Has a DUer solved the mystery of CNN's recent sharp right turn?

[DeepModem Mom]

0007 has posted that Rove is using CNN as his "hotline" now because of the "heat on Fox." This sounds entirely possible to me -- that Rove is applying the screws to CNN somehow, bigtime, because Fox has been pretty effectively "outed" as a propaganda arm of the WH.


On edit: CNN has been swerving right since Ted Turner lost control, but some DUers have noticed an even sharper right turn very recently, and speculated on the reason.

[demnan]

1. I think CNN went downhill

when Ted Turner sold out to AOL. This is just the aftermath. But I'm sure Rove tries all that heavy-handed stuff with all the media simultaneously, that's why he's so effective.

[cthrumatrix]

2. it's just another "tool" for TPTB ... to control the people

[xchrom]

3. they've been right wing for ages now

ever since fox became a ratings threat.

[onecitizen]

4. Agree and I think.........

Wolf Blitzer has a lot more influence in recent years. I mean, it's practically a one man show now.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Some DUers have noticed an even sharper turn to the right very recently...

and speculated on the reason for it, with the election near.

[GiovanniC]

7. It Got MUCH WORSE Last Week

Before it was sort-of right wing, but not as bad as Fox. Now, it's just as bad as Fox ever was.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. The people in the WH

call every network and threatens them. If they ever see a negative story about Bush, Condi, KKKRove and Cheney pick up the phone and make threats. I read an article during the 2000 campaign. They told how KKKRove called CNN when they did a report on the chimp being AWOL....he threatened to call the SEC if they didn't drop the story. They dropped the story like a hot potato! I'm sure they have a nice long list of threats they use.

[readmylips]

8. It's the MONEY....

CNN is trying to capture Fox's audience and they can only do it if they have 24/7 slander and sex.

[sui generis]

9. it's all marketing

CNN has a vested interest in making sure that their poll numbers are close to keep us on the edge of our seats, and that there is "conflict" in it's reporting, however manufactured, because bad news is what makes the news and sells advertising.

[seventhson]

10. Didn't Michael Moore say the Saudis own like 30% of Cnn/Aol/Time Warner?

or did I imagine that

I thought it was in Fahrenheit 9-11

but maybe I misremembered

[UTUSN]

11. A Less Sinister, But Equally Insidious Theory: ACCESS

Changes of ownership/management are significant. That said, they are whores for ACCESS. Last year they were in a mess about having known about something-or-other done by (Saddam?), the pickle being that they continued playing footsie with certain perps from desperation to continue getting ACCESS. I don't remember the specifics, even the players. (How's that for a top o'the line argument, no details.)

They took a lot of wingnut heat for being the CLINTON-NN. It looks like they are just Pravda for whoever's "in".

[librechik]

19. exactly--they are establishment whores

and if there is a change, they will hold their noses and stick em where the sun don't shine--again.

[tandot]

12. Freepers and right-wing fundies are organized and email/call whenever they

hear something they don't like. If a network gets lots of complaints from those Nazis, they are more likely to change their tone to what they think is the "voice of the people."

Just think about Whoopie and Slim-Fast. She got fired because Freepers posted links and phone numbers to Slim-Fast urging other freepers and their friends/families to complain threaten to boycott their products.

A lot of us Democrats just sit there, scream at the TV or turn off. I am guilty of that, too. But I have gotten better in emailing them to let them know what I think of their propaganda.

[Atman]

16. Your response is huge!

"A lot of us Democrats just sit there, scream at the TV or turn off. I am guilty of that, too. But I have gotten better in emailing them to let them know what I think of their propaganda."

Pretty much sums up the whole problem, asfaik. I sat with a luke-warm Kerry supporter the last weekend who simply thought I "watched" too much DU. He didn't like Bush, but pretty much was right in line with whatever the teevee was saying was going on -- and it was ME who spent TOO MUCH time on DU! I explained the premise of the "LBN" section, that DU doesn't write the news, that LBN is just an aggregation of stories from around the globe and that DU just links them up because the American Media won't cover it. Then I got the "phhhtt....it's just the internet" dismissal.

A significant percentage of Americans really do believe pretty much everything they see on "the news," perhaps a throwback to the days of "I saw it with my own eyes!" and PT Barnum hucksterism, but they do believe it, and still easily dismiss "the internet" the way people my age (45) used to dismiss the term "Made In Japan." In time, of course, that may change. But for now, it is absolutely correct that too many of us dems simply get pissed off and post to DU or blogs and forget to hit the proverbial pocketbooks!

