Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for November 10, 2010

Fitting.

Depends on whether you are looking at viewer’s left and right, or (newsguy’s) proper right and left. Ah, artful ambiguity! –Oh, of course we must assume this is set in New York City, because that’s the center of the universe.

I don’t get the meaning of “All the news that’s fit to walk on eggs”.

BinaryWiener, it means the media doesn’t want to upset the money people.

They don’t want to upset the advertisers, and they don’t want to upset the customers, and they don’t want to upset the politicians, and they don’t want to upset the rival media… But that’s everyone.

So they react at the first perceived eggshell crack, and then the reaction to their reaction that cracks the egg more, and they make matters even worse by trying to fix their self-inflicted crackup…

So NPR and CNN and MSNBC punish commentators for doing their jobs and end up with egg on their faces.

COYOTY—–well said!

Coyoty does it again with a succinct and astute answer. If you can speak another language, try any other country’s news.

Is that Eddie working at the newsstand?

…WHAT!?! ..Dakota Fanning has been crowned her high school’s homecoming queen?!?…

For online news there’s http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Right! And the language they use at the BBC is remarkably similar to ours!

Bill is right about the BBC. Believe it or not, another pretty decent news source is Pravda.

The most influential sources of news in this country are the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the three major TV networks. If that’s your idea of far right, conservative, corporate owned media, your position on the political spectrum must be somewhere to the left of the former planet Pluto.

Study after study proves that the “main stream meadia” is very left of center. The country is right of center and moving right. Fox is beating everyone else because they come closest to telling the complete truth and not ignoring stories that don’t fit their agenda (see NY Times). People not only want to hear the truth, they also don’t want to hear socialistic ravings like MSNBC. But, you liberals know better and the other 80% of the public is stupid (in your mind). That is basically what Obama keeps saying. “The people are too dumb to know what is good for them”.

Remember the difference between the ‘Far right, conservative corporate’ ownership and the Editorial staff of the media outlets.

It doesn’t mean that the media has to parrot the official party line, but they do have to walk on eggs to avoid upsetting the delicate sensibilities of the Big Money people.

Remember that news is just entertainment and we can thank Roone Arledge for that.

But if they ARE walking on eggs and being “selective” in what they print, why are the newspapers still so fat? Wouldn’t they be only a couple of pages, at most? It’s certainly not the comics filling up all those pages.

gbrucewilson: the definitive study on bias was done by Editor & Publisher magazine back in the early ’00s, and it found that (a) reporters displayed a slight liberal bias, were aware of that fact, and tended to compensate for it in their coverage; while (b) editors and publishers (y’know, the people who decide what’s “news” and what gets printed) were overwhelmingly conservative and Republican in their politics. The bottom line is that the corporate-owned news media in this country are far to the right of where they were, say, during the Nixon administration.

I often turn to BBCA to get their take on the morning news when anything significant is going on. There is very little “nres in morning broadcasts; I watch more for the personalities and some features and FF thru sports and commercials and other stuff I don’t care for.

Now that the facade of the global warming scam is finally crumbling the leftist main stream media is starting to be less biased and is actually doing what reporters are supposed to do. Question, research, investigate.

How quaint, pretending that print media is still relevant.

media on media. is this monoculture what?

puddleglum: if one study shows the media as leaning right and ALL others show the so-called main-stream media is very far left, I would have a tendency to distrust the one as being a bit biased.

Mr Kent, what makes you think that dictatorships that censor their media are far right? Communism, Nazism and Socialism are all far left policies. If the dictatorship is based on one man’s charisma, rather than a political agenda, then maybe, if HE is more conservative, you could call censorship in his country far right. Most aren’t.

Makes it easy to understand why sports takes up so much of the news…

Binaryweiner - I’m a little puzzled, too.

The first part, of course, is an allusion to the classic Times motto: “All the news that’s fit to print.”

The rest? Some allusion to the expression “walking on eggshells”, perhaps?

