Frank Rich: The Left Doesn't Have As Strong A Media Megaphone As The Right
New York Times columnist Frank Rich has said some astonishingly stupid things throughout his career, but a comment in Sunday's "The Bipartisanship Racket" might get on his top ten list.
In the eyes of this liberal writer working for the most powerful liberal newspaper in the country, the Left in this nation doesn't have as strong a media megaphone as the Right:
Beltway conventional wisdom is equally responsible for another myth promoted by No Labels: that the Move On left and the Tea Party right are equal contributors to America’s “hyperpartisanship.” In the real world, no one could seriously believe that activists on the left have the sway over Democratic leaders, starting with President Obama, that the Tea Party has over the G.O.P. Nor, with all due respect to MSNBC, does the left have a media megaphone to match the Tea Party’s alliance with the Murdoch empire, as led by Fox News, and the megastars of talk radio.
So, in Rich's view, the impact on political thought in this nation by Fox and the conservative talk radio hosts is greater than the combined influence of ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, HBO, HLN, Hollywood movies, MSNBC, NBC, Newsweek, New York magazine, NPR, PBS, Reuters, Showtime, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles, the Miami Herald, the New York Times, the New Yorker, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, Time magazine, and USA Today.
What's even more hysterical about this distorted view of the world is the number of liberal media members that share it.
To give readers an idea of the absurdity on display, Fox News on any given day averages about 1 million viewers an hour, double that in prime time.
By comparison, the evening news programs on the three broadcast networks typically get a combined 20 to 25 million sets of eyeballs. Their morning shows garner about 13 million viewers.
This means that the morning and evening news programs of the broadcast networks attract as much as 38 million viewers each week day. Add CNN, HLN, MSNBC, and PBS into the mix, and Fox's television impact is dwarfed by these liberal outlets.
As for radio, according to the liberally biased Wikipedia, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Neal Boortz, and Laura Ingraham attract 68 million listeners a week, or roughly 14 million per day.
This means the morning and evening news broadcasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC reach significantly more than twice the audience of all the conservative talk radio hosts combined.
When one factors in NPR's numbers, conservative dominance on AM radio isn't as large as advertised. NPR's "Morning Edition," "Fresh Air," and "All Things Considered" garner 21 million listeners per week, or 4 million per day.
As such, without including the liberal talkers such as Bill Press and Ed Schultz, or all the rest of NPR's programming, there's less than a ten million per day gain in conservative opinion via the radio.
And we haven't even talked about the influence of all the liberal newspapers, wire services, and magazines in the country.
Add it all up, and Rich, along with all the other liberal press members bemoaning the media dominance of Fox and conservative radio talkers, are totally clueless of the actual facts.
Color me very unsurprised.
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
A better headline
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 12:47pm.
Might be: Frank Rich - Still Not Sure if Shinola is the One That's in a Can.
Does he seriously not understand the audience ratio between TV news and AM talk radio?
Could it be
Submitted by StarAZ on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:45pm.
Could it be the right has a better story and relates it more compellingly? By better, I mean we can look around us, at least here in AZ, and see all the foreclosure and BANK-OWNED signs, the empty stores in the malls, read the newspaper stories about people evicted wrongly, etc etc.--We are living it and is is abundantly clear it's not as bad back East in Silver Spring MD or Falls Church VA or the Upper East Side. We know perfectly well no one is looking out for us. So the Frank Riches of this world seem snooty and quaint, as does this president with his pro basketball outings or signing of Pelosi catchall bills.
Sort of related--this was cute:
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/so-you-want-to-be-a-journalist_b18198
What Rich is loathe to
Submitted by BD on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:32pm.
What Rich is loathe to understand is that in the battle of the message, meaning the content of what is being said or printed, the left is losing.
The left has a losing message and is now seeking scapegoats....
No, it's that the left has
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 12:49pm.
No, it's that the left has lost all credibility now that the American people realize there is a right ( conservatives ) and a wrong ( progressives/liberals ).
No matter how much the left tells America they're stupid, unable to think ( vote ) for themselves, the more the pendulum swings back to the right ( sanity ).
So keep up the great work lame street media types. One more election cycle and America will be back to her old self again.
Barack_Must_Go.....
Amen!
Submitted by johnsonl on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:10pm.
Amen!
What counts?
Submitted by KC Mulville on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 12:55pm.
The liberal left doesn't count the bulk of the mainstream media as its representatives.
