Again, Mr. Jay Mundy points us to some more interesting numbers on today’s mainstream media.

Rasmussen Reports states that based on the results of a recent series of polls the Associated Press, local news stations, CNBC, and MSNBC are all seen as having a liberal bias by their viewers. They also state that based on some earlier reports NPR and CNN also lean to the left. Fox News jumps far to the right in political bias. The article also reports: public opinion was such a major force in the immigration debate that now interest on Capitol Hill has peaked in reviving the Fairness Doctrine.

I think that a lot of us realize that such media does present some information with a political bias. But as it is, this could be a lot more valuable than inducing the Fairness Doctrine on the nation’s media. "The Fairness Doctrine was a United States FCC regulation requiring broadcast licensees to present controversial issues of public importance in an honest, equitable and balanced manner", in essence restricting our freedom of the press. The regulations were brought up in federal court as a violation of our First Amendment rights in 1969.

As with the economy and business, healthy competition has the ability to bring up new and innovative information. If that competition within media were to be locked, a result of the Fairness Doctrine, the potential for discovering new information in politics and media would be seriously hampered. I am a big proponent of protecting and preserving our Constitutional Rights and would not like to see these regulations enacted on our public communications. We have a right to know anything and everything about how this nation is being governed and used. I do realize that there may be some restrictions of information in order to protect us from our enemies which in SOME cases, not all, is appropriate.

More to come on this topic. Off to work. Cheers!

Rolling through my daily reads I came upon a post by Robert Gorell of FutureNow. Newspapers, as I’ve been discussing lately, seem to be leaning toward increasingly irrelevant forms of getting news. Robert brings up an interesting point concerning publishers; are they growing weary of newspapers being given a run for their money by online news and television? One has to wonder if those holding ownership and investment, albeit a great deal of investment as in Warren Buffett’s case, will ultimately be the death of the paper news medium. Are they willing to risk their money to try and hold out against the internet onslaught? Nahhh– They will just convert their paper to pixels. I.e.– see USA Today, embracing the social media craze and a revamped website. But there are others such as philanthropist Eli Broad concerned about the future of newspapers, specifically the L.A. Times, "I believe that a newspaper is a great civic asset and that ownership
is best in the hands of foundations or wealthy families that want to
own it for reasons other than maximizing profits… I also believe newspapers should remain in local hands." See article by USNews.com.

Publishers these days have the assets to keep a newspaper going which is bringing in less than significant numbers. Money makes the world go round. Will their money keep the papers rolling around the world???

More to come later, got some paperwork to get through.