The conservative faction in our society has a most unorthodox mantra: If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. If that doesn’t work, then yell it loudly. Rote indoctrination: Repeat it often; repeat it loudly. Fortunately for society, it only becomes the truth for them.
The fact is: the majority of the media in this country is very conservative. New York City (that liberal bastion) has four major daily newspapers. The one with the widest circulation is the rather conservative Wall Street Journal. The other three have similar circulations: The New York Times, The New York News, and The Post. It is of particular interest that the two conservative papers (The News and The Post) are both tabloids. The ‘liberal media’? It’s only about a quarter of the papers read in New York City. Curious, isn’t it? (Tabloid, for those interested in the definition, is “a newspaper, usually half the ordinary size, with many pictures and short news stories”. Webster’s Unabridged) The bent, if any, in the press is toward the educated class, since journalists are of that class.
The conservative part of our society is so proficient at complaining and letter writing, that editors of the more liberal papers scrupulously avoid ruffling their feathers. The conservative papers have no such scruples. In the conservative papers, it should be noted, liberals always ‘whine’, whereas conservatives are always portayed as ‘courageous’. Telling a lie often enough and loudly enough has succeeded in making the press more conservative. Yet, still we hear the cry ‘liberal press’.
Television news is, by nature, a tabloid media. Many pictures and short stories, repeated over and over ad nauseum. The leader here, in popularity, is the arch-conservative Fox Network. Fox is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the aforementioned New York Post.
Much mention seems to be made of that ‘liberal media’ bastion, The New York Times, though it is the only non-conservative paper of four in New York. The New York Times proudly proclaims “All the news that’s fit to print.” Most of what’s printed in the News and the Post is sensationalism that is barely fit to print. We don’t hear criticism of the three conservative papers because conservatives are much more likely to complain than liberals.
We hear that Peter Arnett is guilty of ‘treason’ for giving a, perhaps inappropriate but valid, analysis of the tactics being used in the war so far. Treasonous? Not is any sense of the word. “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” Peter Arnett is no more guilty of treason than any newscaster who reports our casualties and losses. Of the two reporters removed from the front recently, the one more guilty of treason would be Geraldo Rivera who drew a map in the sand of our battle plans on live television. That IS treason. Oh, wait a moment! Geraldo reports for Fox News Channel, owned by the conservative Rupert Murdoch. Conservatives never complain about conservatives, no matter how valid that complaint might be. Rather, they hyperbolize and tell outright lies about non-conservatives.
Remember the conservative mantra: Tell lies often enough and loudly enough, and they become the truth, if only in their own minds.