Amazing how many of you “pundits” here are so ill-informed, you don’t even know the differences between Communism, Nazism and Socialism. Perhaps one should take heed of the maxim: “Better to be silent and thought a fool than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”

Ok Kevin enlighten us with your brilliance. What is the difference between Communism, Nazism and Socialism? And the quote is “it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool; than to speak up and remove all doubt”

Darkeforce; why would you contradict yourself? Because it’s not “Corporate Conservative Media”; just “Corporate Media”.

MSNBC, CNN, the NY Times and the Washington (com)Post are well known leftist media, leaving Rupert Murdock’s media outlets as the only conservative voice in the nation. As to news outlets in Europe… they’re even more left than the NY Times (motto: “All the news that fits [our biases], we print”)

The simple fact that terms like “leftist” and “far right” are even being bandied about shows the sorry state the “news” is in this country. But, it is a reflection of the country as a whole. I have to think they’re idiots because they disagree with me, and of course they think I’m an idiot because I disagree with them. The process has become the entertainment. NOTHING productive gets accomplished when we are mired in this mindset. Look at the last joke of an election. All of the politicians said “jobs” was a priority. DUH! When was the last time you heard any politician say “gee, we sure have too many jobs around here. We ought to get rid of some of them!” Pretty close to 100% negative advertising. If even 10% of the bleeep they threw out was true, I wouldn’t want ANY of these idiots representing me. The media are owned by the corporations, and they aren’t going to have stories that are against their self-interest. See many anti-Iraq war stories on NBC? Of course not. They’re owned by General Electric, the largest arms producer in the world. The list goes on and on. We hear more about Lady GaGa and Paris Hilton than we do about anything that actually affects our life.

As a former newspaper reporter and editor (I started in 1971), I’m always disappointed (but never surprised) how little the average person knows about journalism.

Unlike the talking heads that fill the cable news shows, reporters - REAL REPORTERS - go to school to learn how to report a story.

And the first rule is to tell the truth.

The truth doesn’t have a political cause, there is only truth and lies.

Newspapers used to have a more populist leaning - and devotion to the truth - when they were locally owned, and directly responsible to the people who bought and read them.

But now almost all the papers are owned by big corporations, (not all US held) whose first interest is pleasing their advertisers.

Sorry, RADIO TOM – Rupert Murdock is hardly the “only conservative voice in the nation;” his voice is simply in the biggest and loudest, as he has the deepest pockets.

I realized LONG ago that my data stream would deliver the truly relevant bits and bytes, & my return rate on life is much better when investments in TV time are very limited… Although I will always enjoy watching cartoons & Dallas Raines’ weather reports (ABC in LA, Ca), I do not have a TV at home. Vacations and road trips provide ample TV input (thanks mom!), printed publications provide some light reading & funnies then kindling for the BBQ. Life is too Smurfy(c) for haters, y’all! Chill.

Any one who thinks who thinks Fox News reports the truth needs to pull their head out of their posterior. Shirley Sherrod and the 2 billion dollar trip to India are just 2 examples.

FishStix pretty much explains it. Those of you who spout this idiocy that the whole of the media is nothing but “right-wing” propaganda are idiots. When I listen to the vast majority of the American mass media, it’s essentially repeating the White House press releases. How is THAT “right-wing” propaganda?

re; fishstix take on political systems. Perfect! Love it! The only thing I can add is to Kalifornia. the left coast re-elects gov. Moonbeam and Barbara “Botox” Boxer. And Kalifornia implodes from fiduciary incompetence. And guess what? Its George W Bush’s fault!

I love this strip.

Many American newspapers have laid off their actual reporters to enhance profits for their corporate masters’ management and owners, and now depend on press releases for “news”. I try to counter that by reading the English version of many foreign newspapers, such as China, Arab-speaking countries, Greece, England and France. Further, I haven’t had TV service in years and enjoy t he peace, especially during election run-ups. There’s plenty of info out there, but it takes time and research to find it.

