The Decline and Fall of the Old Media

Morning after morning, for years now, I have opened my morning newspaper with dread. The Left Wing propaganda, which saturates its contents, plays havoc with the digestion of my breakfast. My blood pressure consistently spikes, at inhuman readings, as I peruse their editorial page(s). The liberal tripe, within their publication, stokes the fires of conservatism and solidifies my belief that only conservatives live in the real world, not the dream-like Utopia of the Left.

I usually wind-up pushing back the paper, in disgust, and heading straight for the computer and the Internet. At least there, I will find competing opinions, from both the left and the right, of American politics.

My part of the country (The Southeastern US) is still in the throws of re-inventing itself. This used to be farm country with fields of grain, and tobacco, along side our highways stretching from the ditch bank, flanking each side of the thoroughfare, to the distant horizon, in both directions.

No longer.

The main cash crop has been determined to be “politically incorrect” and families who have depended on it’s selling price to feed, cloth, and educate their little ones have left the farm, and in many cases, the entire state, in a search for employment.

Our state is controlled by a handful of political hacks that wield their power over the state as a medieval landowner would his serfs. The entire state has become”serfdom”.

Oh, but why do the residents condone such a system, you may ask. Because, dear reader, they don’t know it exists. And those that do are either powerless to do anything about it, or, are somehow, connected to the cabal which hold the reins of power.

The same clique controls the state’s university system with liberal theory being taught throughout. Our great university is referred to as the “Vatican of Liberalism”.

The press, for the most part, acts as the mouthpiece of the hacks who control the state.

The major publications in the state are liberal. If accused of it... they will deny it profusely, and continue to publish their liberal news and views as though there is no tomorrow.

I have concluded that the newspapers have come to believe their own propaganda… that they are not biased. How else can one explain their continued practice of unashamedly slanting stories so that the political left comes through as the “good guy”. Yet, the majority of the people of the state are conservative. The people of North Carolina voted for Bush, over Kerry/Edwards, even though Edwards is a long time resident of the state.

My state is, far and away, a conservative state. Can you imagine how well a conservative newspaper would fare in this state? Even a regional daily, conservative publication, would drain the subscribers of the liberal papers in a few years.

But why stop with a conservative publication in a single state? Why not have a national conservative newspaper? Fox News Channel has proven conservatives are out here and are willing to support a conservative news organization.

But, then, newspapers are the “Old” Media right? Yep! Nobody wants to put money into anything, which is built on the Old Media. Well, small town weeklies seem to be hanging on. But theirs is usually community news, and obits, and wedding pictures, and such. Seldom does really hard news mar the print of their headlines. I expect they will outlive the regional papers.

The major publications are suffering. Subscriptions are way down. Why? Not much of a question, really. Folks are turning to the Internet for their news. I can instruct a search engine to pull up all conservative news outlets and then I can take my pick. I can read the news without having a temper tantrum, or a stroke! That alone is priceless.

There really is such a thing as balance in news reporting. Very few actually practice it, but it is a trait much admired by consumers of news.

It’s a shame that fine publications can’t recognize their own salvation lies in the practice of “balance” in their publications.

They continue to publish, and broadcast, with their own biases, front and center, while they remain blind to them. At least that is the conclusion we are asked to draw, because we know they surely do not include bias in their reporting. We know this… because they have told us. And yet, they continue to produce news products which seem intent on impressing their brothers and sisters in the same media, and in the process, actually offer nothing of substance, or use, to their consuming public.

And they wonder why their ratings are down and their subscriptions are down???

Longstreet