An Old Dispute

This is one of those awful days when I keep thinking about past disputes. I had one last year with several people about MSM.

My assertion was that television news was owned by large corporations. As such, those news business units were run by business models and marketing plans. So, there is niche marketing such as Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" concept which cashes in on conservative viewers and CNN's Lou Dobbs "Red Star Rising" and "America's Broken Borders" concepts which cash in on populist themes.

Some folks begged to differ with me. They asserted that there were some MSM organizations that were so public spirited that they did not have business models that catered to niche audiences.

Besides viewers, the large corporations who own the news must also have advertising revenues. You don't get or maintain those revenues by pissing off your advertisers by lack of audience. You can be a prairie populist news anchor and criticize big business as long as you get the audience and keep the big bucks rolling into the coffers. Even a critical news story on Wal*Mart reminds people they need to go there to pick up some cheap toilet paper.

What is a few disputes between big business friends when everybody's share price is rising?

It's the way business works in the current system. Maybe, I have missed something?