Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
I've been ruminating on the term "mainstream media." And I'm extremely bothered by it.
Dorothy Rabinowitz has penned a brilliant piece in the Wall Street Journal regarding the (so-called) MSM's always shameful but now open and shameless cheer leading for Obama (or perhaps more accurately, its cheer leading against Romney). A sample:
By the time the presidential campaign had ended four years ago, the media's role in driving the outcome had become a fact too obvious to dispute. The impact of the journalistic horde's devotion to the Democratic candidates was clear, the evidence vivid—especially in the case of reporters transported to a state of ecstasy over candidate Obama's speeches. One New York Times reporter wrote of being so moved he could barely keep from weeping. Not for nothing did the role of the press become a news story in itself—an embarrassing one that might, serious people thought, serve as a caution during future campaigns.
In 2012 Barack Obama is no longer delivering thrilling speeches, but an unembarrassed press corps is still available, in full prosecutorial mode when it comes to coverage of the Republican challenger. If you hadn't heard the story about Mitt Romney's bullying treatment of another student during his prep-school days—1965, that is—the Washington Post had a story for you, a lengthy investigative piece. On the matter of Mr. Obama's school records, locked away and secured against investigation, the press maintains a serene incuriosity.
We have grown accustomed to calling these people -- the ones who populate ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR, the New York Times and other moribund daily newspapers and newsweeklies -- the "mainstream media," or "MSM." But they are not mainstream. Generally speaking, they are hard left activists, and as such represent only a sliver of the American population. We flatter them and do a great disservice to the American people when we call these people and their dreadful work "mainstream."
So, I am proposing that Ricochet start the movement to rename these scoundrels. (By the way, I hope we can do better than Sarah Palin's "lamestream media" phrase, which in my opinion is itself lame).
I'm looking for a relentlessly accurate title that can stick. Because I am a literalist (but not particularly literary), the best I've been able to come up with is the "Liberal Activists Pretending to Do Objective Reporting" Media, which is not only cumbersome but doesn't even pull off the "LAPDOG" acronym I was shooting for.
Let's start a movement. How would you name them?
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Comments:
Mar '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
DPSP – Democratic Party Steno Pool.
Jul '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Liberal Activist Media Entertainment
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
I just call them the liberal media.
Liberal Activist Media Bozos (LAMBs)
Jun '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Well alrighty, maybe LAME can work....
Apr '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Here in Denver, Mike Rosen (one of the local radio hosts) calls them "The Dominant Liberal Establishment Mass Media." He coined this phrase for exactly the reason you state in your post; that they are not, in fact, mainstream. It's a mouthful and there really isn't a way to make it any less verbally cumbersome but it does get right to the nub, does it not?
Jun '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
It does. Yet I hate to even cede those terms "dominant" and "establishment." While perhaps pejorative adjectives to insiders, they still suggest a sort of superiority that these rats should not be permitted to claim.
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
I love your post. This is a great idea.
Yes! So true. The term 'mainstream' gives them credibility that they do not deserve.
I like the meaning behind your 'lapdog' media term. It's a good visual, too. Similar is Michelle Malkin's use of the term 'drool bucket' to describe what the media needs when they cover Obama.
But I would suggest we just keep it simple and easy to understand, and just call them the 'liberal media.' 'Liberal activist media' would be a more accurate description, but is more of a mouthful. Short and sweet will probably have a better chance of catching on. Here on Ricochet we could start a movement.
Curious what other ideas are out there....
(By the way I have long cringed at Sarah Palin's term "lamestream" media -- it is childish-sounding, unserious, whiny, and trying too hard to be cute.)
Jun '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Leftymedia.
That's the term I use.
Aug '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
One of the writers over at Pajamas Media used the term "Kneepad Battalion" yesterday. Hee.
Jul '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Every news anchor should have a crawl running below their image with a disclosure of who they voted for in the last presidential race. Full Disclosure would go a long way toward exposing bias.
Sep '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
I call them either AlphabetSoup media (h/t Drudge circa 200?) or dinosaur media.
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Statist Media.
Today's major outlets are uniformly, relentlessly in favor of unconstrained government. The Constitution, to members of the SM, is a quaint document, authoritative only for establishing political and judicial offices and election timing. Otherwise it is a dead letter.
Feb '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
A few possibilities:
Jun '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Call them the Legacy Leftist Media, to differentiate them from the New Leftist Media. The difference being, the legacy leftists know how to write a political hit piece without using any vulgarity--a lost art on the left.
Aug '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Better yet, some enterprising young blogger needs to start a website dedicated to naming names. Every time a reporter lies to cover for Obama, or submits an opinion piece and tries to pass it off as news, post his name, the company he works for, and display his offense.
Name names. Shame them. Reveal them for who they are.
Go Breitbart on them.
Jun '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Over at Ace of Spades's place they call them the "MFM".
...I'm not sure what that stands for.
Jan '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Is Pravda taken already?
Dec '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Rush calls them "State Controlled Media" which is pretty much on the nose.
Dec '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Shoutingboy: Over at Ace of Spades's place they call them the "MFM".
...I'm not sure what that stands for. · 1 minute ago
Mother [Expletive Deleted] Media.
Also right on the nose.
Mar '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
The Ministries of Truth