Notes from Media Training 101

On Wednesday I noted Ankle Biting Pundits citing an unpublished Gallup poll. I checked back yesterday and it still hadn't been published. Today however, it was.

Good news: The numbers were correct and slightly higher, but within the error bands, of the other polls.

Less good news: It doesn't support ABP thesis that the media is ignoring or under-reporting a story. It is, simply a non-story. Nothing much has changed and so, it's not really news. I note, in balance, the media in general a) conduct their own polls with higher error bars that are consistent with Gallup and b) the media are not beating the drum much on their own polls either. It's simply not real news in comparison to other stories. Media Training 101.

The other interesting thing to note is that a lot of right-leaning people are complaining that the media is not reporting "positive news on Iraq", and cite this as liberal bias. I would point out two things (also out of Media Training 101). First, the media almost never reports "positive news" on national stories like that. Simply, they are not interesting and don't sell as many papers as negative/divisive news does. It's simply a fact of life. Look at the Times or Globe or your favorite paper. Rarely does it say, "Mayor Doing Great Job" or "Senator a Swell Guy". Instead it says, "Dog Catcher Caught in Porn Sting" or "Bus Driver Takes Bus to Tryst With Dog Catcher". Why do they concentrate on low level officials doing bad instead of high level officials doing good? Because it sells papers! And, when they can catch high level officials doing bad, well, that sells a LOT of papers. It's simple economics.

Which brings me to my second point. In the '90s these so called 'liberal biased' papers were going after Clinton tooth and nail in an effort to catch him with his hand in the cigar jar. They were a willing enabler of the process of impeaching a president for a blow job. And while there was some cry of 'liberal bias' it would be hard to prove in a point by point analysis. Why did they do this? Because it sells papers, the only reason papers going into (and stay in) business. Exceptions exist on both sides of the political spectrum for very brief times, but no administration or media savvy organization would count on this. Papers don’t exist to find the truth, they exist to sell product. Occasionally finding the truth sells more product, but if not, the truth isn’t run.

My point? While everyone loves to have the coveted 'victim status', and current day conservatives love it every bit as much as their liberal counterparts, it's large a matter of whose particular ox is being gored at the moment, so take these things with a grain of salt. Tomorrow all the rules will change again.