The Last Gasp Of The Dead Tree Media Will Be A Liberal Cliche

I cannot imagine that there is any other sector of the economy that is so contemptuous of its customer base than the mainstream news. The media regularly offend roughly half of those who might purchase their products. At a time when newspapers are suffering declines in circulation and advertising revenues, the only adjustment they can imagine is cost cutting. Why not consider producing a more attractive product?
Adapting to market demands is essential to success. When Edsels didn’t sell, Ford took them off the market. They didn’t offer a cheaper, stripped down version.
Is it possible that newspapers might sell better if they offered a product that appealed to a wider audience? How about presenting a more balanced view of events so that both sides of the political spectrum could find something appealing? It doesn’t have to be conservative, just less anti-American and more honest.
Here is how the media turns many of their customers off.
When amateur photos taken inside Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were leaked to the press, the story stayed on the front page for weeks. But, when Al Qaida torture chambers were liberated, the news was generally accessible only on the websites of a few independent embedded reporters.
In June of last year, as the surge was really getting underway, the US Army came upon the town of al Ahamir and found it completely empty of life. Not a man, woman or child could be found among the houses. Even the livestock were missing. It was a ghost town. The stench of decay led searchers to shallow graves. As US and Iraqi soldiers approached the village, al Qaida had exterminated every single living being before fleeing. You didn’t read about that in your newspaper, did you?
The al Ahamir killing fields were just 3.5 miles from where several reporters were staying, yet none made the trip to see for themselves. Other than freelance reporter Michael Yon’s online magazine, stories about al Ahamir appeared nowhere. Michael Yon offered his reporting free to any newspaper and none accepted. But how often have you read second hand reports about US caused civilian casualties that our enemies spread?
Do the media really believe that Americans only want to believe the worst about their military? And why do they conceal the true depths of our enemy’s depravity?
A recent public opinion poll revealed that four of five Americans believe that their country is on the wrong track. Considering the unrelenting negative slant on the news that they read in their newspapers, that’s hardly surprising. And it really is a slant. Consider these statistics. In March of 1996, the unemployment rate was 5.5%. Today, it is 5.1%. The number of long term unemployed Americans in 1996 was 1.33 million. Today only 1.28 million fall into that category. The median term of unemployment in 1996 was 8.3 weeks. Today the jobseeker can expect to find a job after 8.1 weeks. The pool of Americans who have given up looking for work in March of 1996 numbered 451,000. Today that number is 401,000.
The 1996 data were touted by the media as proof that America was enjoying a robust economy. Today one cannot pick up a newspaper without reading that we are on the precipice of an economic abyss. And while nobody would argue that our economy is currently healthy, a couple of years ago the economy was smoking hot. Nevertheless, even then a plurality of Americans believed that we were in a recession because the mainstream press reported little but bad news. At least half of most newspaper’s potential customer base knows full well that the one economic statistic that colors media thinking is that, in 1996, a Democratic president was seeking reelection, while in 2008 the media are rooting for a change of party in the White House.
What evidence is there that Americans want to believe that the war in Iraq is lost? Do Americans really want to be told that their military is cruel and incompetent? Is there such a thing as good economic news? Why keep printing the dead tree version of Edsels when the market has rejected it?
I think Americans might want to read something uplifting now and then. They might even buy a newspaper that printed it. But, just as Hollywood continues to pour out anti-war movies even though such movies bomb at the box office, the media only know one way to do business. After all, everybody they know thinks the same way they do.