Because I might have reiterated something he said means I didn't read it? My my, being assumptive today, aren't we?
Okay time to deconstruct your terrible mathematical skills. Instead of your hypothetical model of 50/50 liberal-conservative and 5 biased networks to one biased Fox theory. I present the following real ratings data: Cable News 2/3/2010 (last night) http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/02/04/cable-news-ratings-for-wednesday-february-3/41134 P2+ Prime Time FNC – 3,044,000 viewers CNN – 499,000 viewers MSNBC –792,000 viewers CNBC – 258,000 viewers HLN –710,000 viewers Wow your math FAILS! According to your theory the model should have an equal number on both sides since you claim the liberal audience is split among 4-5 networks while conservative only have FNC. Okay so libs combined had 2,259,000 against Fox's 3,044,000. That's 785,000 more than all other liberals combined. This just a sample from last night, when you look at monthly, quarterly and annual numbers, Fox is whooping all the other cable networks by a large margin even when combined. Now the hour by hour 5PM – P2+ Glenn Beck – 2,917,000 Situation Room—481,000 Hardball w/ C. Matthews —466,000 Fast Money —268,000 Prime News —207,000 6PM – P2+ Special Report w/ Bret Baier – 2,559,000 Situation Room—484,000 Ed Show —525,000 Mad Money— 216,000 Prime News – 217,000 7PM – P2+ The Fox Report w/ Shep – 2,244,000 Situation Room – 419,000 Hardball w/ C. Matthews – 664,000 Kudlow Report – 154,000 Issues – 471,000 8PM – P2+ The O’Reilly Factor – 4,091,000 Campbell Brown – 470,000 Countdown w/ K. Olbermann – 990,000 mar1juana Inc. — 359,000 Nancy Grace – 948,000 9 PM – P2+ Hannity – 2,684,000 Larry King Live —531,000 Rachel Maddow Show —783,000 American Greed. — 236,000 Joy Behar – 746,000 10 PM P2+ On the Record w/ Greta—2,349,000 Anderson Cooper 360 — 496,000 Countdown w/ K. Olbermann – 600,000 American Greed– 179,000 Nancy Grace –476,000 Each hour in Primetime is dominated by FoxNews by atleast 5 to 1 against the next best liberal competetor and by 2 to 1 by all libs combined. There you theory shattered, the American people are tired of the same liberal content that is why your networks are struggling to remain competative. Libs are dead or bankrupt in Newspaper media, Radio is a conservative stronghold and TV is shifting there as well. What are you going to resort to? Writing blogs on the interwebs? Facebook is going to be your little gathering area?
[QUOTE Libs are dead or bankrupt in Newspaper media, Radio is a conservative stronghold and TV is shifting there as well. What are you going to resort to? Writing blogs on the interwebs? Facebook is going to be your little gathering area?[/QUOTE] Yeah! FOX Rules!!! Libs Drool..................
Just a few things for you: (1) Congratulations, you looked up some real numbers to combat my obviously hypothetical situation. Those Fox numbers are indeed impressive. Oddly though, the ratio (3,044,000 to 2,259,000) is somewhat consistent with the conservative:liberal ratio in America according to various polls, so it's not really surprising. I'm still quite impressed by Fox, though. (2) You need to calm down. My situation was obviously hypothetical and I was merely trying to ponder why Fox could get such high ratings. Considering the consistency between the Fox:everyone and conservative:liberal ratios in America, it's pretty consistent so my idea still holds. Saying I have "terrible mathematical skills" and my "math FAILS" just because my hypothetical scenario was hypothetical is a bit combative. Again, I suggest you relax a little, take a few deep breaths. Fox will live. (3) I'm not liberal. I'm not conservative. Don't exclaim that they're MY networks just because you believe them (and probably myself) to be liberal. I hardly watch any news network, and if I do, it's sometimes CNN and sometimes Fox. Just because I disagree with you, you automatically declare me liberal. This is the kind of combative response from conservatives that continue to rub me the wrong way recently. Of course, I imagine a liberal will point at me and call me a conservative simply because I watch Fox news or have a conservative viewpoint on a few issues, so I can't really blame you. (4) I think I'll restate it, just for the benefit of your well-being: relax. I'm sorry if I insulted you to the point where you have to attack my mathematical skills because my initial hypothetical situation was indeed hypothetical. If I knew it was such a personal attack that would illicit such a violent response, perhaps I would not have posted it because I am concerned about your health. My apologies, again.
I consider myself free-thinking and not a part of any group nor affected by any group's opinion/actions. If someone proposes/says something that makes sense, I'll go with it.
