Narratives that Work (unfortunately)

It's starting to feel like the only thing I write about is politics and the media, but a comment on my last blog did get me thinking about something that I felt should be written. The comment read, in part, as follows:

Do you really feel like News Corps (notably Fox News) are the only right-wing news in a sea of liberally-slanted news outlets? Or is that a particular narrative they try to convey? Perhaps even more bitingly – but my own particular flavor of media critique – is to be found in a now I suppose sort of old Catherine Lutz piece "Reading National Geographic," which briefly discusses at what point did the truth become taking the most extreme political views on the perceived right and left, and having some audience-produced synthesis of them being the "truth?" In other words, why do we (perceive a) need (for) a right-wing network to counterbalance left-wing networks if not for the sake that somehow having two strongly and unabashedly opinionated views to create "balanced" truth.

 I suppose the informal nature of my blog has allowed me to be imprecise. I should absolutely clarify what I mean when I saw that News Corp is the only right-wing news outlet in a sea of liberal news outlets. There is a number of incredibly high-profile news outlets that sell opinion as news and have begun to do less and less meaningful analysis. And I don't mean this from the perspective of someone who studied political philosophy and political science, I mean this from the vantage point of a consumer of news. And most of these big name news sources have been demonstrated to have a "liberal-slant" or bias, notably The New York Times and MSNBC among others. I read the Times and even I can tell when the liberal-bias pops up- it just doesn't bother me because their factual errors are far less prevalent than those on FOX news. MSNBC, however, has begun to do something pretty troubling, and I think this move is characteristic of something I noted once before and alluded to in my last post.

As the commenter above notes, there is a very real possibility that FOX news is the only right-wing outlet against the liberally controlled news sector because they sell themselves as such. I think the commenter is absolutely right in pointing out that there's something very wrong when we think we have to have a right-wing balance in our news media because it belies the fact that these outlets are in the business, to a great extent, of producing truth. And their narrative is successful to a great degree. What I wanted to point out in the last post was that Murdoch's problems have, in part, triggered an attack by other news agencies because this kind of dichotomy has triggered a battle between two ends of the spectrum who work to produce their truths and sell them. And the consumers allow that because that's what they want.

My whole point in mentioning the Chomsky hypothesis was to suggest that there are too many people who radicalize the position and expect the fault to be on the media-state relationship and that their logic borders on conspiratorial thinking. I wanted to suggest that there's actually a huge level of complacency from consumers of the media for what is broadcasted. We have bought the narratives and we like the narratives being delivered in accordance to our likings. This mode of media consumption has also generated cases where journalists do some rather questionable things ethically.

But I think there's something else worth mentioning in the construction of these right-wing versus left-wing narratives. Right-wing groups have consistently cried foul against the media for being unabashedly liberal and working against the conservative position. They insist that the media pursues a liberal agenda. I want to be clear- this is not all conservatives, just the loudest ones. And we have seen these groups even suggest, just last year, that NPR was an overtly liberal organization. This is clearly a stretch in my eyes, but nonetheless it demonstrates how the playing field is set up. The alternatives are set up as pushing one agenda leaving room for organizations like News Corp to push the exact opposite one.

So when I say that News Corp is the only right-wing outlet in a sea of liberal outlets, I suppose I am speaking from the vantage point of the consumer, not the careful observer. The narratives, unfortunately, do work and they do incur real reactions. In this case, Murdoch's troubles trigger a wave of news stories covering the scandal and being careful to mention Murdoch in as many instances as possible. This then becomes ample evidence for many that there is an overtly liberal ocean looking to crush the only conservative voice out there. These are real arguments people have presented me with, so its hard not to take them seriously in so far as this is the environment people are maneuvering in when it comes to their news.

My next blog post will have nothing to do with this subject. Promise.