Two thoughts
1. Why are liberals so upset about the DeLay Rule? I know that liberals’ response to anything that comes from the Republican Party is shock, dismissal, and outrage, but on this issue they should be gleeful. Come on, liberals, think about this for a moment: If Tom DeLay is indicted, and if the case is credible, then the Republican Party in the House will be saddled with this guy for a long time. Think of the headlines! Think of the posturing! Nancy Pelosi might hold a press conference that people might actually care about! (I’m not being dismissive of Rep. Pelosi, I’m just being brutally honest about the importance of House Democrats in opposition.)
The people who should be outraged, by the same token, are Republicans. DeLay is putting his career ahead of the party’s needs. Sorry, Tom, it doesn’t work that way–or it shouldn’t.
2. Why do broadcast networks have network news anymore? Okay, there may be a profitable niche here–but the demographics of nightly news broadcasts are skewed to the precise opposite of males aged 18 to 34 (the stereotypical ideal age group), at least if advertisements are any clue.
With the turnover in anchormen, CBS and NBC have an opportunity to axe their expensive news facilities and either repackage with a cross-branding from a cable news network or simply give up on the program whatsoever. Evening news, at least, can’t be all that profitable, and there’s more money to be made elsewhere. The natural candidate for stopping their news operations is CBS, which could partner up with CNN in order to save money. We’re in a post-sentimental age, and I doubt that anyone would miss the CBS Evening News that much.
7 Responses to “Two thoughts”
Well, they have all of the infrastructure, so I think they should try to put out an even better news program. No reason to toss it all away. Plus, anything that staves off the centralization of the news media is a good thing in my book.
My analysis hinges on the assumption that the variable costs of producing the program are a much larger component than the fixed costs.
But, and here’s the thing, ending network news isn’t centralizing the news infrastructure. Granted, it does reduce the number of televised outlets for news; but there are other vectors for news, and diversity of outlets does not imply diversity of thought, research or conclusion.
I don’t think the Democrats will ever gain any benefit from the DeLay situation because the Republican leadership has been so successful at painting his potential indictment as a partisan witch hunt. And even though the smear on the prosecutor seems to be groundless, the media’s habit of portraying two sides to all stories will inevitably lead them to continue to report it.
Anyway, the image of the Democratic legislators cowering in Oklahoma to prevent a quorum in the Texas legislature is pretty embarrassing, too.
I was thinking mostly in terms of human capital, but you may be right.
You’re definitely right that the extra news outlet does not automatically lead to more diversity in the news. However, it does lend itself to that possibility, a possibility that would seem to be foreclosed by closing the news section. The potential would not be lost if you think that the internet or another network would pick up the slack, which I hope it would. I guess it’s a just a new roll of the dice.
If Tom DeLay is indicted, and if the case is credible, then the Republican Party in the House will be saddled with this guy for a long time. Think of the headlines! Think of the posturing!
Well, yeah, and this is how it starts. Democrats aren’t complaining about the Delay rule because they think Republicans will listen, they’re doing it because it’s an early chance to start jabbing away over upcoming indictments.
wahoofive, a call to the female senator from Texas concerning this slime of a biased and partisan prosecutor would be in order. Beldarblogspot.com or Beldarblog.com (can’t recollect)also had an extensive outing of this democrat POS. It isn’t myth making. Rudy G’s record as a prosecutor won’t stand much scrutiny either, for that matter, but he was just a hack, not a partisan one.
There’s a big difference between being upset and being outraged.