media control by conservatives

Conservative control of the "media"

Like every other institution, the conservative dominated Fox News Channel, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, New York Post, National Review, Weekly Standard, American Spectator, Policy Review, Commentary, Human Events, the entire talk radio spectrum and most major cable television talk shows operate with conservative propaganda and control.

They include, but are not limited to, a near-universal shared conservative adherence to the belief that the Family Research Council, and the Christian Coalition are mainstream positions.

They include a belief that tax cuts aimed at the top 2 percent of earners solve the nation's problems; that tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy pay for themselves and are good ways to cut the deficit and slash social spending and don't have a negative effect on economic growth; and that emotional examples of suffering (provided by the Chamber of Commerce and major polluters) are good ways to illustrate economic statistic stories.

More systematically, the conservative media structure believes that ignoring most pressing social problems, like 35 million Americans in poverty and 45 million without basic health insurance, is better than attempting to explain and address these issues; that the White House line on the economy and Iraq is more interesting than the rising mountain of contrary facts; and that the president’s use of $10 million in taxpayer money to put ads on the air promoting his Medicare plan that was written by the Drug Companyies – produced by the same media consultant who made the PhRMA ads ripping Democrats for opposing the flawed prescription drug bill – seemed fair, somehow.

It does not accept the fact that President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy provided almost no stimulus to the economy and are primarily responsible for massive budget deficits over the next decade.
It remains fixated on stories of economic recovery even though 2.3 million people have lost jobs since President Bush took office in 2001 and hundreds of thousands of Americans have stopped looking for work altogether.