Write those e-mails!

[tandot]

18. Thanks, Atman. I think the only reason Bush is still so high in the polls

is the news coverage, or WH propaganda.

It is beyond me how over so many Americans still support someone so incompetent.

Bush and his regime know how to use the media for their propaganda. And all of the Bush supporters appearing on TV are well-trained in regurgitating the talking points. Then all those terror warnings and alerts that are seldom questioned by journalists.

I guess the Bush folks have figured out that every time they raise the topic of terrorism and install fear, their poll numbers go up.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/07/30/campaign.fear.reut/index.html

SNIP

"In one we asked half the people to think about the September 11 attacks, or to think about watching TV," Solomon said. "What we found was staggering."

When asked to think about television, the 100 or so volunteers did not approve of Bush or his policies in Iraq. But when asked to think about Sept. 11 first and then asked about their attitudes to Bush, another 100 volunteers had very different reactions.

"They had a very strong approval of President Bush and his policy in Iraq," Solomon said.

SNIP

The Bush Regime is taking advantage of that...

[Atman]

20. I drove to NYC from Hartford Friday, NO Bush/Cheney stickers

Down and back! I was specifically looking for them. Plenty of generic "America" stickers of one flavor or another, but not ONE B/C sticker. I saw several Kerry stickers, although not as many as I would have liked. Still, whatever number of Kerry stickers I saw, I saw NO Bush stickers.

AND, as I've posted recently, most of my sales of anti-Bush stuff are coming from Ohio, Florida, Texas and California.

The numbers are ALL bs. We're being played like a cheap fiddle.

Now, shhh...Kerry is speaking live now, and I want to hear Dana Bash completely talk over him then cut away!

[enough]

13. Bushco supporters

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/47530.php

TIME-WARNER TBS - AOL (donated 1.6 million to GW's 2000 campaign)
(owns CNN)

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

14. It's a dessert topping!

No! It's a Floor Wax!

It's everything above and one more: It is no secret that every big media corporation wants Round 2 of media deregulation. Corporations like...ohhh say...Time-Warner? Well, the maladministration has been using the promise of that deregulation like a carrot and stick The deregulation is the carrot. The media corporation, and the "talent" that stands to make even bigger salaries, are falling all over themselves to help the Chimp, because that they know under Kerry, the whole complexion of things will change. "Certainties" would no longer be certainties.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Adding research I posted on pol. contributions of Time Warner bigwigs...

Thanks to actappan for posting information that led to this search. Record of contributions comes from www.fundrace.org .


Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Parsons: Bush, $2,000

Jeffrey L. Bewkes, Chairman, Entertainment & Networks Group, which includes CNN: Kerry, $2,000

Board members on the site:

James Barksdale: Bush, $2,000
Stephen Bollenbach: Clark, $2,000
Stephen Case: Bush, $2,000
Frank Caufield: Kerry, $2,000
Miles Gilburne: DNC, $12,500; Clark, $2,000; Dean, $2,000; Gephardt, $2,000; Kerry, $2,000
Carla Hills: Bush, $2,000
Kenneth Novack: DNC, $30,000; Kerry, $2,000
Francis T. Vincent: Bush, $2,000


Financial information about Time Warner can be found at this link, provided by actappan: http://money.cnn.com/news/companies/research/research.h...


I have no idea what, if anything, all this tells us about CNN's recent sharp turn to the right. (It would be interesting to have a conversation with Mr. Bewkes.)

[Jack Rabbit]

17. Even if that is true

Even if that is true, it doesn't explain why CNN is such a willing whore.

CNN has been a willing whore of the junta for several years, like most of the establishment media. Just as much as The New York Times, CNN has a lot for which to answer over their uncritical reporting of the junta's case for war in the winter and spring of 2003.

[69KV]

21. I don' know when Ted Turner sold it, but

I noticed CNN take a very sharp right turn all the way back in 1991 and I have hated them ever since. Huge contrast, seeing CNN take the lead reporting on environmental issues in 1990, and then pimping for Bush's "war in the Gulf" in 1991.

They're as bad as Fox and I have thought this for a long time.

As far as I'm concerned, McNeil-Lehrer on PBS is good, C-SPAN is always useful because they are truly fair and balanced, and as for national news on TV there are three legitimate networks and only three: ABC, NBC, and CBS.


Screw CNN.

edit: let's start boycotting their advertisers too!