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Thursday, 20 October 2005

Have a look at this Kos diary.

If you want to know why the "news" media couldn't be bothered to report enough actual news to prevent an elective war based on lies that were plainly nonsensical at the time -- and why, 2.5 years, tens of thousands of deaths, and hundreds of billions of dollars later, they're still strugging to burp up the obvious -- that diary explains a big part of it.

Personal experience with same issues: when my radio commentaries were syndicated, one of the reasons we didn't get on more stations was because Program Directors were cowed by ownership (often ClearChannel) and afraid some liberal might piss off advertisers, especially in the hysterical post 9-11 climate. Never mind the awards I'd won, or that in over a thousand commentaries, I never once had to retract anything in a single broadcast. The question wasn't quality, accuracy, even entertainment value; it was avoiding any risk of displeasing advertisers and ownership.

Matter of fact, I got canned from the biggest news station in Los Angeles specifically because I was talking about stories the rest of the "news" didn't, even though the new boss who canned me didn't have the guts or honesty to admit it to my face. (He'd grumbled at me for years, but when the day came, he said they were "cutting back all their features," although they a) kept every moralistic right-winger who would never dream of criticizing corporate influence and b) replaced me specifically with the unpointed musings of a Ted Baxterish TV anchorman with remarkably little to say.)

I mention this a) because obviously, yeah, it still bugs me when I'm reminded of it, and b) much more to personally vouch, from direct experience, for the only bias that matters in media. It is real. This is how this stuff works. (Incidentally, management denials of any such bias are almost always sincere; they have drunk the Kool-Aid, they deeply believe what they do actually accomplishes something, and that's a big part of why they succeed.)

These are businesses, after all. You are not the media's customer; you are their product. Their only customers are the advertisers. That is all that matters.

It's right in front of our faces, all the time. Jon gets it right here, too, as I mentioned yesterday.

The anonymous Kos writer isn't perfect, but he gets the gist absolutely correct.