One Wonders...

... to what extent you have to be either deliberately or genuinely thick in order to write Official Media Criticism. Take this headline, please:

If Fox Is Partisan, It Is Not Alone

My balls. Fox is the only entire news network with a partisan agenda. Every other network plays by different rules. This is not a very difficult point to grasp, unless you have Official Media Criticism to dribble out for the New York Times.

This is a very stupid article. See if you can spot the logical flaw in how John Harwood draws the conclusion that "partisan fragmentation throughout America’s news media and their audiences has grown significantly" based upon Statistical Evidence (and note also how Harwood, toolishly, is passing on the spin of these data thrown, in the manner of a spitball, by a Republican strategist):

In audience surveys from August 2000 to March 2001, Fox News viewers tilted Republican by 44.6 percent to 36.1 percent. More narrowly — 41.4 percent to 39.4 percent — so did the audience for MSNBC. The audiences of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central leaned Democratic.

Four years later, amid the Iraq war and President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, the audience data had shifted. Fox News viewers had become 51 percent Republican and just 30.8 percent Democratic, while MSNBC viewers leaned Democratic by 41.7 percent to 40.4 percent. Viewers of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central grew slightly more Democratic.

By 2008-9, the network audiences tilted decisively, like Fox’s. CNN viewers were more Democratic by 50.4 percent to 28.7 percent; MSNBC viewers were 53.6 percent to 27.3 percent Democratic; Headline News’ 47.3 percent to 31.4 percent Democratic; CNBC’s 46.9 percent to 32.5 percent Democratic; and Comedy Central’s 47.1 to 28.8 percent Democratic.

Comedy Central, one will note, is not in fact a news network. and so one may wonder just what the fuck it's doing here in a statistical breakdown of the partisan leanings of "America's news media and their audiences."

The answer of course is that including it makes a tendentious conclusion smell better; but still, its inclusion serves admirably to demonstrate that tendentiousness.

Because it does not take two, or more, to "polarize." It takes one. Fox gleefully went full metal GOP, and by and large other networks remained "objective" and "nonpartisan," according to the very strange interpretation of such concepts on the part of the media elites.

This was -- and largely remains -- the American media landscape when it comes to teevee news: one entirely partisan news/opinion/poo-flinging network, and then everything else is Village property, with the exception of three cable opinion shows (Olbermann, Maddow, and whatshisface), and then... uh, The Daily Show... a fake news program on a comedy network. And then Colbert. And that's it. (Moreover, it is worth remembering that MSNBC did not decide to go "partisan left" -- Olbermann did -- and Jon Stewart became a "liberal" opinion monger largely by default, in the sense that all he's ever really done is point out that the American right constantly makes up silly lies and is allowed to get away with it, which is "partisanship" in the sense that "recognizing the obvious" is "socialism." And also, remember, Olbermann is "balanced" by Scarborough, and Comedy Central tried hard at first to "balance" Stewart with that horrendous abortion of a Colin Quinn program, which was entertaining in the sense that your horrible sputtering drunken asshole uncle is entertaining when he gives you a hug right after he calls you a fag.) 

If the viewership numbers have shifted, this is pretty much entirely because of Fox. Fox viewers are convinced that every other media outlet is involved in a dark socialist conspiracy to destroy America (and that is not even exaggeration for comic effect), the Main Stream Media pretends the socialist conspiracy theory is One Side of the Story, and anyone who wants actual news, Lord help them, is fucked.

Hence this, from Harwood, is bullshit:

partisan fragmentation throughout America’s news media and their audiences has grown significantly. Future Republican presidents will have to decide, as Team Obama has, how to buck or accommodate that trend.

No, they won't. They will not face a liberal equivalent of Fox.  What they will do is not a mystery. They will pretend every other network besides Fox is "partisan," they will denounce The Media, and the Media will flog themselves over their imaginary offenses against imaginary "heartland voters," and the only news opinion shows worth watching will be on comedy stations.

Comments

[Bitter Scribe]

Bring back the Fairness Doctrine!

(OK, not really. I just like to say that to imagine the bile-spitting reaction.)

[Substance McGravitas]

Comedy Central, one will note, is not in fact a news network.

Opinions vary as to whether or not Comedy Central is a news network.

["Fair and Balanced" Dave]

Moreover, it is worth remembering that MSNBC did not decide to go "partisan left" -- Olbermann did

It's also worth remembering that in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, those staunch "liberals" at MSNBC fired Phil Donahue who was the only liberal host on the network at the time, and put uber-wingnut Michael Savage on instead.

[Thers]

Opinions vary as to whether or not Comedy Central is a news network.

And fair enough. I suppose if Fox "News" is "propaganda," "Comedy" Central can be "news."

[actor212]

Why is CNBC in there, also? It's a fucking business news network and rarely reports opinion, except where there is a nexus between government policy and a market.

Which is about as often as Comedy Central gives opinions about politics.

[herr doktor bimler]

So the preference of non-Republican TV viewers not to watch the Fox channel proves that other channels are also partisan?
Is that really what he is arguing?

[Substance McGravitas]

The existence of Jack Chick comics proves that funny animal comics are partisan.

[Alan in SF]

It seems to me that the viewership of CNN & the other non-Fox networks pretty exactly mirrors the American electorate -- that is, no one is more likely or less likely to watch it because of their, or its, partisan nature.

[Tony]

Seems like someone at the NYT flunked basic algebra...

[muldoon]

It's a pretty sad state of affairs when a comedy show is ranked as a news program. Not because the Daily Show doesn't do a great job but because it is doing the kind of homework that News Programs ought to be doing, and don't.

How many times have the liars and batshit crazies been given air time to freely babble nonsense? And never been called on it?

Small wonder this country cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction.

As someone smarter that me once said, "Opinions are like ass holes, everybody's got one."

[Robert Waldmann]

You have made the main point, but also note that the fraction of self identified Republicans in all the audiences is greater than the fraction in the general population (22%).

The worthless analysis presents a shift in the population away from Republicans as evidence of "partisan fragmentation"

The numbers must be scaled to be meaningful. The correct calculation is the probability that a given Reopublican watches Fox divided by the probability that a Democrat watches Fox. At the moment there are more than 1.5 Democrats for every Republican (says pollster.com). I don't see current numbers for Fox. With the old numbers 51 to 30.8 and the current population I get a Republican is more than 2.5 times as likely to watch Fox as is a Democrat.

For CNN now the ratio of probabilities is less than 50/43. This is not a number similar to 2.5. The guy can't handle arithmetic.

[dalton periphery]

...another thing worth noting is that in much of rural or otherwise flyover America, if you don't have premium cable, Faux is all you can get on the TeeVee, just as rightwing screamers are all you can get on the radio. You have to make an effort to get anything but Murdoch-approved (or approvable) propaganda, which becomes a sort of comfort zone for the low-information types; even so much reality as CNN will present seems strange and threatening to the veal calves of redstate America. Ever seen a parakeet shy away from an open cage door? (cows, parakeets, make up your mind already).

[Davis]

Remember the polls showing that FOX viewers were the most ignorant? You know, Saddam was behind 911, he had nuclear weapons, etc. They still believe it!