemed to be how quickly we should go to war.
Here’s the last 9 interviews on Tapper’s State of the Union:
- Governor Chris Christie
- Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
- Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA 22nd district)
- Hagel: Focus on ISIS, not Hassad
- Christie won’t say if Syrian refuges should be booted from U.S.
- House Intel chair: ‘We don’t know what we don’t know’
- Should Christian refuges receive priority?
- Paris: A moveable feast
- Jeb Bush: Call radical Islam what it is
2 interviews with Chris Christie. One interview with Jeb Bush. Two interviews with pro-war Democrat Chuck Hagel. An interview with right-wing Republican Devin Nunes and another with the Republican chair of the House Intel committee.
There’s only two views being presented here: pro-war and insanely pro-war.
No suspensions. No mention of bias.
No. The only thing that can get you suspended in corporate media is having the wrong bias.
The only bias The Washington Post gets upset about is the wrong bias. You won’t see them complaining about CNN’s fear-based, pro-war coverage.
The idea of a “liberal media” is insane
Six companies control 90% of the media.
These companies apparently patrol the media to the point where the Washington Post calls out a reporter for even a tweet that hints at any bias against the pro-war, pro-fear corporate agenda.
Why?
Media is a business. Its goal is profit. Not news.
Since CNN moved to a new format to “out fear” Fox, the network has moved up in the ratings.
CNN was #1 in cable news in the prime time demo in October, topping Fox News for the second straight month. The last time CNN beat Fox News for two consecutive months was 14 years ago (October-November 2001).
Fear and entertainment sells.
If the media were liberal, it would serve the public interest.
Instead, the bias in the media is towards turning a profit. This is why the media is concerned with scandal, celebrities, gossip, and fear. It’s also why the media is obsessed with advertising and not offending advertisers. In fact, the media often airs unpaid advertisements (probably in the hopes of future business).
Hmm. Jeff Bezos. Isn’t that the same guy that now owns The Washington Post?
So let’s assume for a second that 90% of reporters are liberal. What difference does it make when 90% of the media is owned by 6 companies?
100% of reporters could be liberal and it wouldn’t matter.
Reporters will do what they have to do to keep their jobs. If it’s a move towards more fear-based programming, they’ll deliver fear-based programming. Or, CNN will find someone else who will. This bias towards profit is the real bias in the media.