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A couple of Time Warner shareholders went after CNN CEO Jeff Bewkes Thursday in LA at a Time Warner shareholders meeting [...] David Almasi, the Veep of the National Center for Public Policy Research1, a conservative communications and research foundation, is in LA to question Bewkes. Both Almasi and President David Ridenour are Time Warner shareholders.
[...] “Mr. Bewkes, we have urged you many times to make CNN more objective,” Almasi said in his statement. “You have admitted to us in 2014 the need for more balance. We praised you last year after CNN President Jeffrey Zucker also acknowledged this and acted on the need for more diverse views. But bias is apparently worse than ever. As shareholders, we are concerned about the repetitional risk to our investment in Time Warner as CNN appears to be a key player in the war against the Trump presidency.”
Almasi cited a Media Research Center2 study of CNN programing for 14 hours and 27 minutes of news coverage back on May 12. The report concluded that all but 68 minutes were devoted to Trump with 96 guests out of 123 being negative.
[...] “I’m inquiring about CNN’s bias and our return on investment,” Almasi continued in his statement. “Half of the American public – which includes potential and current CNN viewers – voted for Trump last November and supports his agenda. CNN acts as if it is part of the anti-Trump resistance. Are you willing to lose viewers, possibly forever, because of the bias?”
Almasi even threatened Bewkes, saying that Media Research Center plans to alert advertisers about news programs that “peddle smear, hate and political extremism.”
He asked Bewkes, “Are you concerned about advertisers leaving CNN? Will you continue to ignore our appeals for objectivity at the risk to our investment in Time Warner?”
Source: The Daily Caller
1The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a self-described conservative think tank in the United States. In February 2014, at Apple Inc.'s annual shareholder meeting, NCPPR proposed Apple "disclose the costs of its sustainability programs" was rejected by 97% vote. The NCPPR representative argued that Apple's decision to have all of its power come from greens sources would lower shareholders' profits.
2The Media Research Center (MRC) is a politically conservative content analysis organization based in Reston, Virginia, founded in 1987 by activist L. Brent Bozell III. Its stated mission is to "prove—through sound scientific research—that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday June 20 2017, @03:25PM (21 children)
It's really that simple. Even if you could find some magical objectivity wand, the product that would come out is *inherently more boring* than having a "personality" "packaging" and "delivering" their opinions alongside someone else's opinions. Reporting these days is largely no longer about news. If it were, you wouldn't care about Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, or Unknown Person bringing coverage to you. If it were, we'd still have Headline News with a complete newscast every half hour in a predictable format. If it were, the advertisers would be *paying* for objectivity to occur - and we know they DON'T.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday June 20 2017, @03:34PM (20 children)
That's kind of the point the financial guys were making, we have trustworthy viewership numbers and trustworthy census numbers that "you" that is implied to be nobody is actually a good solid 321 million people in the USA who currently avoid watching propaganda.
If they cut back on the "workers of the world unite" trash, just a tiny tiny microscopic little bit, such that 1 in 300 current non-viewers became new viewers, that would triple measured viewership numbers, which is crazy.
We're not talking about replacing MSNBC with re-enactments of the Nuremberg Rallies, just cutting back enough on the antifa stuff enough to get 1 in 300 people to stomach the probably still ultra left wing propaganda, and that tiny little bit would triple viewers and revenue.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @03:50PM (11 children)
There's no such thing in America. Casting anything in the media or politics here as such is hyperbole.
Unless CNN is championing farming collectives or re-education camps for those suffering from false consciousness, they can in no way be called left wing, much less ultra left wing.
A person would have to travel to Cuba and spend significant time there to experience real left wing anything, but they would have to do that soon because that place is changing rapidly, too.
As a bugbear, the Red Menace has lost currency. Nobody cares. Stop using it.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:10PM (1 child)
I'm not sure the absolute stuff matters. If the 50:50 point is currently located at Hillary v Trump and virtually all journalists are members of one party, then "Well, technically the 50:50 point is not really centrist at this moment planet wide" doesn't matter to the local problem of the country is 50:50 and the workplace is 99:1 or rounding to essentially 100:0 in practice.
