Big Media's love affair with the Right Wing/Faux News POV

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland

New Report Exposes Media Love Affair with Right-Wingers and the Fox News Worldview: 'Reporters Can't get Enough'
The Right’s messaging isn't confined to the conservative media.

December 25, 2010 |


Forget about fake moon landings and Obama's birth certificate. The most enduring unfounded conspiracy theory in America is that our institutions of knowledge – the media, the academy and even science -- are biased in favor of liberals.

The national media is based in large urban centers, so it should come as no surprise that conservatives would rarely see their views on strictly social issues well represented. But on matters of substance, we are talking about a corporate-owned media that pushes relentlessly for "free trade" deals, foreign wars and fiscal "austerity."

In my book, The Fifteen Biggest Lies About the Economy, I discuss how, beginning in the early 1970s, a number of wealthy conservative donors have invested in the development of what I call a parallel “intellectual infrastructure,” ostensibly designed to counter the liberal bias they saw all around them. They funded dozens of corporate-backed think tanks, endowed academic chairs, and created their own dedicated and distinctly conservative media outlets.

But the Right’s messaging isn't confined to the conservative media, in part because of the relentless pressure on newsrooms from conservative activists – it's an example of “working the refs.”

At times, media outlets are open about their attempts to curb criticism from the Right by giving more space to conservatives. Last year, when the Philadelphia Inquirer came under fire for giving a column to torture memo author John Yoo, editorial page editor Harold Jackson told the New York Times, “There was a conscious effort on our part to counter some of the criticism of the Inquirer as being a knee-jerk liberal publication ...We made a conscious effort to add some conservative voices to our mix.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/media/149323/new_report_exposes_media_love_affair_with_right-wingers_and_the_fox_news_worldview%3A_%27reporters_can%27t_get_enough%27/

[MisterP]

1. this spread of conservatism beyond media labeled conservative gives several functions

it legitimizes the ideas as not mere partisan notions but as universals, a consensus shared by the vast majority of the country or humanity

it's like Iraq War support among Dems (invariably labeled "liberal" or "the left") and (New) atheists: it's no longer a GOP or Christian Crusade, but the whole of Western Civilization rising up against those threatening it

[Enthusiast]

2. K&R

An example of the right wing 'working the refs' is how we get our near daily dose of punditry from right wing think tanks on C-Span's Washington Journal. Since there are few left wing counterparts to these pundits, wild allegations and lies go unchallenged. And Washington Journal might be the least guilty when it comes to contributing to unfair media. But there it is.