The funny thing is that made news very profitable. Local and national newspeople were widely admired figures in the community. Local news in particular is a cesspit of pretty people talking about weather calamity, PR placements and whomever got shot today.
Eliminating the fairness doctrine opened the door for garbage content. That’s why Rush Limbaugh building off the fringe last night trucker talk show schtick became a force on hundreds of radio stations with millions of listeners in a time slot once dedicated to a half hour news segment and old ladies talking about knitting.
Rush created the mold for editorial that sounded like news. He had a real talent for entertaining commentary and good production value. His copycats had less talent and went more extreme, once they hit the bottom for broadcast, guys like Alex Jones took to the internet.
Rush Limbaugh once said that the whole point of his show was to "make the listener feel good." And doing so was the real reason for its success. He elaborated, saying his show wasn't meant to challenge the listener, but rather to support what the listener is already feeling. As much as I disagreed with him on just about everything, I gotta respect the honesty. And I think it describes where we are are with the news in America.
Yeah a lot of mass media discourse reduces to reinforcing cognitive bias. Its why everyone thinks their side is actually fighting the good fight, and just by being on said side, they too, are very good.
I worked in a farm in my early teens and listened to Rush all summer in the early 90s.
He was legit funny and entertaining then, as long as you weren’t the punchline. When he was past his prime, divorced and hooked on drugs in the 2000s it was different and really awful.
Eliminating the fairness doctrine opened the door for garbage content. That’s why Rush Limbaugh building off the fringe last night trucker talk show schtick became a force on hundreds of radio stations with millions of listeners in a time slot once dedicated to a half hour news segment and old ladies talking about knitting.
Rush created the mold for editorial that sounded like news. He had a real talent for entertaining commentary and good production value. His copycats had less talent and went more extreme, once they hit the bottom for broadcast, guys like Alex Jones took to the internet.