Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The Business We've Chosen



It's not news.  It's just business.

Donald Trump and Fox strike a truce

After 72 hours on the brink, the CEO called the candidate, and peace was restored in TV land.

A truce has been struck between Donald Trump and Fox News, as both parties chose to avert a path that could have threatened the summer ratings blockbuster the real estate mogul’s presidential campaign has become. On Monday morning, after 72 hours on the brink, Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes called Trump to assure him that he would be treated fairly by the network. And Trump, who according to a source with knowledge of the situation had threatened to boycott Fox News altogether, agreed to appear on “Fox & Friends” and “Hannity.”

“Donald Trump and I spoke today,” Ailes said in a statement released by the network Monday night. “We discussed our concerns, and I again expressed my confidence in Megyn Kelly. She is a brilliant journalist and I support her 100 percent. I assured him that we will continue to cover this campaign with fairness & balance. We had a blunt but cordial conversation and the air has been cleared.”

Trump made up too, in a tweet: “Roger Ailes just called. He is a great guy & assures me that ‘Trump’ will be treated fairly on @FoxNews,” he wrote. “His word is always good!”
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From the NYT in 2009:
Voices From Above Silence a Cable TV Feud

It was a media cage fight, televised every weeknight at 8 p.m. But the match was halted when the blood started to spray executives in the high-priced seats.

For years Keith Olbermann of MSNBC had savaged his prime-time nemesis Bill O’Reilly of the Fox News Channel and accused Fox of journalistic malpractice almost nightly. Mr. O’Reilly in turn criticized Mr. Olbermann’s bosses and led an exceptional campaign against General Electric, the parent company of MSNBC.

It was perhaps the fiercest media feud of the decade and by this year, their bosses had had enough. But it took a fellow television personality with a neutral perspective to help bring it to at least a temporary end.

At an off-the-record summit meeting for chief executives sponsored by Microsoft in mid-May, the PBS interviewer Charlie Rose asked Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of G.E., and his counterpart at the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, about the feud.

Both moguls expressed regret over the venomous culture between the networks and the increasingly personal nature of the barbs. Days later, even though the feud had increased the audience of both programs, their lieutenants arranged a cease-fire, according to four people who work at the companies and have direct knowledge of the deal.
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It's not news.

It's hasn't been news for a very long time.

It's just business.

And from Fox and Friends to Meet the Press, what you see and do not see on the teevee machine is decided by a handful of media moguls and global corporations, who act solely in their own political and commercial interests.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Those who run the Media/Political Complex can not be reached. They are impervious to pressure from "The Great Unwashed." No letter or tweet or Facebook post or petition or protest will change their actions.

The MOTU killed John Jr. They killed Paul Wellstone. They killed Michael Hastings and I'm afraid they'll kill Bernie as well. They have control of the levers of power and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep control.

Kevin Holsinger said...

Good afternoon, Mr. Glass.

Let's see. Analogies...

"The Fallen Angel" by Ed McBain. Story I read in grammar school. Trapeze artist joins circus. Makes an act out of falling to his death, only to come away unscathed. Circus becomes huge hit. Turns out the artist is the devil. Deal is, he stays in the circus, making it highly successful...for the usual fee.

Or you could go with "Dig That Cat, He's Real Gone" from "Tales from the Crypt." Guy gets cat-gland stuck in brain, which gives him 9 lives (science!). Becomes circus act, getting killed in various ways. Finally takes practically all the profits from the circus owner for one final performance.

Or you could go with "Printer's Devil" from "The Twilight Zone." Devil makes a newspaper highly successful by giving it the scoops on disasters...which it turns out the Devil caused.

Be seeing you.

Neo Tuxedo said...

They have control of the levers of power and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep control.

In the words of a great English poet, Old Charlie stole the handle, and the train, it won't stop going, no way to slow down.

Something about our so-called civilization is to humans as the Cordyceps fungus is to ants, but we can't see the source of the problem from the inside, only its effects.

Jimbo said...

There is little doubt that the right wing media, especially Faux News controls the segment of citizens that actually view and internalize the garbage it spews. But the average age of those viewers is 68 by the last survey. Then there is a large body of "Independent" voters, about half of which are low information voters (TrumP) and are highly unpredictable as to whether they will vote at all. That leaves disenfranchised voters (southern states and some northern and western states (OH, KS) and potential voters who have simply given up on the system. I figure that's about 10-20% of the electorate. So that means a potential Democratic voting bloc nationwide is probably only about 35-40% requiring a huge amount of turnout work in the South and Mountain West. Still may not b enough because of voter suppression and ballot fraud.