Papantonio: Corporate Media Wins 2014 Midterms

[GoLeft TV]

Now that the dust has settled over the midterm election shakeup, we’ve been able to get a look at who REALLY won this year. It wasn’t the Democrats, or the Republicans – it was the corporate media that raked in billions of dollars in ad money.

America's Lawyer, Mike Papantonio, talks about how this ad money undermines our democracy with Abby Martin, host of Breaking the Set on RT America.

[proverbialwisdom]

1. Here's the article.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/187665/corporate-media-companies-are-real-winners-2014-midterms

Corporate Media Companies Are the Real Winners in the 2014 Midterms
Eric Alterman and Reed Richardson on November 3, 2014 - 2:52 PM ET

The Biggest Winners of the 2014 Midterms: Corporate Media
by Reed Richardson

No matter who prevails this Election Day, one tiny constituency can already lay claim to a landslide win. Thanks to our nation’s increasingly unregulated campaign finance rules, large media corporations once again enjoyed a tidal wave of political ad spending this midterm election, and none more so than the rarefied ownership of our nation’s local TV stations. But when it comes to the long-term health of both journalism and our democracy, these robust news profits are nothing but a hollow victory.

Just how robust are they, though? The final numbers aren’t known yet, but the figure for political ad spending this election cycle up through mid-October was $1.3 billion, according to a Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) analysis. And that left out the final few weeks of frenzied political crunch time, which might mean the total could reach or surpass the 2010 mark of $2.1 billion.

But even if the total for TV political ad dollars comes in slightly lower than during the last midterms, local TV stations may still end up reaping more money. That’s because, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, they’re capturing an even greater share of TV ad spending this cycle. After getting four out of five political ad dollars in 2012, local TV has enjoyed a near monopoly in 2014, attracting an astounding 95 percent of TV political ad spending.

The reason? In a world of increasingly polarized media consumption, local TV looks to be the last remaining news platform that attracts larger numbers of viewers across the ideological spectrum. In fact, no other source of political news is listed among the top 3 preferences of liberals, conservatives, and moderates alike. As a result, a recent Pew survey found that roughly half—49 percent—of all Americans say they get news about politics and government from their TV, more than any other source or channel. CNN, with 44 percent, comes in second and Fox News, at 39 percent, comes in third. As for the big three broadcast networks, they only attract around a third of Americans, and a mere one in four look to MSNBC for political news. For campaigns looking to reach the broadest possible voting audience, local TV has increasingly become their best bet.

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