It was my plan to write about the fact that media is no longer biased, but instead are simply “in the game.”  By that I mean that it used to be that they would tilt their reporting to favor the Dems (bias), but the debate the other night, as well as the efforts in its immediate aftermath the set the meme, is an advance from tilting reporting to actually campaigning for the other side (in the game).  The host, in declaring it the worst debate in history, still uses the language of bias.  That is simply inadequate.  Trump hatred, combined with Obama worship, are I think the forces that tilted media over the edge.  You cannot “adjust for the lie” anymore, and we need to talk about it in a way that accounts for that fact.

There is a lot of movement, back and forth between the world of government and the world of media.  Nowadays if you are out of office, you seem to end up as a “contributor,” or writer, or presenter to draw a paycheck until you get back in office – that’s been true for a while.  But the ties are deeper than simply getting a job.  This PJ Media piece is a bit breathless, but it illustrates how deep the connects are with Democrats.  Linsey Davis, one of the debate moderators, was Harris’ sorority sister.  The Disney exec overseeing ABC News is a very close personal friend of Harris.  This is not merely sharing an outlook or worldview, this is taking care of a friend.  For Dems and the media, the connection is extremely personal.

Immediately above this post is the transcript of the host’s interview with Rich Lowry and Andrew C. McCarthy this morning.  In it, McCarthy iterates his contention that there is a Democrat/media complex and declares media the senior partner.  That’s a very interesting observation.  Let’s connect some dots.

I have a very good personal friend with deep ancestorial connections in the TV business.  He has long contended that things with media went awry when cable TV came up and TV news was no longer regulated as a public trust.  For the youngsters, TV broadcast bandwidth is very limited on the air.  Back in the dinosaur age, before cable TV, you had three, maybe four, channels to watch, and news was regulated to maintain neutrality.  The much beloved Walter Cronkite was, for example, a deep Democrat, but you did not know it when you watched his broadcasts.  When cable came along and space was no longer limited and 24 hour news channels arose, the regulation disappeared.

The other thing we need to consider is that those seeking election, and more importantly those in office, need media to access the voters.  News is the quickest way to get that media for free.  It was also learned, very early on in the Kennedy/Nixon debates, that you had to play by TV’s rules to have a genuine impact.  (Hence CSPAN has not moved the needle much.)  Thus, the job of our politicians has a huge dimension not typically considered – they have to be TV stars.  Put more plainly, they have to suckle at the TV teat.  McCarthy is probably right – media is the senior partner.

Back to changes in media.  As news became unregulated, it needed ratings to survive.  Part of the regulatory deal was that news was considered public service broadcasting and was not expected to generate revenue for the networks, or locals.  But with the rise of cable that all changed – 24-hour news channels were now revenue generators – thus they had to cater not to the news but to the audience.  Nowadays that generally means narrowcasting – finding a niche audience and picking their pockets over and over and over again.   Conservatives simply don’t watch that much TV – they generally have better things to do – thus media has gradually turned very liberal.  The talent in news is virtually indistinguishable from Hollywood talent and that weighs the scale even more in the leftward direction.

And so we come to where we are – the media is no longer reporting, its advocating.

So, here is a proposed solution.  It is in our hands.  Stop watching.  That’s it, just stop watching.  Think about it.  Watching MSNBC just to be able to throw bricks at the TV is still eyeballs on ads and revenue for the network.  We have to close down the reward cycle – we have to cut off the revenue the advocacy generates.  Print media is not much better, but there is a wider variety.  Somebody needs to put an app on all those digital TVs out there that is a news reader – so the average couch potato can scan the print media like I do with tools available on my computer.  That app should make it easy to find multiple viewpoints on a single issue.  In this age of Ai that should not be too difficult.  So, if you are reading about Harris’ latest pronouncement on immigration, the app will suggest what Trump said and maybe a link to actual immigration statistics.  The biggest problem we have right now is if Fox is covering issue X, you have to sit through 30-40 minutes of MSNBC to get the countering view.  This way it comes right up.

Debates, BTW, should just be done — over.  No Republican should ever agree to do one ever again – even on Fox.  We have to break the reward cycle completely.  And if there is a debate, don’t watch.  In the end it is up to us.

But whatever we do, we can’t talk about “bias” anymore – we have to talk about advocacy.