Which is either a deliberate lie, or it reveals how blinkered these folks are. If you count MSNBC as a liberal voice but you count NBC as a purely neutral voice (even though they're both part of the same corporation with the same goals and same corporate officers), you can't be taken seriously. If you're willing to live with the fiction that MSNBC is liberal but NBC is not, and that both can live in the same corporation without forcing you to conclude that the corporation is liberal, then you have to ask why a corporation would support a liberal splinter but not a conservative one. It doesn't add up.
First of all, Dr. Laura
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 12:59pm.
First of all, Dr. Laura shouldn't be included; she's not on any more, and she wasn't a political commentator.
IMO what they're whining about is the fact that way more people listen to and watch Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck etc. than their liberal counterparts (Olbermann, Maddow etc) in the commentary world.
It's not that their outnumbered; they're simply out-performed.
What they want is Title IX for liberals.
It's simple mathematics:
Submitted by HelenS on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 12:57pm.
You take one, or three, above-average-in- intelligence spokesmen - as pictured - for the right and line them up against any number of fumbling, inept, pathetic spokespeople for the left and the imballance in IQ will always favor the right. It's that simple.
In fact, just one guy from the right could take on the entire left rabble "with half his brain tied behind his back" and he'd still win.
It's a beautiful thing.
Their whining is just their normal way of communicating and no matter how equal the number of actual bodies representing the two positions, the left would still have to whine because they'd get more and more behind the more equal the number in the contest. They are losers, no matter how you arrange it, and they must sense it at some low-functioning level - hence the continual whine.
Me - "The libs/dems of today are the Quislings of former years - the cowards who would vote a fraud into office in exchange for handouts from the devil."
"Liberals"
Submitted by iveseenitall on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 1:12pm.
"Liberals" are immature, ignorant adolesents in adult bodies. And, as with adolescents, they become annoying as they whine their way through life. After a while, people simply want to turn them off. Go sit in a corner and just "shut up", you fools.You can't wait 'till a teen grows up, but they eventually do. Not so with "liberals". Sheeze!
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Rich means he can't make the right shut up
Submitted by carolina09 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 1:05pm.
Any voice at all, if you don't agree with Frank Rich, is too loud for the poor dear with tender ears.
In Frank's nazi mindset, he's right!
Submitted by Newsbubba on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 1:11pm.
Conservatism will always be considered to have an advantage as long as ONE LONE VOICE is allowed to exist. Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Mao, and now Chavez all feel this way. Truth is a bitch, and they have to snuff it out completely to maintain their power.
No voice of opposition is the only acceptable balance in their minds.
Not so much a direct matter of ideology...
Submitted by NevadanConservative on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:08pm.
altho' that DOES play a good sized part. But stamping out all opposition is key to leftist tyrannical power. Single channel information is easier to control, easier to use as a propaganda tool..
An old ST:TNG episode comes to mind whenever the subject of these dictators comes up. The late Roddenberry came up with a perfect expression of the ultimate leftists: the Borg.
Hugh:(a stranded Borg) Some have escaped.
Picard: (once forced to be a Borg, and then rescued and deprogrammed)They will be found. All will be assimilated.
Absolutely chilling, and dead on.A modern tyrant in their full despotism rules ALL, with no dissent. And with modern technology, they can do so in ways unimaginable even thirty years ago.
Duringthe bad old days of Soviet Russia, manual typewriters had serial numbers on them and test pages filed every so often, so that a typed document could be traced back to where it came from... and who typed it, by analysis of access to it. In these times, we have IP addresses and God alone knows what other technical stuff to not only trace who writes a document in the Net, but even at home on their home system offline.
All of which authorizing ability for such rests in the hands of a would-be King/General-Secretary/what have you that can't even duck an elbow.
As for Mr. Rich's assertions, the root of this thread (from which I have apparantly wandered), I will state that leftists making noise as though they are the put upon, the weak, the minority, is not new. To quote the Twilight Zone character Ernst Ganz, "It was drivel then, and it is drivel now." (Episode "He's Alive", original series)
One point I am not sure of, and I would ask the indulgence of the forum on it. That we -have- guys and gals like Rush and Hannity etc. is beyond question, as is their successes... but what was their original catalyst, the spark that set to light the torch?
I don't indulge in the halfwit Socratic inquiry method, I ask questions from genuinely not knowing.
Gah.. and again withthis long post stuff. My error and apologies.
