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posted by n1 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @02:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the make-media-great-again dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

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."


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by BK on Tuesday June 20 2017, @05:20PM (6 children)

    by BK (4868) on Tuesday June 20 2017, @05:20PM (#528595)

    As bad as FoxNews is and can be... compared to CNN in the last 2-3 years, Fox is 'Fair and Balanced'. Sometimes we make our own destiny?

     

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @05:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @05:26PM (#528602)

    You've eaten too much of the dog food, Fox news is at least as bad as CNN in the other direction, pretending otherwise is ridiculous.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by urza9814 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:13PM (3 children)

    by urza9814 (3954) on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:13PM (#528620) Journal

    There's a difference between balance and objectivity. Balance is when you give an hour of airtime to a math professor, then give an hour of airtime to a group trying to claim the value of Pi is exactly 3. Objectivity is when you only give the second group five minutes, during which you rightly point out that they're all idiots.

    You can be "fair" or "balanced" without being honest. In fact, trying to present all sides equally generally makes it nearly impossible to actually be honest -- because you have to pretend any idiot has a valid point.

    News organizations should try to report the facts, not the debate. Anything else just isn't the news.

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @01:34AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @01:34AM (#528834)

      This is +5 insightful?

      Wow, people have really fallen for the propaganda that the world is populated by morons, except for you of course, you're SPECIAL.

      The news was much better under the fairness doctrine, you can wish for 100% objectivity, purely fact based reporting, but that is naive in the extreme. Most news is closely tied to human opinion, and the fairness doctrine did not ensure that every wacko was able to spout off on TV. Your example is terrible, and actually in this "modern age" of information we had Bill Nye try and debate creationists which went very badly. We've got all sorts of bullshit pushed now as part of an agenda, but with the fairness doctrine no outlet would be able to be 100% partisan like they are now.

      Take your naive superiority complex and shove it.

      • (Score: 1, Redundant) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday June 21 2017, @05:27AM

        by cubancigar11 (330) on Wednesday June 21 2017, @05:27AM (#528903) Homepage Journal

        Its really hard to gauge the seriousness of your argument when you post as AC.

      • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday June 21 2017, @12:16PM

        by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday June 21 2017, @12:16PM (#528968) Journal

        The news was much better under the fairness doctrine, you can wish for 100% objectivity, purely fact based reporting, but that is naive in the extreme. Most news is closely tied to human opinion, and the fairness doctrine did not ensure that every wacko was able to spout off on TV. Your example is terrible, and actually in this "modern age" of information we had Bill Nye try and debate creationists which went very badly. We've got all sorts of bullshit pushed now as part of an agenda, but with the fairness doctrine no outlet would be able to be 100% partisan like they are now.

        My example was "terrible" probably because I didn't make something up but instead used something once taken as a serious proposal by politicians. In fact, it was passed *unanimously* by a state assembly. Look up "The Indiana Pi Bill" if you're curious.

        As for the fairness doctrine...yes, it's a good bill, and wouldn't contradict what I posted in any way. The fairness doctrine didn't actually say that they had to be "fair" or "balanced", it basically just said that they have to mention that the opposing viewpoint exists. So presenting the other side and rightly calling them idiots would still be acceptable under the fairness doctrine. It said you must present the opposing view, it did not say you have to give it equal airtime, nor did it say you have to present it as a good idea.

        I think the fairness doctrine is more about free speech than anything else. The FCC was limiting peoples' right to speak on the public airwaves by licensing monopolies to specific companies, so they passed a rule that those companies had to occasionally allow opposing viewpoints to use their frequency allocation as well. Which is less important now that TV is far less influential than the Internet.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @09:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @09:03PM (#528722)

    Rewriting the narrative is a lot harder when the truth is so blatantly obvious. Fox has been a cancer on news reporting for decades now. CNN has turned to massive shit, but they're still in the minor league.