First you break up the media monopoly...
By Libby
This ties into a post I just put up at Newshoggers on the mythical free market. Walter Shapiro spends some time listening to Dodd on the campaign trail and highlights some great responses to Hillary's rhetoric, but the money quote in the piece is this by Shapiro himself.
This so underscores what's wrong with political coverage today. Shapiro dismisses Dodd even as he praises him. But Dodd shouldn't be a voice in the wilderness. He's a legitimate candidate and would probably be a better president that any of the frontrunners but the reason he's so undervalued is that the media are too busy plying horserace coverage and wallowing in inane minutia about the candidates they themselves have anointed as frontrunners, to bother to fairly cover all the candidates.
If the candidates were given equal space and time to make their case to the people, then the people instead of the media elites would decide the frontrunners. As it stands, it seems pretty clear that the candiates that get the bulk of the free coverage are the ones who have the most to spend on paid ads.
It's more apparent every day that if we're ever to reclaim our government, we need repossess our media first. It seems to me the easiest way to do that is to break up the defacto cabal that currently holds a monopoly on it. Unless we do that, we can agitate all we like but we're all just howling into the wind.
This ties into a post I just put up at Newshoggers on the mythical free market. Walter Shapiro spends some time listening to Dodd on the campaign trail and highlights some great responses to Hillary's rhetoric, but the money quote in the piece is this by Shapiro himself.
A Sunday morning hunch: This is the first time that you are encountering these Dodd quotes. Calling Dodd a voice in the wilderness understates the loneliness of his underdog campaign.
This so underscores what's wrong with political coverage today. Shapiro dismisses Dodd even as he praises him. But Dodd shouldn't be a voice in the wilderness. He's a legitimate candidate and would probably be a better president that any of the frontrunners but the reason he's so undervalued is that the media are too busy plying horserace coverage and wallowing in inane minutia about the candidates they themselves have anointed as frontrunners, to bother to fairly cover all the candidates.
If the candidates were given equal space and time to make their case to the people, then the people instead of the media elites would decide the frontrunners. As it stands, it seems pretty clear that the candiates that get the bulk of the free coverage are the ones who have the most to spend on paid ads.
It's more apparent every day that if we're ever to reclaim our government, we need repossess our media first. It seems to me the easiest way to do that is to break up the defacto cabal that currently holds a monopoly on it. Unless we do that, we can agitate all we like but we're all just howling into the wind.
Labels: Election 08, Media, spin
posted by Libby Spencer at 5:50 PM
4 Comments:
I disagree. believe me, as a Paul supporter I have ample reason to hate the media but the free market should determine what is covered. If people want to hear Chris Dodd they will let the media outlets know one way or another. If the media doesn't respond people should seek other venues for coverage
That's why we're here, but much of the public still gets the little bit of news they hear from Fox and CNN in between the ads and celebrity crap. It takes the media an hour to cover one or two stories and it never covers most of the stuff you find elsewhere.
The market is creating a new media but it's a struggle.
They can't seek other venues Lester, if only six people own all the outlets and they act as a defacto monolopy. To the extent that the internets are providing alternatives, there are still places in America, including where I used to line in the Berkshires that don't even cable TV yet much less internet service.
Fogg, I believe new media will win in the end but we're talking years and years. I'm not sure America can wait that long.
start a freaking left wing newspaper then. make somethign people want to read. newspapers are on their way out anyhow.
Post a Comment
<< Home