Media Campaigns Hard for Obama

[mcsluggo]

the "libral bias of the media" is a fairly amorphous term that allows people to pick and choose on "evidence" and also to pick and choose on "ramifications"

The "mainstream" media that conservative critics like to rail about so much ... is indeed centered on the coasts, and particularly the north east coast. This does mean that the people that work there look/act/behave more like north east coast people than ozarks people or great plains people or gulf coast people or whatever. They are also are over-educated white-collar types, so they look/act/feel more like that than blue collar types. They also live in big cities, and think/act/behave like people living in big eastern cities more than small town middle-America.

These things are true. So if you are a blue collar worker in a small town far from the coasts (or any of the three) then the nytimes/washingtonpost and network news will not inherently seem to match your viewpoints on things. Aalthough, since your living room IS the battlegrounds for those networks...they will TRY to. But the inherent leanings are probably going to be a bit different... and to the extent that there are conservative interests, it will be Bill Buckley and Milton Friedman type conservative viewpoints more naturally than Bill O'Reilly and Sarah Palin types.

HOWEVER. this inherent positioning is one thing... the uuber whine-fest that has grown over recent years is another. The press is a highly competive industry that is financially being hammered by the onset of the intranet. They are profit maximizers, and their industry positioning and profitability is dependent upon basically 2 things, their credibility and their ability to unearth stories faster/better than their rivals. Even if you think that the media executives all would LIKE Obama to win... to think that they would be able to maintain a cartel of inhibiting anti-Obama stories is pure tin-hat looniness.

From the basic idea that the media is coast-centered, emergess the downright ridiculous shield of completely disregarding information that emerges from the "MSM" while simultaneusly completely devouring totally loony crackpot drivel that dribbles out from the edges from completely unvetted and un-accountable blogs and whatnot.

Conservative pundits gleefully use this issue like they hae a blank check on an infinite account... when in act they have a few nickels and pennies jingling around in their pockets