Thanks to the above commenter who pointed out the LIES that Fox news reported on dozens on shows about the cost of the trip to India, how many people were going, and that almost ALL of the US Navy was being deployed to the area. Fox is FAUX and should never be believed for two days after a story first breaks there.

And that goes for Rush Limbaugh, too!!!

The state the media is in is what happens when the primary focus of your entire society is Capitalism. When all you care about is turning a profit, no matter what it takes, any morals or values fall by the way side. Rather than reporting unpopular news or a broad spectrum of stories we stick with all the blood, gore and horror as it keeps a nervous nation riveted to the screen. Big business maximises it’s profits by treating employees like battery hens and, when the ungrateful wretches complain, move operations off shore to a country where there are no complaints about conditions or minimum wage, leaving an ever growing unemployed population at home. Health care is a shambles as people who are in it to treat the sick are trampled under foot by those who are in it to turn a profit. And the mirth I feel when I hear those people paying for health insurance decry the evils of a government who is wanting to take their taxes to pay for someone elses medical costs. How do you think health insurance works?!? Your money is already paying for someone else to get treated!! If you were really adamant about not paying for someone elses medical costs (how Christian of you) you’d set up your own savings fund rather than have insurance. For a fundametalist Christian country there is a marked lack of care for your fellow man. But hey, for a country crippled by recession, propped up by the working poor, swamped by homelessness, wracked by gun crime and still trying to get over the hangover of racism and oppression… what can possibly be learnt from the example of other countries when you’re the “leader of the free world”?

That was hilarious FishStix, thanks!

So-called “journalists” may go to college to learn to write the truth, but the ideal is leached out of them while they learn nothing about fact-checking and proof-reading and all about plagerism and cut-and-paste. They rarely end up actually reporting the facts, but instead report opinions. They write whatever their bosses want them to write.

I can see the difference - virtually none except one version enables you to climb onto your roof, flag in hand, beat your chest and below “freedom” at the sky. In my experience, people who express your point of view cannot understand the other point of view, or sympathise with the disadvantaged, until you yourself have had an injury or illness that your insurance doesn’t cover. After the massive medical bills cripple you financially and you are bankrupt and your family is looking at living on the streets the idea of a government funded health care system (or safety net) suddenly makes sense. Having read your earlier posts from previous days it seems that you are a devout believer in the Capitalist faith which, whilst it might work for you and your very charitable ways, it just doesn’t work for the broader community and it is sad that you can’t see that.

As an outsider looking in, all I can see is partisan blindness. Each side blithely blaming the other. Frankly you get what you are. Fishstix, sorry mate, look to the UK, Canada, Australia and I’m sure other examples where healthcare can be almost free to all at the point of use, and also have a private option. No one ever said its free, but no-one worries about what it is costing them personally. Great cartoon, maybe it’s time to get cracking

Right on Coyoty!!

algurka – it’s the ads.

For all those folks who think they are not paying for the medical bills of others – what about those who go to the ER when they are sick? Do you think the hospital eats the costs – no they pass it along to the next guy who is paying. And believe me, it would be a whole lot cheaper if folks could just go to their doctor than to the ER.

In the discussion above: have we forgotten our history entirely?

Yes pure communism failed miserably. I don’t think that there are many that would argue that point.

Pure capitalism wasn’t that great either: The rich ended up with plenty of money to hire people, but that didn’t work out the way most would want. It brought us monopolies that had no competition–coal miners weren’t even paid in real money, could only shop at the company store and the companies hired ‘sheriffs’ to ensure workers didn’t leave town.

Garment workers were locked in their place of work and wages weren’t enough to prevent malnutrition.

Only when we began to institute anti trust laws, and ‘social programs’ like Medicare and Social Security (socialist programs–Anyone want to give up these entirely?) did the middle class begin to grow.

For OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS we’ve had a mixed system: Capitalist based with socialist programs such as a free road system, public schools, Social Security, Medicare, farm subsidies and more.

Hopefully when you get sick you have insurance, because if you ‘decide’ not to you’re on your own you greedy little puffin.