Is the media facing an unpleasant confrontation with its works?

[Must_B_Free]

Some recent events are interesting in this regard:

- Aaron Brown's admission that he's never heard the term "media whore"

- Jon Stewart's confrontation with Begala and Carlson on crossfire.

- Media obsession with Stewarts ratings are a telegraphing their jealousy. They can't fathom why a comedian is taken more seriously by more people than take the cable news nets seriously.

What it all says is that they have jumped the shark and struggling to find out why they have become marginalized and ineffectual.

Aaron Brown recently expressed denial that CNN has gone to the right and that he was taken in that direction with them. "The transcripts don't support that allegation" he told me.

But Brown is wrong: Here is my summary of points made on the Paula Zahn on the night of Kerry's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

In the headlines they mentioned the convention as scripted and as a spectacle.

-Wolf and Judy talking about their new microphones for a long time.

-Talk about the Balloons not falling. No mention of profanity but an allusion to a "technical difficulty".

-Interview with two guys, a conservative looking guy and movie critic. The conservate guy had to admit that Kerry did well without getting into any details of what was said.

-Not one single soundbyte of anything Kerry said, or any of the speeches. Not one shed of a mention of the content or the message.

-EXCEPT: "The Worst moments of the speeches" "Here's a speech from a guy who wasn't that exciting, and it was early, and no one was there yet..."

-The Hamster CPR - an investigation into whether it was even possible to give CPR to a hamster with the implicaton that Kerry's daughter is a liar.

-A turnaround of the Daily Show's montage of scripted right wing talking points with each of the reporters at the convention using the phrase "red meat".

-Two political cartoonists who make distorted faces of politicians like Kerry, Theresa and Bill Clinton.

They completely didn't say one single thing about anything said. Not as much as a soundbyte from anyone.

Unless you tuned in and watched the convention, you don't have a clue what Kerry said.

And these people will probaby start saying that Kerry "Couldn't get his message out."

So I think the transcripts do support it and that Brown just doesn't realize it. What Brown is in denial or unaware of is the fact that his show really only picks from a preestablished body of punditry, so if that body of material available to him goes right, he unwittingly goes with it.

In summary, I think the media is confronting the fact that their "shit ain't selling anymore" and struggling to understand why. They all cried wolf with Bush and they strained their credibilty along with him

[justgamma]

1. What really struck me

was that CNN had 2 right-wingers discussing Kerry's speech and just to be fair, also had 2 right-wingers discussing Shrub's speech. Can't get any fairer than that.

[IHateFundies]

2. the corporate media has no credibility

and more and more Americans are realizing that everyday. Jon Stewart did us a big favor last night.

[RedEagle]

3. Aaron Brown

...has been doing news since at least 1979 from his days in the Seattle market. He went by Skip Brown then.

Never heard the term "Media Whore?"

I don't think so.

Common Skip, tell the truth.

[Must_B_Free]

4. Skip?

heh... I guess he realized "Skip" wasn't a good word to associate with a TV show.

[BeFree]

5. If things go well on Nov 2

The media will turn on * with a vengeance just so that they can keep it up once JK is in.

Ya think Clinton had it bad? We will never hear the end of the swift boats...etc.

The only way we will ever get the media straight is to follow the money flowing into the media coffers and learn the big spenders behind those coffers a new lesson in capitalism.

DU's Sinclair operation is just the first in that long lesson plan.

[Doctor_J]

6. i am not sure what you mean

the media are 99% just a subsidiary of the GOP, and get their instructions as such. and their money. FOX operates at a loss on paper, but murdoch gets it back ten-fold in advantageous legislation. the whore know they're whoring, but it pays well, so wtf?