100:0 is still a failure mode, regardless of todays location of the 50:50 point.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:36PM
The 100% figure works if you're talking about Establishment vs. everyone else. That recognizes that the Establishment projects itself in two colors, red and blue, that have no real material difference among them in terms of policy outcomes. We've watched the media cheerlead for Power through several sea changes of Republican to Democrat and vice versa, because that's really whose side they're on. In that light the exact split of which color the individual members of the media are becomes irrelevant.
But if you do believe the color they choose is materially relevant, then you must concede there are large, significant swathes of the media that are not blue, but red. You can choose to drink the red Kool-Aid instead of the blue, if you want.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:30PM (3 children)
There's no such thing as America. *There is no 'west'. There are no 'people'*. There is only the market collective, and economies of scale. Capitalism is more communist than Communism!
And 'terrorism' is the New Red Menace**, even if we do actively support it [brookings.edu], and of course the best opportunities emerge when you can play both sides [newsofbahrain.com], right?
** If anything has lost currency, it's this left/right bullshit
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:45PM (2 children)
That's true about terrorism in a general, outward sense, but it isn't a drop-in replacement for the Red Menace because even now nobody really seriously accuses the other side of the aisle as being secret supporters of ISIS. One side does, however, still smear its opponents as communists.
The left/right divide is bullshit, but it hasn't lost currency. Observe the daily wash of "Our tribe is RIGHT! Your tribe is WRONG!" in every medium, everywhere, even here.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:53PM
The left/right divide is bullshit, but it hasn't lost currency.
Well, you're right. It does sell. I cannot deny the value there, but that is its only real value, measured in dollars changing hands.
even now nobody really seriously accuses the other side of the aisle as being secret supporters of ISIS.
They don't dare! They all are. It would be a true case of the *assassin accusing the assassin*. It is a real Mexican Standoff.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @07:16PM
Hillary is the founder of ISIS!
(Or was it Grand Emperor Baraq Hussein Soetoro? I don't remember. One of the two. So there you go.)
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:17PM (4 children)
When you are sitting on the extreme right, everything else is left.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @07:39PM (3 children)
But Nazis are Socialists, right? Maybe the ends of the political spectrum follow the curvature of the universe and actually meet on the other side. So...VLM is not a nazi but a socialist. Ahhh, he is the Leftist.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 20 2017, @08:24PM (2 children)
Sigh. nazi = derogatory slang for national SOCIALIST workers party.
Remember when Trump met those union guys and declared the Republican party was the American Workers Party and the liberal tears were delicious, LOL? Yup, that's my God Emperor.
Trump's more of a civic nationalist anyway, not bad, but not as good as some alternatives.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday June 21 2017, @03:01AM
The fact that you refer to him even in jest as "God-emperor" reveals a lot about you, none of it good. And yes, I get the reference; that's what half of what makes it so awful. Grow up, you fucking manchild.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 21 2017, @04:46AM
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei? Ya! Nazis! VLM is not one of those. He is of the National Socialist Party of America, more likely. But it is always so difficult to keep the fascists straight, they fight among themselves so! For example, the National Socialist Party of America was a fork of the National Socialist White People's Party, which in turn was a rebranding of the American Nazi Party after the assassination of its leader George Lincoln Rockwell in 1967. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_America [wikipedia.org] as usual is invaluable, even though less reliable when fucking Nazis are trying to scrub the record.
But the false equivalency is on the term "socialist". And, as usual, uneducated Americans are easily diverted and confused. Squirrel!! Hillary!! Now there are different meanings to "socialist", or in the preferred term, "communitiarian". It is the idea that the assets of a society are possessed communally. But with "Nationalist" socialists, of any nationality, the commune is limited to a particular nation or ethnic group. (Although not equally at that.) Socialism per se holds that there is no such nativist or ethnic or racist limitation on humanity. In this regard, Socialism is in agreement with Liberalism. Liberalism is the idea that every human being is, in some sense at least, equal. Human rights are universal. Socialism of the universal variety just expands this to property. So to the degree that "National Socialism" is not universal, it is in fact illiberal, anti-catholic (catholic is Latin for "universal"), and just racist.
.
So, vlm, why do you think that any of us should regard you as part of our commune, unless we go with the universal definition of socialist? I don't know you, bro! Trump was born in the Bahamas! Not an American!
(Score: 1) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:00PM (5 children)
Then I'll rephrase...
