Fox News ratings decline six months in a row.....

[Lanternlight]

www.mediabistro.com/tvnew..._20939.asp (http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/fncs_2554_prime_downward_spiral_20939.asp)

Meanwhile, CNN's ratings have rebounded a bit. Not that this is all that significant, but given that some posters seem to think that Fox's popularity means that the American people embrace every aspect of the conservative agenda, this new ratings report may give one pause. And may gave some of us a bit of a more optimistic outlook. :D

[manskater]

Lanternlight - I believe most people are getting sick of their tabloid reporting.:rolleyes

[4dogknight]

I read an article last week or was it the week before, that covered the loss of viewers for all 'news' programs. I know I saved the article but now I can't find the article to save my soul.

It could be the weather, that time of the year or it could be that people are just plain tired of watching 'news' programs. I don't watch the local or national news any longer and I stopped my subscriptions to local newspapers, Newsweek and Time several years ago. I do get the New York Times, Washington Post and the LA Times plus a couple of European papers via the internet and that serves me well enough. I think that covers the news well enough.

I have no favorite columnist or commentator other than Edward R Morrow, from my formative years.

Or perhaps the ratings are skewed. Or maybe, just maybe the pendulum is swinging again!

4dk

[Grace]

I hate watching the news. I'd rather read informative blog sites, listen to various talk shows (on both sides) to get a more information than the stuff they throw at us that they think is "news". Half of the stuff they talk about these days are almost like advertisements. Newspapers, newscasts particularly in the United States, all use forms of "framing" into skewing viewers into believing something happened a certain way, and brainwashing them a bit. They do say the facts, but not ALL the facts.

And it's all about the ratings - the sponsors that pay for the advertising have some sort of agenda. They pick one topic and run with it. I remember the year with Danielle Vandam(sp) and kidnappings seemed to be happening right and left (as the news would have liked me to believe) and statistic wise, that year was no different than any other year except for the fact that the news decided to actually broadcast them.

Ah well.... that's our society for you.

-Grace

[4dogknight]

Interesting article in usatoday:

Journalists, public on different pages (http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2005-05-24-media-mix_x.htm)

{snip}
"A national survey of 673 journalists and 1,500 adults finds a wide disconnect between journalists and the public — both in their views of journalism and in their personal views.
At a time when journalism missteps have become almost routine, the survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania also reveals a large gap between how well journalists and the public think news organizations do in admitting mistakes: 74% of journalists said outlets quickly report serious errors, while only 30% of the public does.

That finding concerns Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication. "You expect there to be inaccuracy in journalism. It is a human enterprise, and working on deadline and in a world filled with ambiguity, there are bound to be some things wrong. But you want the public to believe that when journalism gets something wrong, it works aggressively and quickly to correct it."

Ongoing media attention to journalistic foibles may "ironically be causing the public to think there is more of a problem in journalism than there really is," she says."

Read the remainder of the article for more information.

4dk