Coals to Newcastle
The normally level-headed Bull Moose has some strange advice for CNN: "Keep the serious reportage - but eliminate the dull and dry. And dare to be explicitly left of center!"
His advice is based on the premise that in order to compete with Fox News, which is regularly slamming CNN in the ratings, the latter needs to figure out a way to attract more of the 57 million Americans who voted for Kerry. His arithmetic may be right, but his logic confuses me, as he seems to contend that the real problem is that CNN (and the networks) just aren't "explicitly liberal" enough to attract that audience.
I suspect that the majority of Americans -- those who didn't vote for Kerry -- would disagree with the Moose's assessment...but wouldn't necessarily ask him to change his advice. Nothing will help to ensure a continued growth in conservative political power than an increased liberal slant to mainstream media (if, indeed, that's even possible).
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"The right would respond to this statement by arguing that these Americans already enjoy access to the "liberal" mainstream media. But the Moose counters that these outlets are hardly as explicitly liberal as Fox News is brazenly conservative."
The right would also appreciate it if Mr. Moose backed that assertion up with some documentation. The mainstream media is notoriously biased and in predominantly one direction. Taking my own advice, I'll refer doubters to the watchdog group AIM (Accuracy In Media).
Even if CNN took Mr. Moose's advice it still would fail to differentiate itself from the explicitly left-of-center ABC, CBS, and MSNBC. Mr. Moose is correct that "CNN has a potential audience in the 57 million or so Americans who voted for Kerry." Problem is they already have to share that audience with at least three other networks. Fox doesn't.
If CNN became even more biased and more liberal than it already is, it wouldn't measurably change the kind of coverage people already get from almost all of the mainstream media sources.
Posted by: Mr. Freen at December 1, 2004 05:53 PM