Eric Alterman, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is a liberal's liberal. Or maybe I should say, a lefty's lefty. And now he is seeking to "purify" the MainStream Media, doing his best--which will be a lot, because he has a powerful voice--to keep the MSM from ever putting on anyone with a conservative bone in his or her body. This blast of his today, Think Again: The Mainstream Media Opens the Door to Hate," is a major shot across any MSM bows that might be tempted to steer a bit to starboard.
After laying out all the "atrocities" of conservative and populist thought that he can fit into his screed, Alterman adds his punch line:
You will have noticed by now, I hope, that none of the quotes above can be attributed to Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, or anyone on Fox News. I’ve not even needed to go to the well for those old reliables, or Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage, or any of the other geniuses that populate our radio dial. Rather these are supposed to be the responsible gatekeepers of our system. And they are selling naked racism, sexism, and xenophobia. What’s more, they are doing so at a time when much of the Republican Party is basing its appeal on exactly this kind of exclusionary message, designed to imply that only white men can legitimately hold powerful office in the United States.
Yup, the old lefty bugaboo--the MSM is too conservative!
As an aside, Alterman is also a sometime Cable Gamer; I can remember that he was a "Friend" on MSNBC way back in the late 90s. You remember MSNBC's "Friends," don't you? That was the original incarnation of MSNBC, as a bunch of friends--just like the then-hot TV sitcom--sitting around talking about the news, as if they were all smart people at a Starbucks. Alas, Eric Alterman wasn't a good Friend; his nickname, then, was "Eric Altercation"--he was just too belligerent. But alas, TCG is showing her age once again.
But nowadays, Alterman is mostly writing, including a new book, Why We're Liberals. But he takes out time to hammer the MSM for being too conservative, for having on the likes of Lou Dobbs and Michelle Malkin. Dobbs and Malkin are not universally popular, but they don't pretend to be: they are pundits and commentators with sharp points of view and considerable followings. And types like them, especially Malkin, were never in the MSM until Fox News came along. Starting in 1996, when Fox News came on the air, the MSM started to lose viewers to the new upstart that was capable of defying the liberal orthodoxy by presenting the news, fair & balanced--and then by peppering that straight news coverage with some admittedly highly opinionated, and right-of-center folks like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. The MSM has tried, at various times, to respond to Fox, by hiring token conservatives of their own--remember when Michael Savage was a host on MSNBC? Or Alan Keyes? Or Glenn Beck on Headline News? Heck, The Cable Gamer is even old enough to remember when MSNBC's Chris Matthews was sort of a conservative! But of course, the MSM never had its heart in such hires, and so it wasn't long before Savage, Keyes, and Beck departed, and Matthews had his great "thrill" of conversion.
Obviously it's smart for the MSM to liven up their coverage with diverse views, but just as obviously, the Altermanian left hates it--hence this piece, "Think Again: The Mainstream Media Opens the Door to Hate." So what will happen? TCG predicts that this article will provoke much soul-searching inside CNN and ABC and elsewhere in the MSM. That is, MSMers will be asking themselves, "Am I too right wing? Am I opening the door to hate?" The questions are ridiculous, of course, but they will be asked, and answered--in the affirmative. TCG predicts that MSM producers and bookers will read this article and blanch at the thought that they are in any way helping the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. And so not only is Dobbs mostly out the door at CNN, but we will be seeing less of Malkin and anyone else.
PS: Newsbusters' Matthew Balan provides an early indicator of CNN's revised direction. Under the headline, "CNN Runs Glowing Segment About Pro-ObamaCare Rally," Balan details CNN's slaveringly pro-Barack Obama, pro-"single payer" coverage of a lefty townhall meeting:
These Democratic Party operatives got a glowing unpaid advertisement from CNN in the form of Moorhead’s report, but at the same time, some of the network’s talking heads, such as political analyst Gloria Borger, have also been quick to point out that conservative organizations have been helping organize the opposition to ObamaCare. On Wednesday’s Situation Room, Borger remarked that “some of them are real and some of them are manufactured,” meaning the angry protests at recent town hall events by several congressmen. She continued that “you have conservative groups out there...who are against health care reform. They’ve learned that it's very easy to organize groups via the Internet, and they’ve told people to go to places and to disrupt meetings.” When is CNN going to do state the same about the proponents of ObamaCare, such as the organizers of the Capitol Hill rally?
So from Alterman's point of view--and he is hardly alone--it's Mission: Accomplished. The MSM will be brought into line, leaving Fox as the one outlier. "Oh well," lefties will be saying to themselves, "can't win 'em all But we can win most of 'em."
