If CNN is all about the money....

[realFedUp]

Wouldn't it occur to them and others that liberals
have money also and will support or boycott a
station and its corporate products and offshoots?
(If people take no other means of resistance, it
will be an economic resistance.)

Why does a conservative dollar (if it does)
weigh more in terms of coverage, bias, opinion
than a liberal dollar?

Doesn't it make sense that if Faux News has a
market on presenting false "news", another station would
be competitive by presenting factual news?

Half the country (and probably more who aren't
counted) is still looking for the truth, unfiltered,
unbiased, unopinionated... straight up, no smirks,
no eye rolls, no finger thrusting and without
interruptions.

Just give us the facts. We'll decide what actions
to take from there. It's just good business.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

1. They are indeed all about the money.....

and the reason that they lean right-ward is that that's where the real money is.

Getting us to watch doesn't do nearly as much for their bottom line as having a Republican in the White House does.

Republicans are better for big business than are Democrats (and there are few industries bigger than the media these days), so it follows that that's who CNN and friends get behind.

The sickest thing in my opinion is that they know that war makes them a lot of money, and as such they more or less like it when we are engaged in military adventures; when a Republican is in office one can more or less count on the fact that we'll be militarily engaged one way or another.

[yellozebra]

10. The sickest thing is that they know war is money.

Oh, they salivate at the prospect of war or any disaster for that matter.

Anywho two things grate me about CNN:

1) They still labor under the misapprehension that they are the "objective ones". IMO, they cause more damage than Faux Mews. At least with Faux, what you see is what you get.

2) A gross feeling of incompetence, which I get when I listen to their anchors/whatever - does nobody do their homework anymore? It's practically offensive. Again, it's not of the Faux intentional, your-views-aren't-worth-knowing-so-bite-me kind of ignorance.

You can't inquire objectively while ignorant, the two are mutually exclusive. And the truth is, even with the best of them, knowing what both sides are saying on an issue is a tall order; not to mention the upstarts, they make me apoplectic.

[McCamy Taylor]

13. "War is good for business" is a misapprehension. Unless you make

bombs or work for Halliburton, war is actually one of the least efficient ways to invest money. War's real use is as one of the tools for the creation of the Facist State. A state run media is another tool, as is the marriage of religion and state.

State is supreme under faciscm. Bary Goldwater is rolling in his grave.

:nuke:

[skids]

2. Sure Dems have money. Republicans have more.

I think you are underestimating the disparity of wealth distribution between the two parties.

We won't be buying our way out of this mess anytime soon. It doesn't matter that a lot of the wealthy got that way through dishonest and downright criminal means. The justice system is too corrupt or in some cases simply too far behind the curve to set that straight.

Our only hope is that we all develop our integrity, that we reward our neighbors for developing theirs, and that we create our own partition of the economy where honesty and public responsibility are fostered and encouraged.

[cestpaspossible]

3. CNN is the propaganda arm of a megacorporation.

The bottom line of the parent corporation, not the propoganda division, is what they are concerned with.

[Stirk]

9. Exactly.

What's a little ad revenue compared to pro-corporate legislation? There's no comparison.

[blm]

4. Because some of their MONEYMEN are Saudi Royals who are longtime partners

of the Bush family.

CNN is just a part of their Public Relations budget.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

5. Sometimes I wonder if it might be just simple corporate propaganda.

Maybe they lose money on the "news' divisions, but feel they make up for it with the government contracts and tax breaks they get from molding public opinion.

I live in a liberal state and have friends and clients in New York and DC and other urban centers. I don't know anybody that even watches the news anymore or reads the main papers, and I know these people have big bucks to spend.

Look at all the people that voted for Kerry, they must be so turned off by the mainstream news, but the corporations must think our money is no good, I guess, since they make no move to get us back.

[Roland99]

6. Who has the higher ratings? FOX...the sheep love to be fed their opinions

and CNN and MSNBC are having to shift that way to stay competitive.

[applegrove]

7. I heart CNN. I also understand that many Du types & blog viewers

no longer sit and watch CNN. That effects their bottom line. Perhaps the owners of the corporation will have to allow for better stories or 'stories that actually come close to touching the heart of Americans in these though times' if they want to get their viewers back. Perhaps the freepers were never watching the news anyway.

It seems that all the corporations understand is money. And we need to have a discussion of the structure of corporations and how to humanize them. But in the meantime, hopefully, MSM & their corporate bosses will have been through enough tough times that they realize being 'separated from their viewers ' by the likes of ' Rove & the bullies & myth-makers in the GOP ' is bad for the bottom line.

After all - how will corporate marketing departments feel when their traditional means of reaching consumers collapse?

I keep waiting for the snake to start eating its tail. Since that is what pillaging the Democracy that birthed the corporations will do in the end.

[Imperialism Inc.]

8. What if the facts indicate to the majority

that a society ruled by multi-national corporations is harmful? That media consolidation is a bad thing. Etc.

The media are multi-national corporations and all of their bills are paid for by other multinational corporations (advertising). Usually the business world can't see beyond the next fiscal quarter , but this case is one of the few exceptions. I'm not claiming they actually sit around and think about things in those terms. It is just a pretty obvious situation where short term profit may lead to a decline in profits long term.

[yellozebra]

11. Good point, an incentive for profit is not an incentive for anything

else. It is certainly not an incentive for justice, progress, democracy, culture or any of the things that make a great society. It's an incentive for more dosh, preferably today - but definitely by month-end.

I am not sure this is a conversation that the people of this country are ready to have though. I live in the South, i am always fluxomed that labor union/collective bargaining, consumer-boycotts, all these are practically swear words.

I mean, why do most people keep watching CNN/TV if it is bad? Why not vote with your dollars? It's the only thing corporations understand. IMO Democrats, including the pols BTW, should boycott these media outlets. These people are making us look stupid anyway. The Repugs do it all the time, e.g. they won't go on Real Time with Bill Maher.

Dems must just go to user-friendly/competent territory and refuse to participate in this farce. I admit, it's actually a regressive step, because I strongly believe in a free press - but if the press have abdicated their Watchdog role, what are we supposed to do? Treat them with the contempt they deserve? That's what Shrubya does. And they still come crawling back for more, making even more concessions because he (Shrubya) won't actually philosophicaly legitimate them. (I can't believe I just used "Shrubya" and "philosophically" in the same sentence :D.)

[rman]

12. Not so much about money, as it is about not hurting TW's interests

(CNN's owner)
In the end of course Time Warner's interests are about money - their money, not so much CNN's money. Although that is TW's to begin with, but TW has other affairs to deal with besides CNN's.

http://www.nowfoundation.org/issues/communications/tv/mediacontrol.html