TV is bad
Frank Rich has a great point here, and it's something I've wanted to mention for a while.
Obviously one of the great issues these days is the Fox News, and the fox news effect, and I think it's pretty clear that he who controls (or they who control?) the media control the electorate (ooh - that means you're heading for more trouble, Italian friends!).
But here's my sure-fire way for a cable news network to get great ratings:
Do the opposite.
The genius of fox news is that they (apart from being all blingy and shiny and graphically punchy, if not actually well-designed) went after a market that was feeling underserved. Now without getting into the whole 'is the mainstream media liberal' thing (see Eric Alterman etc.) there were clearly a bunch of folks who felt that they were not getting what they wanted from their news (right wing lies, but I digress). So Fox went right to make money and get market share. And the other networks saw the huge ratings and thought they wanted some of that, so they went right too. But the country is split 50-50 (ish). So Fox moved in and got the red 50%. But if CNN and MSNBC and the networks move right also, they're all just carving up 50% of that pie. So - someone needs the balls to move left. Because 50 goddamned percent of us here need the news too. If CNN went left, and I don't even mean my left, I just mean kinda left, they would pick up the blue 50%, and ratings would go wheeeeee! up.
Hear that, Ted Turner/George Soros?
The Nascar Nightly News: Anchorman Get Your Gun
Obviously one of the great issues these days is the Fox News, and the fox news effect, and I think it's pretty clear that he who controls (or they who control?) the media control the electorate (ooh - that means you're heading for more trouble, Italian friends!).
But here's my sure-fire way for a cable news network to get great ratings:
Do the opposite.
The genius of fox news is that they (apart from being all blingy and shiny and graphically punchy, if not actually well-designed) went after a market that was feeling underserved. Now without getting into the whole 'is the mainstream media liberal' thing (see Eric Alterman etc.) there were clearly a bunch of folks who felt that they were not getting what they wanted from their news (right wing lies, but I digress). So Fox went right to make money and get market share. And the other networks saw the huge ratings and thought they wanted some of that, so they went right too. But the country is split 50-50 (ish). So Fox moved in and got the red 50%. But if CNN and MSNBC and the networks move right also, they're all just carving up 50% of that pie. So - someone needs the balls to move left. Because 50 goddamned percent of us here need the news too. If CNN went left, and I don't even mean my left, I just mean kinda left, they would pick up the blue 50%, and ratings would go wheeeeee! up.
Hear that, Ted Turner/George Soros?
The Nascar Nightly News: Anchorman Get Your Gun
posted by chiniqua at 12:49 PM
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