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• Saturday, May 10, 2008 09:06 AM

  Capitulating to the government may be seens as a 'liberal' media impulse

  Regarding the Scott Collins comments: The public understands that powerful forces (advertisers in particular) manipulate news coverage and control what appears in print. They know this because they have disputes with major advertisers, yet they can't interest their local newspaper in exposing the criminality of, say, the local car dealer who sells rebuilt wrecks without disclosure, even if they sue the dealer and win a huge settlement.

  So the public can cynically dismiss the media's unwillingness to cover substantive news by accusing the media of bowing to those with economic or political power. But the public doesn't understand this as a conservative impulse. Surrender is never a conservative impulse, at least not according to the myths of conservatism that I'm currently reading about in Glenn's excellent book.

  This story lacks legs because covering it would require the news channels to disclose their production processes, and they're not really aware of how much distance there is between "production" and "reporting."

  After all, broadcast news is not a "reporting" process, it's a "production" process. No information is required to fill air time, only speakers and analysts are required. TV shows aren't backed up by reporters, much, they're run by "producers." These producers are merely doing their jobs by filling up air time with newslike stuff, and the Pentagon made it really easy for them to book speakers for their air time.

  —overlander Read overlander's other letters
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