Technically, “media” is a plural noun (“medium,” the singular). In contemporary political usage, however, as in “liberal media,” it can take a singular verb. So, you might say, “The liberal media is in love with Barack Obama.” In that context, the liberal media is treated as kind of a commune, including: ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Associated Press, etc. — you get the idea.
That this community of overwhelmingly like-minded fellow travelers routinely spins its output with a liberal bias is beyond dispute. Anyone who claims the news pages of The New York Times aren’t biased to the left is either delusional or lying. When more radical leftists (“progressives”) deny this liberal media bias, it’s merely a semantic ploy. From their perch on the far left, conventional liberals are centrists or even conservative only because they’re not left enough.
When conservatives speak of the “mainstream media” (MSM), it has a derogatory connotation. They’re referring to the liberal media hive. While MSM rolls easily off the tongue, I’ve never been comfortable with the term. It inadvertently conveys the false and confusing impression that the liberal media reflects (note the singular verb) the views or values of the mainstream of American public opinion. It doesn’t. It’s not mainstream; it’s leftstream. Rush Limbaugh calls it the “drive-by media.” That’s better. It suggests superficiality, sensationalism and a herd mentality.
I happen to prefer “dominant, liberal establishment mass-media” (DLEMM). It’s not very catchy but it’s more accurate and precise. All five words are necessary. “Mass media” refers to wide audience reach as compared to boutique media, low-circulation journals, academic publications, newsletters or blogs. “Establishment” means old media as opposed to new media — like talk radio, the Internet and Twitter.
While there are conservative outposts in the mass media (like the Fox News Channel), I say “dominant liberal” because liberal outlets dominate. ABC, CBS and NBC have a combined prime-time news audience of about 20 million viewers compared to 3 million for Fox — which intolerant liberals indignantly begrudge.
Recognizing and identifying the existence of the DLEMM isn’t the same thing as branding it a conspiracy. It’s not a conspiracy in the sense that this is some kind of secret society. It couldn’t be more public and ubiquitous. And it’s not as if its members formally conspire to do what they do. They don’t have to. They’re cut from the same cloth. Starting in college, journalism students are self-selected. The kids who sign up for this major tend to be liberal. Their professors are overwhelmingly liberal. When they graduate and take their first job at a newspaper, magazine or broadcast station, they’re greeted and acculturated by the generations of liberals who preceded them along the same path.
As Tom Bethell once analogized, geese don’t “conspire” to fly south in a v-formation in the fall. It’s not as if they meet in the back room of a bar in Montreal and concoct a secret plan. They don’t have to. It’s instinctive. But they, nonetheless, fly south in v-formation. You can photograph the migration.
Media liberals don’t conspire to spin the news in a leftist direction. They don’t have to. It comes naturally to them and it’s also apparent. All the moreso, now that there are conservative alternatives with which to compare.
Conservative talk radio and the Internet are increasingly diluting the power and influence of the DLEMM. The left hates this because it disturbs its monopoly, which it believes to be the natural order of things. It’s not enough that leftist thought dominates K-12 education, higher education, Hollywood, entertainment and pop culture. It wants to preserve its domination of the media, too.
That’s not a good thing for diverse and open debate in a free society.
Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