NVCon
PURPLE IS THE NEW BROWN
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/17194/2872764590061034863S600x600Q85.jpg
we know how to change the channel
Submitted by ds7 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 1:22pm.
it's not that the left doesn't have a much bigger "megaphone"...it's that now that they don't control access to all outlets, nobody is listening to their obnoxious arguments and silly talking points.
they keep trying to sell the same failed policies to the 20% of the country that are foolish enough to tune in and listen to them.
Add to that the liberal point
Submitted by redfish on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 1:25pm.
Add to that the liberal point of view is in academia, and in movies, and music....
Right.....
Submitted by tampamom25 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 1:26pm.
If the liberals don't have as loud a voice as they'd like to have, it's probably because there aren't that many people in America who really want to hear their message. After all, what they do most of the time is get louder and louder, call names, whine, cry and carry on. Oh yeah, and play the race card. Liberals have no logical, rational arguments for any of their positions, and absolutely no tolerance for anyone who disagrees with them. They can't even carry on a normal discussion because the minute someone disagrees with them, they get loud and obnoxious and leave the room. People are basically just sick and tired of them.
Ah, you can hear the tinkle
Submitted by celator on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 1:29pm.
Ah, you can hear the tinkle winkle sound of the Fairness Doctrine in Rich's words, no? Or is that my toilet stuck again?
Rich's words are a version of "We didn't explain our story clearly enough" BS the Left routingly tosses in the air when they lose an election, or public opinion turns very negative on them. The underlying assumption is that the Left (Radical Left, in particularly) has by some magical process mustered the whole truth about, well, everything. If only us poor, uneducated slobs had the opportunity to hear them tell their story again, and again, and again, and again, then we would support them.
Pshaw.
Shortcuts
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:13pm.
"I am somebody who is no doubt progressiveThere are millions of voters/ballotpunchers that believe that a progressive is a politician that wil give them shortcuts to a better life. Paying for the entitlements is of no concern for them.
Exactly right. Progressives
Submitted by celator on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 7:01pm.
Exactly right. Progressives are political parasites, living off the toil of others, sucking the lifeblood out of the US, Hardcore progressives make up about 20 percent of the population (probably less), and consume the liberties and property of the rest of the citizens, Obama's admission that he is a Progressive is the only true statement he's ever made, so it's important to highlight it. ;+}
They have plenty of
Submitted by liberalsarefunny on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:00pm.
They have plenty of megahpones...people just choose to ignore them.
Plenty of megaphones
Submitted by yutsnark on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:11pm.
People are ignoring them? According to the article, the left wing media have a much larger audience than the right!
And you believe that?
Submitted by liberalsarefunny on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 8:54pm.
And you believe that?
Do I believe Sheppard?
Submitted by yutsnark on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 12:57am.
He cites the numbers, and they're pretty convincing. Anyhow, why would he lie?
its never their fault
Submitted by gwalt on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:03pm.
It's always someone else's.
"A lot of briefing for a 2 hr. special with Dan Rather. Saw the show & wonder why we bothered". Ronald Reagan
We outnumber them, apparently.
Submitted by CobraMan on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:09pm.
"Nor, with all due respect to MSNBC, does the left have a media megaphone to match the Tea Party’s alliance with the Murdoch empire, as led by Fox News, and the megastars of talk radio."
So, it's that "Tea Party’s alliance," otherwise known as INVOLVED CITIZENSHIP, that is the major stumbling block, the "louder megaphone," correct? That the combined voices of tens of millions of non-media "tea party members", combined with the thousands of "megastars" of "talk radio" and all of the people within the "Murdoch empire," outnumber the liberals in the US and even a combination of all of those "left" media outlets can't match the, what, volume of the right wing these days?
Oh, man, that sucks for you! Better hurry up and BAN the Tea Party movement, post haste! Then you could, you know, restore BALANCE to the "airwaves."
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
As stupid a Frank Rich is
Submitted by SteveP on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:18pm.
he's actually right.
The left has the quantity. The right has the quality.
Those who wield the media megaphone on the right are much stronger, largely due to the messages they convey, than the buffoons who wield it on the left.
Messages of freedom will trump statism every time.
Borrowing from Khruschev
Submitted by NevadanConservative on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:24pm.
is what he is doing. I think the quote goes "There is a certain quality in quantity."
A very horrid one, in point of fact. Stalin cleaned out a lot of prison camps and saved a lot of capital in WW2 by not investing in technical mine clearing equipment... he had his generals close march regiments of prisoners thru suspected minefields at gunpoint.
