The Main Stream Media: don't kick them when they're down

CBS, NBC, ABC News
The big three use to dominate the news. Since cable news and the internet, less and less Americans get their news from these sources. Their ratings are in decline and there are numerous criticisms regarding the bias and their decision to ignore major stories of the past three years. These criticisms are all justified.

How does any news station ignore the Tea Party protests? How do they decide not to cover a demonstration in Washington D.C. that was estimated to include hundreds of thousands of people? How can they be so condescending and vicious in their coverage of Sarah Palin yet did nothing but throw softballs at Barack Obama during the campaign?

I could go on.

But really what are we doing? These news dinosuars are slowly dying. They are out of touch with the conservative parts of the country (which is over 40% of the country by the way), and they can no longer get away with their biases and internal agendas. And then we can look at the laughable Katie Couric and her pitiful intellect. I think we can conclude they are not as important as they think they are. Not anymore.

Cable News
What about CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC? Their ratings have been low for nearly a decade now. Their top anchors are consistently beaten by Fox News shows. Here again, we have big names with no low ratings. They use clever advertising and marketing to look important, groundbreaking, and in-depth but they are anything but. They are generic, unoriginal, and superficial.

Why is Fox News so successful? It is not because they are "groundbreaking" or particularly "in depth". It is because no other news station has opinion-based journalism from the right, and traditional journalism that is more objective and responsive to what is of interest to the non-ideological middle. In fact, Fox News has successfully found the top of the bell curve in this country, which is to the right of center. This country is more conservative than it is liberal. Is Fox News "fair and balanced"? Yes, but not in the way they mean. Are they particularly fair? Not really. Are they balanced? Probably a bit more than other stations but not perfectly balanced. But owhen you add Fox News to the spectrum of cable news stations and the big three (all center-left, and unobjective), it provides balance and a sense of fairness that was missing before. The country is better off having a Fox News.

I hear O'Reilly, Beck, Hannity, and others on Fox News continue to slam the main-stream media, but really, why waste so much time on the problems and inaccuracies of other stations? It is like criticizing the Detroit Lions for being an awful football team year after year. It is time we move on because Americans have been persuaded over the past ten years that traditional news is indeed bias, regardless of what they may purport to be. We know that now, and we know the Lions suck. Its not news anymore and not really interesting.

And what about the bias of Fox News? O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck tell you exactly what they think. They don't pretend that they are objective "journalists" simply reporting the news. So when one accuses them of being right-wing ideologues its not really a shock to their fans. We know who they are and what they believe. Try finding bias on the reporter side of Fox. Does anyone accuse Chris Wallace or Brett Baier of bias? What about Britt Hume? Megyn Kelly? Nope. All they can do is go after the easy targets.

It is bad for a free country to be so suspicious of the press. It is also not good for press organizations to expend time and effort toward criticizing one another. It should not be so divisive. It is my hope that the Fox News competitors adapt to the change in media rather than following the same path into ratings oblivion. It is also my hope Fox News personalities move on from their usual attacks on the main-stream media. They are easy targets.