Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:19:12 -0800 (PST)
Subject: TV News Viewership Declines, Internet Use Rises


Published on Friday, January 21, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

TV News Viewership Declines, Internet Use Rises

by Jacqueline Marcus

George Monbiot correctly observed in his commentary, A Televisual
Fantasy, Americans do not live in a free society, they live in a
corporate society. Simply put, there can be no real democracy if
information is controlled, manipulated and censored.

The corporate decision to censor critical reporting is pushing
millions of viewers off their TVs and on to their computers, which is
ultimately bad for advertisers and business, and great for website
owners, especially liberal website owners.

Regimes are not necessarily defined by a single despot or dictator.
ABC, NBC, CBS, FOXTV, CNN: what the CEOs of these media corporations
refuse to acknowledge is that in the process of censoring watchdog
reporting, regarding the Bush administration's policies, they are
turning at least fifty percent of the population off to their
networks. Millions of people are disgusted with the media programs
from news to entertainment.

Large sectors of the population have had enough of the silly
propaganda being aired as "news" over network channels. We're not
screaming from opened windows, "I'm not going to take it anymore!" as
in the film, "Network," instead, we're just turning the TV off and
using it only for viewing DVD movies. As for news, the fifty percent
that voted for Kerry are turning more and more to the web for facts
and critical analysis.

Think of the networks like restaurants. Suppose the networks limited
their menu to greasy hamburgers and fries with absolutely no variation
whatsoever. This is precisely what the network CEOs have chosen to do
to their news departments.

The other night, just for the heck of it, I watched Brian Williams to
see what he was reporting. I knew what to expect, but I had no idea
that NBC was going to surpass my expectations! In Brian Williams'
"Road to the Inaugural," George W. Bush was transformed into an icon
with his Evangelical worshippers saluting their great "moral" leader.
Brian Williams practically fell to his knees in supplication. The
editing was remarkable in terms of propaganda. Bush's head was crowned
in the center of the U.S. seal like a halo. And just below, the camera
zoomed in on a Bible beneath Bush's head. Ironically, a few minutes
earlier, Williams announced that the "search for weapons of mass
destruction is officially over" like an insignificant footnote.

With just this sort of ridiculous media adulation of George W. Bush,
networks have forced educated skeptics to go elsewhere for the news.
And that "elsewhere" is the web.

So who are the people that the media CEOs are catering to? Media
surveys support the data that the 18-25 age group turn to the internet
instead of TV. When asked what is more preferable: TV or the Internet,
according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, in
a Youth Study 2004, 75% preferred the Internet to 15% preferring TV.
Nightly network news shows are viewed regularly by 64% of people 65
years old or older compared to only 22% in their 30s and younger.

The Democrat-liberals are so turned off by the blatant propaganda,
especially after this last head-rolling episode at CBS, they have shut
off the network news with a vengeance.

The question remains: Who bothers to watch TV corporate news these
days? Answer: The elderly, Bush-supporting Evangelical Christians.
That means that the networks are fighting over a mere twenty percent
of the conservative viewership. It seems like a stupid business
decision – but I suppose the media cronies will go to great lengths to
support their corporate leader, George W. Bush, even if it means
cutting half the population out, i.e. American consumers who buy more
products than the retired age group.

Guess who else won over the Evangelical Christians with total
corporate support?

Hitler always considered himself a Christian and had the support of
the mainstream "German Evangelical Church," which believed in
obedience to state authority.

Besides being anti-Semitic, he was also anti-homosexual,
anti-intellectual, anti-liberal and anti-color, and he worshiped the
military and had total corporate cooperation. He said we should
"regard Christianity as the unshakeable foundation of the morals and
moral code of the nation," and wrote in "Mein Kampf," "I believe that
I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator."
Sound familiar?

Christianity is being used, again, in an anti-Christian way. There are
billions of corporate and political dollars invested in these lies,
and by the time enough people of good will begin to see the truth, it
may, again, be too late. (Korby Sinclaire, The Tribune; San Luis Obispo).

As for George W. Bush's Inaugural, massive security patrol will cost
tax paying Americans $40 million dollars. No protesters are allowed.
$40 million dollars to protect Bush for one day could go a long way
towards social benefits. Such unprecedented security measures come
closer to a Regime, a Corporate Regime, than a Democracy. We can
assume that only 20% of the Evangelical Christians will be watching
Bush's Inaugural. As for the rest of us: TVs off!

Jacqueline Marcus' (jackiemarcus@j...) editorials and letters
have appeared in the Washington Post, Salon, Slate, CommonDreams.org,
New Times, (San Luis Obispo, CA Cover story: "The Politics of
Restraint"). Her poems have appeared in national university journals,
The Kenyon Review, The Ohio Review, The Antioch Review and many more
periodicals. Her book of poems, Close to the Shore, was published by
Michigan State University Press. She teaches philosophy at Cuesta
College and is the editor of ForPoetry.com.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0121-35.htm