NVCon
PURPLE IS THE NEW BROWN... SEE THE LINK BELOW
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/17194/2872764590061034863S600x600Q85.jpg
Hey Rich, it's quality not quantity. You on the left have...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:23pm.
all of media except talk radio, Fox News. a few newspapers and portions of the internet. Your problem is nobody (except the left) believes the Liberal media. No credibility equals a smaller and smaller audience. While the mainstream media shrink, talk radio, Fox News, and portions of the internet grow because they give the people what they want, which is fair, balanced and honest opinion. Even the Wall Street Journal is doing well while the NY Times and USA Today are not. P.S. I wrote this before I read SteveP's comment.
In the real world?
Submitted by sherlock1 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:22pm.
In the real world, no one could seriously believe that activists on the left have the sway over Democratic leaders, starting with President Obama, that the Tea Party has over the G.O.P. What is your point here, Frank? The Tea Party Movement isn't astroturf, but a real-live grass-roots organization, something you folks that invented astroturfing can't get your head around! Yes, of course it has influence over politicians - because it consists of lots of actively engaged real-live voters who want to raise their voices as a counterbalance to the entrenched professional left that dominates the media, academia, and bureacracies at all levels. It's about "We the people", Frank. You can't make us go away by whining. Get over it.lol
Submitted by amyshulk on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 10:38pm.
That's the point - he's pissed that the left isn't as vocal as the TP is!!!
When will the left get that when they champion the lazy, they have no foot soldiers?
Ronald Reagan
Seeing, not believing
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 2:24pm.
Just because you watch something does not indicate that you believe it. The lamers have passed on Obama's message that the recession is over many, many times. How many viewers of Brian and the gang believe it after they see the unemployment %? If Frank Rich was honest he would admit the bias in the LSM. So soon do people choose to ignore that more people watched Fox News Nov. election coverage than any other network.
Frank Rich is no doubt still suffering,
Submitted by redright88 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:04pm.
after Rick Sanchez got pulled off CNN.
In the real world...
Submitted by Tenebrous on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:04pm.
It's just the usual from the libtard progressives: they're losing, so it's time to bust out the victim card. Oh, capitalism is soooo evil, and people are soooo stupid, and we can't get our message out so much so that we need to have government involvement in media to make things more fair!
Of course, here is the liberal to truth dictionary.
Evil - something liberals don't like; it has nothing to do with actual evil.
Stupid - what libs call people that don't agree with them
Can't get our message out -- unable to persuade people to agree with them
Government involvement -- censorship of opposing views
Fair - A term used to describe winning by eliminating the opposition
Visions and Principles blog
The MSM is dominated by
Submitted by johnsonl on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:08pm.
The MSM is dominated by liberals. What they don't understand is that the majority of us are conservative. I have no idea how they stay in business. Libs dominate the message but conservatives are watching and listening to their own.
in the beat someone over the head sense he's correct
Submitted by OffTheLows on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:12pm.
the pervasive liberal bias has more to do with story selection, the type of questions being asked, avoiding certain stories, and only criticizing democrats for not taking actions liberal enough in their own views. The ways liberals have to be hyper partisan without any pretense of objectivity or subtlety, MSNBC and their sliver of the talk radio airwaves, they have the megaphone but fewer choose to hear it.
I tune into the Left, Lean Forward media....
Submitted by bigdaddy on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:31pm.
...when I want to see a replay of John Boehner crying during an interview or the size of the latest fish that Sarah Palin has caught or the Rev. Tawana & Sgt. Schultz trying to hang something, anything on Rush...
The Truth Has Gone Viral, Frankie Has Gone Nuts
Submitted by rammingspeed on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:43pm.
In Frank Rich's pink little brain this is the absolute truth, because the left has been getting it's behind kicked in all the important ways, not just the 11-2 election. Unfortunately for Frank, people are intelligent and they do have common sense. Weed out the trapped-in-dogma "progressives," and it's lose-lose-lose ad infinitum for the democrats. Didn't used to be like this, did it Frankie?
If it is written or spoken by
Submitted by DWoSD on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 3:52pm.
If it is written or spoken by a leftist, we can automatically predict it to be drivel. Invariably we are proven correct.
The vapidness of their analysis is truely fertilizer for the garden. Because they can not defend their programs they must offend our sensibilities with stupidity. They live by the Alinsky doctrine that says if our policies are a failure, do not fail to assassinate the character of our opponent.