If it were, you wouldn't care about Bill O'Reilly, Chris Wallace, or Unknown Person bringing coverage to you. If it were, you'd be getting news and not propaganda from ANY domestic American news outlet.
Most importantly: If it were, the advertisers would be *paying* for objectivity to occur - and we know they DON'T. Which you didn't answer.
Or do you think Fox News is currently on top of the heap because they're Fair and Balanced? And oh-so-objective? Sorry, I don't.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:17PM (4 children)
OK cool. If you want to not make money of 321 million people, I strongly encourage the establishment to continue its status quo.
If someones stuck in a hole and their response to "stop digging" is "no I like it down here and I'm gonna keep digging" well, have fun with that. Workin great, right?
There's no free market, there's a microscopic fringe essentially nobody watches. Doesn't have to be a fringe to be news. Does have to be a fringe to remain unwatched yet pure propaganda.
Lets try an analogy. Lets say you put on a Star Trek Convention and only approx 0.5% of the country cares. Some businessman points out, "yah know, if you ditched the sci fi and put in some country music and beer taps you could probably get more than a rounding error of the culture and community to pay attention to your little summer festival". Actually its even weaker than that, a businessman points out that "yah know, if you didn't have security phaser anyone wearing a star WARS tee shirt, you'd make a little more money"
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 20 2017, @04:26PM
That analogy is awful. I came up with a better one.
You're running a Star Trek Convention and trying to sign up marketplace people to turn gold pressed latinum into fake tribbles while cutting you some rent.
Oddly enough there seems little demand for Harry Potter sellers at your Trek convention. WTF man? Are they cheap? They're just not interested? Oh surely the problem is there are none, none at all, everybody loves Trek because, hey, Star Trek Convention! Nobody should sell Harry Potter merchanidise, there's no market, look at the Trek convention stats for Harry Potter merchandise...
(Score: 1) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday June 20 2017, @05:55PM (2 children)
Your (or rather TFA's investors) assumption seems to be that the 321 million people would suddenly come around and start watching CNN if only they'd get more "objective." Or a greater fraction than those that currently are. Or that being more objective would effectively be stopping digging a deeper hole.
News has become entertainment, whether one likes it or not. (If it was ever anything but that in the first place anyway.) Trying to make it less entertainment and more factual (which is what I presume the cry about "objectivity" is,) is not what will give the shareholders more value (presumably why they're griping.) That entertainment needs perspective because, sadly, news plainly delivered doesn't sell.
In both of your convention analogies, as far as I can follow them, sure you can do lots of things to try to broaden interest. Comic Con has done so quite successfully - anyone else remember when it was pretty solidly just about Comics? But this, to me, seems more like the Comic Con people are being accused of not being Comic-y enough and they need to "get back to" just talking about Marvel and DC's print titles and kill all those stupid panels about Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts, and Guardians 2. Because that'll surely bring more crowds in!
Finally, it is *all* about the advertisers, sadly. Which yes, ratings plays a huge part of the equation in. I'm still not following why the thought is that "more objectivity" will put more eyeballs in front of their screens. History does not, sadly, bear that out.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 20 2017, @08:19PM (1 child)
The way I read it is you're analyzing a fringe extremist hobby like its mainstream.
I'm looking at it as a fringe extremist activity. Those Never increase attendance by going more extreme. Going more extreme is how they corner their odd little corner of the market.
Yeah I'll tell you what else doesn't sell, infotainment. Nobody watches that stuff. "TV News" used to be dominant in culture. Now nobody watches it.
On one hand I do have to agree that the nightly news decades ago had better ratings because of fewer choices. On the other hand that can't be entirely it.
Because implementing the opposite has led to declining graphs for some decades now? OK fine you can claim that going partisian infotainment has slowed the inevitable decline. But if your assets are trending toward zero maybe thats the exact right time to pivot. If you know looking at the graph that your doors will close in a decade, doing almost anything other than BAU seems responsible and can't provide much worse of an outcome.
(Score: 1) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday June 20 2017, @10:10PM
Good points!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:26PM
Christ, if you think *CNN* is that extreme, go watch RT sometime. Please. I think the world might appreciate the resulting cranial explosion ;)
And RT is actually kinda tame these days...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:29PM
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/april-2017-ratings-msnbc-is-no-2-in-prime-time-thanks-to-rachel-maddow/328262 [adweek.com]