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:
Feb '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Lets stick to a single theme here: If I have to pick one, the last one
Jul '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Actually, what we need is for some of these millionaire conservatives to BUY one of the "traditional" outlets - and make it conservative. That would be a great competitor and match for things like Fox News Network.
Inherently there is nothing wrong with media being left OR right. We have a "modern" sense of what media should be, but it isn't a historic one. What has been lacking for years is clearly opposing media to the left message. They managed to corner the media market a long time ago, and it has been hard to break the deadlock. It has essentially been a monopoly that unfortunately could not be broken in the usual monopoly breaking methods. But historically there has always been a deeply committed press to particular positions, which they promulgated with vigor. Such media would be great to have again. Then we could dump the whole idea that "journalists" are "objective".
Jul '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
How something simple and truthful : ' COMMERCIAL news organizations'.
Edited on September 19, 2012 at 1:07amJun '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
The Populist Media.
or The Populist Leftist Media PLM.
It is populism that sells - bite-sized opinions that don't require chewing. Swallow it whole, rile-em-up, scare-em and seduce-em.
Edited on September 19, 2012 at 1:15amThat's what sells. It is as true for Hannity and Dobbs as it is for Maddow and O'Donnel. Critical analysis? As long as you don't think critically about it.
Dec '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
I like the terms.
Mass Media Wannabe's , We don't do market share anymore. No one watches us any more but we are still important.
or
The Legacy Media
Edited on September 19, 2012 at 1:09amSep '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Meretricious Media.
Jul '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Like the man said, "Let's not call them anything; let's just ignore them."
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
There are several commenters on this thread who have referred to "them" as liberal. This is nonsense. "They" are not liberal at all. They are not liberal in the sense Adam Smith or FDR or Adlai [nice name,huh?] Stevenson, or Hubert [more conventionally named than Adlai, what ever that means] Humphrey would have recognized. They are leftists. Please stop calling them liberal.
Sep '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
I call them corporate media. I know that's not especially disparaging, but too many don't make the association of who, exactly owns the newsrooms and newspapers and what their interests are.
The news whether CNN (Time/Warner) ABC (Disney) CBS (Viacom) PBS (left-wing government and academia) and FOX News (Fox) are all loss-leaders and advertising platforms for their other interests and properties.
We are naive to think that they should report the news in a balanced way to attract more viewers and make more money. They make much more money shilling for whatever party (Democrats) will defend them, pass laws that help them, and in fact these media companies are all in the propaganda business already. They LIKE sheeple who will stay home and watch TV and movies.
They are in the hypnosis business as well. They like to keep people mesmerized, and as cheaply as possible. The single largest advertiser on TV is...media! Next is pharmaceuticals (ask your doctor). The newsmedia did not report anything about the Columbine killers taking a series of questionable psychotropic meds. Instead the conversation was about guns. Gun manufacturers are way down the list in advertisers...
Oct '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Just call them the New Pravda, pure and simple.
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
How about ...Cupcakes! [that was an obscure America's Funniest Home Vidoes reference]. How about ... Miserable, Fat, Stalinist Bastards!
Feb '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
The Obama media brigade. Mindless mainstream media-ocre..Obsequious
followers of flash in the panism... gotta get an 'ism' in there somewhere..
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Call me boring, but I think in order for this to be taken seriously outside this Ricochet thread, that is, if we want this to appeal to or convince people who don't already agree with us, we should try generally to avoid terms that:
Otherwise it just blends in with the noise. I realize that doesn't leave much to work with, but I don't think it's an easy task. Sorry for not having a more productive comment.
Edit: This comment took a while to write, and many new ones popped up in the meantime. I made this list without targeting anyone's suggestion in particular, even though in hindsight it looks like I did in a few cases. Sorry.
Edited on September 19, 2012 at 1:34amJul '12
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Obaminstrels?
Lemmings?
Ministry of Truth?
Oct '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Regularly Scheduled Pablum...
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
OK, Mark Wilson, you party pooper. I won't advocate calling "Them" [You Know Who I Mean] "Cupcakes!" It would be too obscure for the boring.
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
But, what is wrong with, "Miserable, Fat, Stalinist Bastards!"? I concede on "Cupcakes!"
Oct '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
But the evil and insidious thing about them is that they ARE the Mainstream of the Media. It is because they supply the moral centre of the journalistic enterprise that their left/liberal/statist inclination poisons all institutions that are self-consciously made up of journalists, including the WSJ and Fox News. "Mainstream" is not an accolade but a mocking reference to their own pretensions and a warning about their biggest and most dangerous lie.
May '10
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
I call them corporate media.................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................zzzzzzzzzzzz.
Jan '11
Re: Contest: Rename the "Mainstream Media"
Doesn't Useful Idiots work? Is it missing the media component?