Media

Hardly a month will go by without some sort of lament from journalists about how their customers are fading away. People are finding other sources for their news, and the ranks of the faithful have been disappearing at an ever increasing rate.

This news article reports that circulation fell about 2.5% in the past 6 months, which is one of the worst periods for the industry in the past 20 years.

Most of the stories I’ve read about this trend blame wanton bias on the part of the readers. The common wisdom seems to be that people will turn away from news sources that actually tells it like it is, and instead they’ll seek out comforting news venues which will reinforce their own slanted vision of the world. It’s remarkable that the Reuters article to which I linked avoids doing this.

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Another government-backed-media controversy. Of course when there’s any question of bias in the other direction, most (all?) of the critics cited in connection with this PBS dispute are only too happy to live with the status quo.

These conflicts cannot be resolved. Privatization is the only solution that respects everyone involved, including most especially the taxpayers who are forced to pay for these government-media circuses.

Der Spiegel describes the weekly Al Quaida show:

The producers of “Voice of the Caliphate” have gone to great lengths to make the show look professional and to project the image that they are informed. A station-logo, sub-titles, and flashing text all appear on screen, as does the box — standardized by reputable news shows — above the anchorman’s shoulder displaying a picture to go with the news item being presented.

Of course, the repeated clips of suicide bombings & training camps, the announcer in a black mask with a Koran & rifle on the desk might mean the viewer wouldn’t confuse this with MSM. If that wasn’t a give-away, then referring to the behind-the-scenes workers as “God’s sword,” or the “Approaching Dawn” might be another clue.

Florida Cracker and With Cheese brings us the story of a college newspaper that was the victim of an anti-war hoax.

For two years the paper published letters supposedly written by a little girl whose father was serving in Iraq. Some of the letters were also addressed to President Bush, taking him to task for invading Iraq in the first place. The only problem is that the father didn’t exist and the little girl was an imposter. It took so long for the hoax to be uncovered because none of the paper’s staff thought to confirm anything.

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John at Power Line has posted a great essay where he discusses the role the American media has assumed in the War on Terror. He points out that the constant emphasis on casualties in Iraq with no strategic or tactical perspective is, to say the least, counterproductive.

“We are conducting an experiment never before seen, as far as I know, in the history of the human race. We are trying to fight a war under the auspices of an establishment that is determined–to put the most charitable face on it–to emphasize American casualties over all other information about the war.”

Go read the whole thing. It’s well worth your time.

Also worth your time is this account from Michael Yon of a firefight in Iraq. Stuff like this should be on the front page of every newspaper in America. Instead we get big headlines about the casualties, and nothing else.

(My thanks to loyal reader Robert Schwartz for the heads up.)