Reply #11: Don't let them shape the debate before it even starts [View All]

to "jump into a debate over whether the media is liberal or conservative" .... is to lose before you even begin. You've let them shape and frame the debate.

The best approach, imo, is to say that the media (mass media is what I assume you are talking about) can't be pigeon-holed by those two terms. What do those two terms mean anyway? But, this is how the right-wing shapes the debate on this. They give you two choices: liberal or conservative. Only two choices. I don't know if you saw the recent psychiatric study about these people, where it concluded that they like to see things in "black and white", right and wrong, and "evil doers" and good people. It's the same here with "liberal and conservative."

When someone starts this with me, I always say that the media is neither. Rather, it's almost ALL a corporate or business media. This media will promote the ideas of the people who own it and control it. Check out Chomsky and Herman's book "Manufacturing Consent." This only makes logical sense. The big corporations that own the big media are generally going to report those things that help their interests. This only makes sense, and people usually agree with it.

Anybody who has ever worked in a sizable organization (and that's quite a few people) knows what happens if you take positions or speak out with political positions that are not the same as your bosses or that happen to be adverse to the organization (or corporation). Anybody who has worked for a sizable corporation knows what happens to those who speak out, or protest in political marches. Editors and publishers know this, too.

The mass media chooses those editors and publishers who reflect and who understand and who will do what the big bosses and owners want. If they don't do it enough, or put "undesirable stories in too much, then they get replaced with another person who is more "right-thinking."

As a result, mass media promotes the business interests as opposed to working peoples' interests.

So, to get sucked into a debate of liberal vs conservative is to lose before you begin. That's what the business interests and media want you to debate because it keeps the focus off the real debate, all while putting forth the illusion that there are competing interests and that the press if "free". Try changing the premise of the debate at the outset and saying "it's not really a liberal vs conservative thing, ... rather, it's a big business/corporate agenda vs. a working peoples ' interest." There are countless examples of this everyday in the media, and it's much easier to persuade people, imho. Many stories of corporate corruption are not told while we have to see on tv kobe bryant and peterson, or celebrity gossip, etc. The big media don't generally want to report on the corporate payoffs, corporate welfare, etc.