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Fighting for “Consensual Reality”
Now there’s talk of de-platforming conservative cable news programs. Is anyone surprised? Former Facebook executive Alex Stamos spoke on CNN on Sunday, and is “fighting for the people” in protesting the right-wing programs:
And then we have to figure out the OANN and Newsmax problem that these companies have freedom of speech, but I’m not sure we need Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and such to be bringing them into tens of millions of homes. This is allowing people to seek out information if they really want to, but not pushing it into their faces I think is really where we’re going to have to go here.
I’m sorry to share a quotation that is slightly incoherent, but I think the gist of his comment is that he wants to respect freedom of speech, except he doesn’t. And he appears to want people to find information they are interested in, except that companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast shouldn’t be providing it.
Okay.
The bottom line is that the Left will probably be trying to go after conservative TV programs, although they may go after the cable providers to do so. Do they have the power to take that step? Probably not, but when has violating legal protections ever stopped the Left?
Stamos referred to the conservative news programs as a “sealed ecosystem,” although I think he has some projection going on. He also spoke about OANN and Newsmax challenging Fox News:
They can do that both on cable. They can do it online, and that becomes a huge challenge in figuring out how do you bring people back into the mainstream of fact-based reporting and try to get us back into the same consensual reality.
(Italics mine)
I think all of us would greatly appreciate fact-based reporting, but not the kind of consensual reality that Mr. Stamos is talking about.
What do you think?
Published in Journalism
I am constantly amazed at the people who both work in and cover the media have very little understanding of how it works and how it’s regulated.
When the lines between MSOs (Multi System Operators) and programmers began to merge and blur, both the FCC and the DoJ were cognizant of the possibilities that they could advance their programming interests by choking off their competitors on their distribution systems. So they wrote regulations that require the MSOs to make their systems available to their competitors. The same people who applauded those regulations when NewsCorp (Fox) owned DirecTV now want Comcast (NBC) and AT&T (CNN) to cut off programming they object to.
Same with the calls to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Now, forty years after its demise, most people have absolutely no idea what it was about, why SCOTUS even found it Constitutional in the first place and why it’s such an outdated and completely useless idea today.
In 1949, with the advent of commercial television, the Truman Administration wanted to ensure the new medium met the needs of their local communities. It was an attempt to force broadcasters into covering controversial issues, not shy away from them. In 1969 the Court ruled that restrictions on broadcasters could be justified because of the scarcity of spectrum and that made their First Amendment rights different from print. The advent of cable, which is non-broadcast, made the ruling unnecessary. The reality of the internet renders it moot. Now everyone has a television camera and transmitter in their pocket.
The ironic part of the Fairness Doctrine is that it made sure controversial topics weren’t really discussed on television. The best way to avoid the hassle of the regulations was to not put yourself in that position. So, you did it on local Sunday morning talk shows that nobody watched at an hour that wouldn’t hurt your ratings.
Maybe not even me….
You’d think they’re setting up a bus route? You know to save carbon emissions…
Please, everyone, take a look at Church Militant. They provide great news coverage, and they are their own platform. I posted a segment just now on the member feed.
@susanquinn This, from C.S. Lewis, has been repeatedly floating to the surface in my mind for a while now:
Well before Trump, perhaps beginning with Obama (“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for“), there was a puzzling, but now alarming, determination on the the part of the left to present themselves, not just as competent, but as the sine qua non of virtue. Their argument morphed from being “our policies are better” to “leftish sensibilities are the measure of human virtue”.
This is all part and parcel, I suppose, of the entire “wokeness” and social justice phenomenon. But any casual observer who isn’t a part of their club will be left with the impression that their foaming self-righteousness seems almost maniacal at times.
I incline toward believing that it is a genuine sense of their moral superiority that is animating their censoriousness because, if it was contrived, keeping up the pretense would be entirely too exhausting.
I can probably speculate as well as anyone else as to the origins of what comes across, to me at least, as a kind of needy desperation on their part. Whatever the origin, it’s dangerous. You rightly call attention to their stunning lack of self-reflection. That inevitably leads to the loose grasp of reality that is evident in statements by Stamos and others on the left. The phrase “reality bites” probably doesn’t begin to describe the emotional trauma that’s in store for them if their sheltered, coddled existence ever goes up in smoke.
Kind of hilarious to hear a former social media executive talk about reality-based discourse. As if Facebook didn’t completely nuke any chance of that happening years ago.
Excellent points, All, @keithlowery. I especially like the CS Lewis quotation. So true, so destructive. Thanks.
Ignore him at your peril. He’s trying out the company line and the companies may be so eager that they just do what he wants voluntarily.
There is no polite society. Understand? They don’t want you as part of their reality, and they are in charge.
This is the part where you tear down history, spray paint it a different color, label it something other than what it is, or better yet, give it a new name. Then you go for the jugular and censor everything that opposes the new/old picture. “There is nothing new under the sun” said the wise King Solomon. We’ve seen this show before and the outcome was sinister and devastating. We said ‘never again’, yet here we are. Welcome to The Great Reset.
The only thing I can say I like about this guy is his beard looks a helluva lot better than Dorsey’s . . .
To justify a beard like Dorsey’s, one needs a shopping cart to push around.
CNN has decided to end their airport feed on March 31. They cite a decline in airport traffic and people one their phones and computers.
Cable TV is down to less than 50% of market share.
Comcast and DirecTV have lost 4.7 million customers between 2017 and 2019.
Pay-TV subscribers will fall each year between 2013 and 2023 by 28%.
Source: https://techjury.net/blog/cable-tv-subscribers-statistics/
Nobody who subscribes to cable tv is having content “pushed in their face” against their will. They choose cable tv because it delivers the content they prefer.
Best news I’ve heard today. Thanks, Bishop!
Well, heck … if people ignoring them was a valid reason for shutting down their operations, then why are they still around?
Finally. I always hated having to listen to random bits of news broadcasts while strolling through the airport.
Fact based reporting? You mean like the Russia Collusion Hoax, pushed 24/7 by CNN and MSNBC for 2 years? Like the Fine People Hoax? Like Trump’s Coercion of the Ukrainian President? Like “The walls are closing in on Trump?” Like “Chaos in the White House”?
If you compare right wing to left wing reporting the prize for hoaxing the American people goes to the left by far.
And many important issues don’t get reported by the mainstream media. The “all too perfect choir” in which they all sing the same tune about something they can’t possibly know, such as that there was No Election Fraud, tells you what they want you to believe, not the truth.
Exactly, Roderic. There should be an award for that: Biggest Hoax of the Year.
Or a suicide vest . . .