Friday, June 02, 2006

Good News Versus Bad News

Jumping off from this discussion over at Big Tent, this post at The Plank especially caught my eye. I love the intro lines: "Most of the "good news from Iraq that the MSM won't tell you" blogs defy parody. (Against intensifying sectarian mayhem, we have ... newly painted schools.)"


For what it is worth, here was my comment over at Big Tent:

Would someone please tell me what the "mainstream media" is? Seriously. It has become the latest talking point used in place of the equally daffy "liberal media" and the left's just-as-dumb equivalent, the "corporate media." These phrases are accusations, not descriptions.

Take the tinfoil out of your pith helmets, folks. There is no media conspiracy. There isn't even a single media (thus the plural), and so to lump it all together and then claim that we are all victims of its agenda is just plain silly, not to mention factually wrong.

2 comments:

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

I always assumed mainstream media was largely a reference to the technical format itself, such as the more long-standing print and televised versions that have - especially in the case of the larger and more prominent outlets - been undeniably affected by a newer internet and blogosphere whose relevance was perhaps first realized with the Drudge Report's Lewinsky-gate utterances.

i.e. not too long ago given the historical timeline of print and televised media and the major players among them.

As far as the "mainstream" or "corporate" labels mean anything in terms of a political vangage point, would you be making the same case were the prominence of FOX news not a relatively recent phenomenon?

Tom said...

I tried to answer your question at Big Tent.