TW: Following up on the media bias theme addressed yesterday, I post an article on Drudge. The focus is on the age old issue of whether the media tail is wagging the public's dog or vice versa. Ultimately they support my position that media is primarily chasing its primary bias, profits.
From the Financial Times:
"The Ashley Todd affair [the hoax in PA] was the latest in a series of failures by Mr Drudge to recapture the magic of the past, when the Drudge Report had an unrivalled grip on the media agenda. He has spent the past month blatantly cherry-picking poll results that favour John McCain, to the loud derision of Obama-supporting blogs...
The decline of Drudge is part of a broader shift in the US media, both old and new, towards the Democratic party. Unlike in the last two elections, when Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s strategist, expertly exploited the media’s short attention span and love of sensation, the Republican candidate has lost their affection and respect...
In fact, I think they are correct that the media currently tilt leftward in the US, but not for the obvious reason. It says less about the bias of “liberal elite” journalists and more about a breakdown of the established media order, from The New York Times to Mr Drudge.
Mr Drudge’s dominance has been undermined by competition. His sensibility infuriated so many people that left-leaning sites such as the Daily Kos sprung up to challenge him. Lately, his thunder has been stolen by the Huffington Post, an unlikely blend of leftwing blogging, reporting and aggregation founded by Arianna Huffington, the media gadfly...
The centre is no longer holding. “Having many voices is the natural state of the media. There was just a three-decade long exception in the US when city papers and networks dominated,” says Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and lecturer in journalism at City University of New York.
Just as Fleet Street swings left and right politically, depending on where it sees its commercial advantage, the US media have shifted left for a time, to mimic what they judge to be the country’s mood. When that mood swings back, so will the media."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e6628f2-a5ef-11dd-9d26-000077b07658.html
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