[Lanny_MacDonald]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101+Nov 7 2004, 06:35 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BlackArcher101 @ Nov 7 2004, 06:35 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Okay, I think its time to dispell this myth once and for all. Wanna do it here, or in another thread?

Oh the drama! This is going to be good, I can feel it.

edit: The article says the youth vote never showed up as always. Didn't the youth vote increase this year? And the majority voted for Kerry? [/b][/quote]
Well its a load of crap that was started by the Nixon regime in an attempt to discredit the "new" media that was coming down hard on Vietnam and on his election campaign. This was at a time when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (founded in 1967 and gave the liberal's a production voice) was developing some very damning documentaries that exposed the soft under-belly of the Nixon regime. Nixon's response was to attempt to silence them by cutting their funding and forcing them to fragment down to the civic and state levels, and reorganizing into what is today PBS. This shifted the power from the journalist to the local businessman running the station. The impact of the programs was lessened greatly as programs were not run at the same time on the same day and fragmaneted the message. The message of these programs never got a chance to resonate around the country like the major networks did. CPB/PBS was essentially neutered before it had a chance to grow into a viable body.

If this myth of "liberal bias" in the media were so true, why would Reagan be the one who struck down the media Fairness Doctrine, established in 1934, which required equal time for the voices of all parties? Why would he also de-regulate the industry itself? Because he knew that through these two movements it would allow the conservative voice to become the loudest. The established media still had structures within that believed in the Fairness Doctorine and were well staffed and managed by those who were accustomed to balanced reporting, so it would take these bodies time to develop the voice other wise. But with de-regulation it allowed a conservative movement to begin to swallow up media outlets across the country as media monsters like Clear Channel began to develop. At this exact time a new medium was developing that would give the conservatives another voice, and that was cable TV.

Ted Turner launched his CNN network, a conservative outlet right of center, and gave the conservative reporters and think tanks an avenue to the airwaves. The RW hate radio network, having been popular in local markets since the 40's, got a national network and developed many big names (Downey Jr., Limbaugh, etc.) that were given a voice nationally through syndication. When Rupert Murdoch finally got involved and launched FoxNews the ball was already rolling. The media line had slowly been shifted from center to the right, leaving much of the big media (ABC, CBS, NBC) left of where CNN was, now considered the centerist view. These news bodies hadn't changed and were still sitting where they had for over 50 years. The belief of the public had through a continual attack on these institutions by the new media. With the advent of FoxNews and the launch of the internet news bodies, the media had a new ultra-right view point that loudly proclaimed they were "fair and balanced" even though the truth was the opposite.

The secret to the new RW media is their proclamation that they ARE fair and balanced and attack the established media as being "liberal". Over the last 30 years they have developed a network of conservative owned media outlets (TV, Radio, Newsprint and Internet), conservative speakers and writers, conservative think tanks and support bodies, and conservative financial bodies to forward the voice. All of these bodies fly under the radar by all following the mantra of announcing "the liberal" or "elite" media bias. Its brilliant ansd has been very effective in dragging the center line to the right, essentially leaving the traditional media on the left side of line. The transformation was quick and noisy, but because of those making the noise and poiting the fingers the public never even noticed that the line was moved behind their back.