Mainstream media
Contents
Definition
Controversy exists over the meaning and definition of the terms Mainstream Media or its acronym MSM[1]. Some consider the mainstream media to consist primarily of those media organs that existed in the United States of America prior to 1987, and especially any of those media organs that continue to exist today. Others take a view that the term 'mainstream', no matter the context, simply refers to 'that which is most popular'.
Fairness Doctrine
In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to revoke, and cancel their enforcement of, the Fairness Doctrine. That doctrine mandated that if any opinion considered "controversial" were ever discussed on the public airwaves, the station over which that opinion aired was required to give equal time to any person wishing to reply. However, the FCC never set a standard about interpretations of current events that might be disputable, nor even examined that issue.
With the revocation of the Fairness Doctrine, radio and television stations were now permitted to air any opinion or interpretation of the news, no matter how "controversial," without regard to the giving of "equal time."
On August 1, 1988, a new radio commentator named Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting in national syndication. The alternative media was born.
List of mainstream media organs
Some consider the mainstream media to consist of the following outlets:
Newspapers
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
- The Boston Globe
- The Philadelphia Inquirer
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- The Los Angeles Times
- The San Francisco Chronicle
- USA Today
- The Wall Street Journal[2]
- All major, standard-newspaper-format dailies that have existed since before the Fairness Doctrine repeal.
News Syndication Agencies
Television
Some consider Fox News to not be "mainstream media", because they are frequently present a different viewpoint to many of the above news outlets. For example, the Democratic presidential candidates will not appear on presidential debates hosted by Fox News, but they will appear on other news outlets.
Others consider Fox News very much part of the Mainstream Media, as, according to ratings organisation Nielsen:
- Fox News has 9 of the 10 most viewed shows on Cable TV News in Dec 2006
- Fox News mean peaktime viewing figures are triple that of MSNBC, and double that of CNN
- "In 2006, more than half the people watching cable news were watching Fox News" [1]
Quotes
CBS
In 2006 CBS.com wrote an article on blogs [3] which accurately describes the conservative view of the MSM:
The blog format is only a couple of years old. But already, there's a tension between many bloggers and what they derisively call the MSM, the mainstream media. "They don't believe that you are unbiased, objective, fair a lot of times. And so what they want is they want to read a lot of different sources themselves. because they don't trust the mainstream media…that would be ya'll," says Darr.
CNN
In 2006 CNN.com has an article from columnist R. Emmett Tyrell Jr. entitled "Tyrell: Goodbye MSM... and good riddance!" [4] The article talks about the alternative press vs the MSM:
So we hear this week that President George W. Bush is taking delight in the spread of the "alternative press" (read conservatives on the internet, in talk radio, in print, and at Fox) and the gentle detumesence of "mainstream media" (read liberal media, or more precisely, Democratic media). Well I join him in his satisfaction.
References and notes
Liberal uses of the term 'mainstream media' - [2], [3], [4]
- ↑ Both Conservatives and Liberals use the acronym MSM to describe the mainstream media
- ↑ The inclusion of The Wall Street Journal might strike some media observers as strange, until one remembers that, though its editorial board is conservative on most issues (except for immigration), its city room is definitely liberal in orientation and coverage of the news.
- ↑ Brave New Blogging World
- ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/02/tyrrell.msm/index.html?iref=newssearch
