Mediola

The pea game: which news channel is conservative?

Late Thanksgiving night, I caught a long-running political talk show on public access cable here in LA. On the panel was Patrick Caddell, who first came to public prominence as President Jimmy Carter's in-house pollster.

Caddell has for quite some time--years--been a regular commentator on MSNBC. I have seen him most often on Chris Matthews' Hardball. Caddell has also recently been acting as an advisor and writer on NBC's The West Wing.

It's worth noting that former Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers has a similar role on The West Wing, as does Larry O'Donnell, who is MSNBC's Senior Political Analyst. Earlier, O'Donnell was a senior adviser to long-time Democratic New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Does this seem to be some sort of conflict of interest? On the one hand, you can make a fortune writing what has for years been the liberal adventures of President Bartlet for a prime time drama, and at the same time you can be employed by NBC News as a political analyst. What kind of political analyst?

In any case, Caddell, a Democrat, said on the cable show that during the first three weeks of the current war in Iraq, he was told by MSNBC executives that his services would not be needed, because he wasn't sufficiently pro-Bush.

Is this an indication of what NBC News wants to be? Was this a desperate me-too attempt to get Fox viewers to watch MSNBC? They were afraid to broadcast independent voices about a war Americans were fighting?

Here is an indication of the current destruction of NBC News by the people I won't bother mentioning who run GE, NBC, NBC News and MSNBC. This is what I mean when I say the network news departments must be protected by federal governance, not left to be run by amoral morons whose desperation to make a buck outweighs their constitutional responsibility. And they accuse Fox of being biased! Fox leaves no doubt about where they stand--remember, "fair and balanced" is a marketing strategy, not a pledge of objectivity.

I really hope MSNBC becomes a shopping channel, or something equally harmless to our democracy.

Thanks for keeping the Democrats off the air, NBC News, while they were writing pious liberal crap on The West Wing. That sure helped keep us informed about the rationale for and progress of the war.

Dan
Go to DanCooper.tv

The future of broadcast news

Jack Wiegman emailed me this most gracious note:

"In addition to criticism of the (dead/dying) journalistic machine, I would enjoy seeing hints of what journalistic entrepreneurs might create as new possibilities. CBS will never come back so what should we build in its stead? Will we ever have small teams of journalists contracted to regional newspapers and broadcasters?

You speak of career as finding positions on large teams. Is that all there is? Is there no hope for the solitary journalistic entrepreneur? How does an individual in a small town write for the international market? Who (if anyone) is succeeding at this? Is stringing dead?

Do you have comments on Herd Effect? You know the scenario: Emerging reporters feel they must limit themselves to rewriting their competitors. Is it reasonable to encourage newbies to research and write their own darn stories for a change?

There once was a journalistic concept of writing the truth no matter what. Is this a bad career choice?

Thanks again. Your newsletter is magnificent!"

Thank you, sir. I wish I had taken assignments from you years ago.
I am going to try to respond to these issues while keeping the focus on what it means to you, as a working stiff in the media jungle (including you freelancers).

Larry Tisch dies at 80: Few did more damage to broadcast news

Appropriately, Laurence A. Tisch died Saturday, Nov. 15, 2003, at Tisch Hospital at the New York University Medical Center. The Tisch brothers (his brother Preston Robert, known as Bob) gave NYU many millions of dollars, and there are several NYU buildings named Tisch, including the Tisch School of the Arts. Tisch also gave $4.5 million dollars to restore the lovely Tisch Children's Zoo in Central Park. He was president of the United Jewish Appeal for a while. You get the point. Tuxedos, cigars, money, money, money.

Now we're going to cut the crap and talk about why it's so hard to get a job in broadcasting these days, why salaries have come down since the 1980's, benefits have been slashed, and huge numbers of jobs have been lost, and people thrown out of work.

In business, Larry Tisch was a bottom feeder. He bought cheap, built value any way he could, and sold for profit. Ethics and values were words he didn't comprehend.

Larry Tisch owned a company called Loews Corp. Loews owned Lorillard, the cigarette company, and Bulova, the watch company. With other acquisitions, including a hotel chain, an insurance firm and an offshore drilling company, Tisch grew Loews' revenue from $100 million in 1970 to more than $3 billion in 10 years. Cigarettes, offshore drilling -- good stuff to lay the groundwork to destroy a broadcast network.

In 1986, CBS was subject to several hostile takeover attempts. William S. Paley, the founder of CBS, was still top dog at that time. Ted Turner took a crack at it, but was fended off. But nothing could stop Tisch. He spent $800 million to buy a 24.9% ownership position in CBS, Inc. Just think about that price. Peanuts. But this was LBO time, and CBS had been weakened by mismanagement.

Tisch somehow pulled the wool over Bill Paley's eyes, and convinced Paley that he, Tisch, was a white knight. Paley actually publicly supported what was a hostile takeover. "I respect and admire him." said Paley at the time. He must have been dropping acid.