(ikmage via textually)
The central theme of last night's convention was media bashing. Liberal media didn't have a good night. Senator McCain, who has "soured on his media base" is using The Chattering Classes as a rallying cry to secure his conservative base, give his running mate some red meat (non-moose) to chew on, and probably make some inroads among the independents in pennsylvania and Ohio and Michigan. It is indeed interesting that Governor Palin used the words "small town" and "average" in the same breath as she was attacking the media crowd. What does Steve Schmidt know about swing states and the media elite that we don't know?
"Chants of: 'NBC! NBC! NBC!' broke out when Palin took her shot at the media," wrote Kevin Merida at 10:45 last night on the WashPo blog. FishbowlDc Twitters, "Legitimate or not, Tom Brokaw cannot be happy with delegates screaming anti-NBC chants last night." No, he cannot.
MSNBC's decision to go left has -- if the rumors are to be believed -- caused a rift between the NBC newsie culture and the cable people. It is a difficult and uncharted path to navigate, to be sure. How does NBC News retain its objectivity -- or at least approximation of objectivity -- while its cable side veers leftward?
From a business standpoint, MSNBC -- which ratingswise is challenged -- really didn't have much of a choice. The political real estate left of center was wide open. Fox News Channel, which operates on the right, is doing well, showing what a "partisan" cabler can do.
Business decisions -- especially those that interfere in the pursuit of journalistic integrity -- are usually roundly criticized. That's probably unfortunate in today's changing media landscape. But MSNBC -- originally a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC -- isn't quite a vehicle for quality journalism.
No comments:
Post a Comment