Great: The Power of the New Media, Jeff Gannon Dispatched Into Irrelevancy

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Never before has the new media flexed its muscles collectively, so well, as in the recent case of a liar named Jeff Gannon. Well, Jeff Gannon wasn’t actually his real name. That was a lie too.

It is becoming all too obvious that the myth of a liberal mainstream media is quite dead. This fantasy is held onto so dearly by right-wingers because it is part of their talking points. The reality is far easier to spot though. Talk radio is dominated completely by the right wing machine, with such shrill voices as Limbaugh and Hannity leading the pack. Then you look at cable news see that if a man named Colmes is the only voice of reason, then we are not in Kansas any more Dorothy. It is a matter of story selection, panel composition, and host personalities.

Fox News is nothing more than an extension of the White House and any fair evaluation of them must conclude that. A FAIR study done last year found an overwhelming majority of the prime time guests on the Brit Hume show, were right wing, while the tiny minority of alleged democrats, were actually middle of the road moderates. If it was only Fox we had to worry about, we would still be ok. The real damage Fox News perpetrates on the collective journalistic soul of this country is to make other news, appear mainstream. Next to Fox, the other big networks appear lefty, when in reality they also are lilting far to the right.

The next big cable giant is MSNBC with its flagship show, “Softball, with Chris Matthews”. Chris pretends to ask the tough questions, but a mere glance at his panels will tell the truth of the leanings of his show. In the run-up to the election, Ben Ginsberg was a regular panelist offering analysis. Ben Ginsberg is a republican election lawyer. On the democratic side, Mathews may have Ron Reagan Jr., who is more moderate than democratic or Andrea Mitchell, who is married to Alan Greenspan. This is the mold of the shows that displays its inherent bias. The people on the left are not strong lefty personalities, but rather are moderates who approach topics, fairly. The people on the right however, have an agenda, and that is to push the GOP talking points at all costs. Last night Matthews had on Susan Molinari, who could not stop gushing about the bold social security plan of the president. Her counterpart tried to play fairly, and have a rational discussion. The result was Molinari often shouting over her opponent to get the GOP message through, while Matthews stands by grinning. This is what media and reporting has come to in latter day America. As if this was not bad enough, MSNBC will not even portray equal amounts, of the disproportionate pundits. Following the State of the Union, MSNBC had 11 republican guests to only 2 democratic guests. One of those two democratic guests was the aforementioned Reagan, the moderate. On the GOP side were such strong personalities as Orrin Hatch, Rick Santorum and Pat Buchanan. This is how they stack the shows.
Following the Fox model, MSNBC went out and got themselves a loud voice for their prime time PM slot. Joe Scarborough headlines for MSNBC at ten o’clock. What did Mr. Scarborough do prior to pretending to be a journalist? He was a member of Congress, for the GOP. Offering no apology, Mr. Scarborough was also spotted in the election run-up at a Pro-Bush rally, as a fan, not a journalist. Hmm, I guess objectivity is not on the MSNBC agenda. Joe routinely has on such vitriolic guests as Anne Coulter, to fairly discuss the state of affairs in this country. Please.

More at: http://www.opednews.com/wade_021005_newmedia.htm