So then you agree that the majority of Americans are indeed conservatives? The Math says 60% according to your agreed upon liberal to conservative ratio. This has been my argument for so long. If the majority of Americans are conservatives then why do 5 networks keep on pushing liberal views down our throats? Fox isn't the epitome of balanced news and i've pointed that out in my previous post. However, it is providing what the majority of Americans want to hear. The idea of a majority of the networks reflecting a minority view while one network in the minority showing the majority view. If that is not suicide from a business point of view then tell me what is? The liberal media is going bankrupt, the newspapers are obslete, on radio Air America is dead while Limbaugh/Hannity/Levin continue to dominate and now Fox is owning the major cable outfits. To me this is clear rejection of liberalism by the American people. However, we conservative continue to get attacked by the mainstream media machine as "narrow minded, backward, racist, anti-progress, right wing extremists". Finally, I would say that you seem like very reasonable person from your last post and had no intention of insulting you by my remarks. It was only frustration on my part. Being an openly conservative, I am constantly under attack by the Liberals on this board. Just look at the amount of threads the "proof GOPs are idiots" is getting. It's pathetic! Now I'll continue to argue my points based on facts but then these personal attacks seem to discourage any dissent. So you keep an open mind and forgive my aggression towards you thinking you were yet another lib arguing for the sake of argument.
I personally don't care too much for conservative slants or liberal slants. Whatever, that's really not important. Just like I've never had a problem with a conservative or a liberal even when their viewpoints on government is different from mine. I get that. But here's the question I ask myself: "Is Fox News Conservative-slanted? Or does it simply BS and spreads fear on irrelevant issues simply for the sake of ratings?" If you take a list of everything "conservatism" represents, and a list of things Fox News represent, I don't really feel they match.
Sure, why not? Polls have been indeed saying that. Does it matter? Not to me. I'll believe how I believe; what the majority of the country believes is inconsequential to me. That being said, I am increasingly dismayed by some of the filthy propaganda a large chunk of the country believes (Obama is a socialist trying to destroy America, for example). The magnitude of those people is disappointing to me. From what I've observed, the majority of liberals are quite apathetic about news/politics. Tons of them get their news primarily from The Daily Show, not CNN/MSNBC/etc. That's why a lot of liberal talk shows and newspapers are going under, not really because folks are becoming disenfranchised with liberal ideals; or, it's at least a large contributing factor. Again, I don't have any data/polls to back it up, but that's just how I feel. Conservatives seem more vocal than liberals, honestly. During the Bush administration, I don't recall seeing so much vocalization of displeasure by liberals as I do from conservatives now. If you tell me the governmental situation wasn't as bad then, I'm going to have to laugh at you. I'm generally against generalizations (har har), but because of the previously mentioned vocal aspect of conservatives, the extremists come to the fore-front a bit more often. There also seems to be a terrible habit from conservative politicians to attempt to rile up the emotions in these folks (again, claims that Obama is "destroying America" for example), again exemplifying the stereotype of conservatives. I realize that the majority of conservatives are probably intelligent and have novel ideas, but there's a very vocal extremist group that doesn't really appear to be there for the liberal side. This is where the stereotype really comes from, I think. You should try reading commenters on chron.com. Here's an example: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6850213.html Some of the "most recommended" comments are utterly ridiculous, in my opinion. This board may have a liberal constituency, but you don't have to go far to find an extreme conservative one. I agree that that thread's premise is silly, but so are some of the threads created by conservatives around here. If you feel you're getting attacked relentlessly, perhaps you shouldn't post on a board that leans left. Then again, I don't think there are any forums on the Internet that don't lean one way or another or don't have any form of extremist belief.
That ignores the fact that there a substantial # call themselves moderates. There are definitely more people that identify as conservatives than liberals, but neither is a majority. I think most polls show a 50/30/20 type split (moderate/conservative/liberal). Outside of MSNBC (which was essentially formed as a response to FOX), they really don't. Studies show this to be more perception than reality. I don't think the purpose of news is to provide people what they want to hear, though I do agree that's what makes a news station more popular. So the question there is whether you go for accuracy or viewership. MSNBC and FOX have gone for viewership. CNN has focused more on accuracy, for the most part - they try not to have the crazy Bill O'Reilly types, even though it pulls great ratings. Instead, they have people like Campbell Brown - a much better anchor in terms of hardhitting, balanced interviews, but much less entertaining. Or, as you said, FOX provides people with news the way they want to hear it. The other networks (minus MSNBC) simply don't launch into that level of bias, so they aren't nearly as popular. Also, CNN and MSNBC are much more trafficked as websites, so a lot of people who get their news from those sources do so on the web rather than the TV, for whatever reasons. http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2009/narrative_cabletv_digitaltrends.php?cat=5&media=7 But also, probably most importantly, you have to keep in mind the total audience size you're talking about here. Yes, 3MM people pick FNC compared to 2MM picking CNN+HLN+MSNBC. But how does that compare to the number of people picking the national news on ABC, CBS, and NBC? Your total numbers here are tiny in comparison, so I'm not sure it reflects a rejection (or acceptance) of anything in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps that's because some of your most popular spokespeople make racist, backwards, narrow minded statements. That's certainly not your fault and it doesn't reflect on you personally, but it does reflect on the public perception of the group when people like Rush Limbaugh are so popular within it, and no one within it is willing to stand against the things he says. There are lots of conservatives here like Refman who aren't under "constant attack" by liberals. I would venture to guess most of the "attacks" you face are a result of snarky comments as opposed to actual debatable arguments. Those aren't deserved, but they are a reality of posting on a BBS. I Posts like this one that you made here will result in more discussion and less attack.
