Thursday, February 17, 2005

The Media, old and new!

For some odd reason I have always been fascinated by the media. Well maybe not always but for as long as I can remember, say over the past thirty years or so.

I am a very literal person by nature and enjoy writing and reading so I suppose this enhances my predilection towards journalism. Which translates to: I suck at algebra but can write a decent essay.

So again the media is something of a hobby of mine. It seems that we are living in a time of great transition with the media. It is changing and has changed in a BIG way over the past 20 years and is still evolving. This my friends has had a tremendous impact on the USA and entire world for that matter.

If you think back just 30 years or so ago we had three major commercial networks on TV and a public station in each town I suppose. The news we were fed came from people we got to know and even trust. Our news also came from our local newspapers and some larger papers such at the NY Times and Wall Street Journal. Then the USA Today came along and we really got a fresh look at the events happening around the globe. We also got CNN with cable TV. Many of us were fascinated and couldn't get enough of the news 24/7.

What so many of us did not realize at the time was that 99% of these news organizations were not just reporting the news to us but they were following an agenda that was formed in newsrooms where a left or liberal mentality ruled. Perhaps they thought they were being objective and just reporting news as it were but we have learned that it was not the case. They or the large majority of them in fact were NOT objective and were trying to influence the public to see things from their perspective.

Then came talk radio, the internet and low and behold FOX news.

Now many of the folks (our friends) on the left believe in karma and the balance of the universe, a yin and the yang, kind of thing. The positive and negative, good and evil if you will. When things go out of balance in nature the earth has a way of dealing with it.

So goes the media.

The popularity of talk radio of which we all know is dominated by conservative hosts was just the media filling the void naturally. The left had dominated it so long that a conservative point of view was almost no where to be found. The balance was way out of kilter and then came Rush Limbaugh. It is my opinion that this man, like him or not, carried the weight of the conservative world on his shoulders for many years and his show alone began the onslaught of the current state of talk radio. The amazing thing is he is still on top of that medium with 20 million listeners.

Now it gets even more interesting.

The internet has also had a tremendous influence on our media culture. The way we are able to access news at any moment from all over the world and from any perspective have given many people a new outlook on what transpires in our country and around the world. Blogging is turning out to have a big impact as well.

Guess what? Politics have been greatly affected by this! Yes my friends in case you didn't know politics in America have changed. There has been a big shift in power from Democratic dominance in the legislature to a Republican (conservative) dominated Washington.

Let's connect the dots. For more than 40 years Democrats (liberals) ruled Washington in the Congress and Senate. For more than 40 years Democrats (liberals) ruled the airwaves and news papers.

The came the 90's. Talk radio erupted and Limbaugh began reaching people, people who vote.

The Republicans won the House in 1994 with Newt Gingrich as the speaker and the Contract with America was born. Talk radio grew and more and more conservative voices were heard across America. People began to correspond across the internet and discuss politics. In my opinion the left may have taken notice and doubled their efforts on the national news scale. People like Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Ted Turner pushed even harder to get their liberal message out. Case in point the latest election. (Is it just me or did people like Dan Rather and others use their national news programs to try and defeat George W. Bush?)

BAM!

Fox news came along and blew them all out of the water. Why, becuase they were able to present both the conservative and liberal side of the message. Republicans in turn have won the House and Senate as well as the majority of gubernatorial races across the country and finally again took back the White House.

So there it is, the parallels are there, the dots have been connected. It is a brave new world in the USA because the message is out. Liberals no longer control the media machine, you can have either point of view you choose and this country has chosen.

What say you?

(Sorry Bill, couldn't help myself)

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