It must serve to reinforce the absolute necessity for the defeat of the socialist.
Dang!
Submitted by Kat Outta the Bag on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 4:16pm.
I nearly spewed Diet Coke out of my nose just reading the title of this thread!
victimization
Submitted by ds7 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 4:32pm.
the liberal philosophy fails in america because at some point in any discussion with an affirmed liberal/democrat/socialist/progressive they must concede they are incapable and are "deserving" of "mercy" because they are merely a "victim."
a majority of americans are not willing to give up their autonomy and decision making ability for a mess of pottage...and that is what the liberals are trying to sell. that is "their message." it doesn't matter how big the megaphone or how often they repeat it, we've heard it and continue to change the channel.
Frank is somewhat right
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 5:37pm.
People are turning off the left media and MSM in favor of Fox, because Fox has facts, and the left and MSM spend all day trying to cover up facts. Fox is really pretty balanced. For instance, listen to their radio news; they play more of the MSM points almost than the MSM. As an example, they carried the claim that the estate tax is being cut from the 2000 level of 55%, when it is going up from the 2010 level of 0% to 35%. However, because people like Glenn Beck report facts and will admit when they are wrong (Glenn withdrew his call that Obama is a racist is an example).
Look at the recent poll that people dislike Obamacare even more than ever before. That is not reported by the poll sponsors (I think ABC-WaPo, but the actual media outlet is immaterial); instead, other "factoids" from the same poll are reported, so you KNOW that they saw the data and chose to ignore the stuff that goes against their position that Obamacare is wonderful. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2010/12/15/wapo-hypes-poll-sho... The media is supposed to report NEWS, not what it selects is the position of the American people.
Dennis Prager
Frankie, Frankie, I thought
Submitted by misterbee241 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 6:27pm.
Frankie, Frankie, I thought you liberals were all about a level playing field. :)
Frank is just jealous because
Submitted by RogerCfromSD on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 7:00pm.
Frank is just jealous because he doesn't have as big a feather boa as Chris Matthews. But, at least, Chris keeps his in the closet.
I don't know - with each
Submitted by Chris Norman on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 1:11am.
I don't know - with each passing week, more and more of that boa is peeking out of Matthews' closet...
Never heard it---
Submitted by matthewdean on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 3:33am.
called that before.
MD
Is this guy kidding? ABC,
Submitted by mostlymoderate on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 7:06pm.
Is this guy kidding? ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, HBO, Comedy Central, MSNBC, NPR, 99% Hollywood all liberal. Not to mention Time, Newsweek, US News, USA Today.
Maintaining the absurd
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 8:15pm.
Maintaining the absurd fiction that the vast majority of the media isn't liberally biased results in non-sensical columns like Richs. He should have just stayed well away from the subject.
Rush said it. Does a fish know it 's wet? Does a...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 11:20pm.
leftwing media person know he/she is a Liberal? Frank Rich no doubt believes he is right down the middle when it comes to political thought because living in New York and working for the NY Times, instead of water, he is surrounded by other Liberals.
one can only listen to so much b/s.
Submitted by igor1136 on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 1:43am.
fox trys to tell us both sides of things. not any of the other channels even attempt to be non biased. you cant take all the lies the leftwing media spews. its funny how they all seem to be reading the same scripts on all the libtard channels. and its only the guys who are telling us the truth about what the governments doing the left is going after. beck stossel hannety laven limbaugh laura ingram. anyone whos getting the facts out to america. now the left want to shut down fox and talk radio. they cant have anyone saying anything thats not approved by obamas people. well libtards the partys over. we americans are on to you and your sceams. i hope your all ready for some jail time. what kind of country do you want to go to prison in? a rich one or a poor one? LET ME MAKE THIS REALLY CLEAR FOR YOU LEFTWING COMMIE LOVERS. YOU PICKED THE WRONG COUNTRY TO MESS WITH.
Rich is actually right
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 9:37am.
The "right wing" media DOES have more sway over conservative (or wanna-be conservative) pols. The vast left wing media doesn't hold sway simply because all they do is parrot their "leadership", run top-cover for them, and promote biased, and often totally incorrect slants against the right. Very few conservative news sources spout off without facts and figures backing their statements in hand.
"...there's less than a ten million gap ..."
Submitted by LibertyAtStake on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 9:46pm.
Until we pull NPR's public funding, that is.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"