The media wars: notice how much of the estabishment media go beserk over the ratings of Fox News Channel [FNC]. There is a major subtext here. It is not about Fox's politics [moderately conservative populist if you average out the centrists and two right wing opinion shows and presume that North and Rivera cancel each other out]. It is not even about the Fox traditionalist cultural bias [they are far from theocrats but are the first TV media not to tilt to the left side of the US spectrum on cultural issues]. All of this is true and drives the Democratic pols bat bonkers. However what is really happening is that Fox has proven a point on the internal war at the media companies. Prior to WW2 most American news media were print. Radio was for entertainment and the occasional Presidential speech. These print media were essentially soap boxes for their owners and advertising media for local merchants. They were businesses. They had to make a profit. However in the manner of many private corporations they were not per se about profit maximizing. After WW2 many things changed. Print began a retreat before TV. TV took up people's time. It became their major source of entertainment and news. It soaked up major advertising dollars. Most local papers died. Today few cities have more than one newspaper. Many of those papers are part of national chains. Fewer people buy newspapers. Those who do tend to be older. Many buy so-called national papers [NYT, WSJ, USA Today] or super regionals [we get a Dallas paper offered at the local versions of 7-11 here in Tulsa - WP is available from north of Baltimore to south of Richmond, LA Times now runs from the Mexican border to north of Santa Barbara and out to Vegas]. Part of this was more news coming from TV and radio [more on this below]. Part of this was the death of local retailers. The little local store running local newspaper ads got bought out / run out by regionals who got bought out by nationals who do worldwide media campaigns. Easier to place these in national and world media. Easier to use visual media. Globalization changed the ad game and the revenue stream. Happening at the same time, the staffs of the papers and broadcast news departments professionalized. They sold management [a management increasingly of public companies which operate by different memes] that management couldn't dictate news [or soon even editorials]. This was professional news judgement. Reached its peak in Nixon's presidency. Network evening news shows were must watch TV and MAJOR money makers for the networks. That is why they got an hour instead of the former half hour. It is why the local stations started their own evening news hours. It was why news radio began which led to talk radio. The inmates ruled the asylum [people with jounalism degrees in what had been a blue collar profession] and ownership didn't decide on what news was [yes there were limits - pissing off major sponsors could have consequences as could attacking other business interests of ownership - thus Disney / Cap Cities / ABC would give fawning coverage to the latest Disney animated film but the Suits didn't dictate whether you cover a pro-life or pro-choice march as news]. However, the Corp Rats still live by short-term financial results [the old 20/25 rule et al]. So there was been a constant war over content - not the political slant but 'hard news' that the professionals want to do over 'soft news' that the viewers would actually pay to read / see / listen to. This is where FNC causes the foaming hatred. FNC took the rules of entertainment TV / talk radio and applied it to TV news. They picked a format. They test marketed people who could be comfortable vehicles for a format targeted at a particular market segment [traditional values, GOP voting - say 30-40% of the potential market - this segment was unserved as CNN, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC all ignored them culturally / politically while MSNBC, CNBC, Blumberg were all focused on day traders and rich elders who follow their portfolios]. It worked. It double worked. The double argument against this was that if any one set of management Corp Rats forced their professional news people to be unprofessional it would make the corporation 'look bad'. Murdoch and News Corp always 'looked bad'. He has been the Prince of Darkness for decades. The second half of the argument is that in addition to costing the meagcorp on the image side, the hip 20 somethings who actually buy media for the agencies wouldn't buy ads on unhip product regardless of the ratings. In today's advertisizng bust that doesn't hold. The agencies have to prove results not just image. The marketing departments of the corps have to do the same. O'Reilley may not deliver an audience that rates hip. However it rates massive and has better than median spending power. Enough Corp Rats have overruled their 20 something dressed all in black ex-art student media and marketing people...Actions will have consequences. Not the whole dial going FNC in content. A majority of the US doesn't watch O'Reilly by choice. The consequence is that news is just a product. Same as a new sitcom is. If the ratings aren't there change the format. If sitcom doesn't work in the time slot maybe you do a cop show. If hard news doesn't sell do baby animals or smut or...it is just fungible product with interchangeable 'talent'. The Suits and the Corp Rats won a BIG round here folks. Long live free enterprise...ROFLMAO.
Scott
posted by scott 9:15 AM