Across The Media Universe: Tying Up The Week's Loose Ends Edition
Recruiting from the blogosphere is not without its risks--for both sides. The acquisition of blogs by big media companies can alienate the very readers they're looking to pull in. Bloggers who join the mainstream press trade freedom for a steady paycheck but could get swallowed up by the larger media brand.While we would've been interesting to see how Congdon could've developed as a web-type commentator vloggette, Ana Maria Cox probably got off the Wonkette bus just in time. She'd done all she could with her make-your-momma blush jokes and was primed for the big time.Wonkette founder Ana Marie Cox and ex-Rocketboom anchor Amanda Congdon are good examples. Now that they're at Time.com and ABC.com, respectively, neither enjoys the same high profile as during her original blogging gig. It's hard to shake the impression that the traditional media banners for which they now work have blunted their insurgent charm.
Radio Antennas Lean Right?: Ever get the feeling that the talk radio dial skews rightward? Well, turns out you're right. (Uhmm, we mean "Correct.") A study released yesterday shows that 91 percent of the major outlet talk programming is conservative. According to MediaWeek:
Despite inroads made by Air America Radio and other Progressive Talk programming, talk radio remains a conservative bastion, at least among the biggest radio owners. That was the unsurprising conclusion of a new report jointly released Thursday by the Center for American Progress and Free Press, which examined the programming for 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial owners: Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting, Cumulus Media and Salem Communications. (The report did not include Air America radio stations or non-commercial radio stations.)So basically, the study found that stations that aren't Air America or National Public Radio overwhelmingly tilt conservative. Pardon us as Public Eye begins trolling the academic listservs for grant money to investigate our hypothesis that MTV doesn't seem to show videos as much as it used to.
Journalists Donations Fallout: MSNBC's investigation into journalists' contributions to political campaigns has claimed its first direct victim: New York Times Ethics Columnist Randy Cohen. Cohen's weekly column was scheduled to be picked up by the Spokane Spokesman-Review this weekend, but once the paper got wind of his 2004 contribution to MoveOn.org, editors decided against it. According to the paper:
Features Editor Ken Paulman, who moved our popular Wheel Life column to the Sunday Travel section in part to make room for Cohen, spoke for the newsroom this morning when he said it would by hypocritical of us to run an ethics column by a journalist who is in violation of our own ethics policy. Had he been a Spokesman-Review staff member, he would have faced suspension, at least, for his misstep.As far as justifications and rationales go, Cohen's analogy to donating to other groups like the Boy Scouts (featured in Public Eye yesterday) was one of the sounder ones. A lot better than the New Yorker writer who compared his political contributions to murdering Hitler.So, we're dropping the column. We'll look elsewhere for a publishable ethicist.