May 03, 2005
Death Spiral of the MSMNewspaper readership and network news viewing has, of course, been on the decline for quite some time, but I believe that this news story is the shape of things to come:
NEW YORK (AP)Circulation fell 1.9 percent at major U.S. newspapers in the six-month period ending in March, an industry group reported Monday, marking one of the worst declines in recent years.
Technology has taken its toll, but I believe that the rank, leftwing bias of the MSM has also played a large part. As a for-instance, my major local paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal; I've not read that paper in nearly a year, and the editorial board of the paper is actually center-right...but the "news" items are filled with leftwing bias because they are largely the result of unfilitered MSM wire-service reports.
As I've detailed time and again over at our sister site Blogs for Bush in the "What Media Bias?" series, it isn't necessarily the facts reported, but how they are reported which turns the stomach. Things like this report about Tom Delay's fundraising results. It is headlined "Delay Borrows $100,000 for Re-election Campaign", when the actual story is that Delay had raised vastly more money, even absent the borrowing, than he ever had before. This indicates the nature of the problem with the MSM...and why more and more people are tuning out. Someday, perhaps, the MSM will understand that if they'd just report the news straight and treat the American people as adults then they'd regain respect and viewers/readers...but I don't look for such a day to happen.
Hat Tip: Drudge Report
Posted by Mark Noonan on May 3, 2005 04:05 AM
Comments
My question is that on average the numbers are droping but that is the average. It is likely there is one that grow during that time and some that saw major drops. Can we see if it is just the inet killing newpapers based on breakdowns or that the more left the paper the harder hit they have become.
Robert
Posted by: Robert M ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.gopbloggers.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 3, 2005 02:16 PM
We clearly see by the new PBS plan to reduce liberal bias at their network how the leftist reporting has taken its toll on the MSM pocketbooks. Ultimately, center-right leaning competititors to FOX will begin to pop up and challenge that networks near monopoly of conservative television news viewership, too.
The same will logically happen with news wire services, as well. The demand for this will be seen when a rival to AP or Reuters International comes along with center or center-right reporting that begins to cut into their market share. As conservative media outlets continue to grow in television and print news, so will the demand for news reports from reliable sources without leftist bias.
Yes, it's only a matter of time for such a reality to emerge as the pendulum swinging to the right gains ratings and subscription momentum in the face of unprecedented MSM financial failures. Too much money is at stake for this reality not to happen, as the educated public has grown too savvy to fall for the bogus MSM claims of objectivity anymore.
Therefore, as we have seen by so many bias scandals after bias scandals, the leftwing media is bleeding profusely. As this continues, you'd better believe there will be plenty of journalists jumping off the sinking MSM ship to board the lifeboats heading off to the right's bias fighting news machine.
Posted by: madzionist at May 3, 2005 02:28 PM
i love to read the newspaper... but my choices are the very thin county papers or THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
(take a guess if i have a subscription)
Posted by: Troll at May 3, 2005 03:28 PM
I wouldn't say it's in a death spiral, but newspapers are starting to decline. Much of this is technology based, with the improvement of internet news sources. But I for one have tired of much of newspapers focus on negative news and Democratic bias. I'd like to see a survey how many papers went with Kerry in last year's election versus Bush, I'll bet it was a substantial edge. That would show how out of touch papers are with Americans and their political tendencies.
Expect the trends to continue until the papers correct the apparent issue of bias. They may be able to stop the bleeding if they do.
Posted by: WK at May 4, 2005 03:40 AM
