One more time: the nature of MSM

The political Right does not like MSM and neither does the Left.

But what is MSM? MSM is a collection of news outlets controlled and operated by large global corporations. And what do large global corporations do? They try to turn a profit each quarter. MSM does it by attracting large amounts of advertising dollars from other large global corporations via share of audience.

The right wing market fundamentalist often forgets this not so subtle fact. You see, the market fundamentalist only believes in the market when the market issues an appropriate reward. Any failure or loss is seen as something subverting the market outcome. When the polls show the market fundamentalist’s boy on top, then MSM should announce the poll numbers, and pronounce that all is well in the republic. When the polls show their boy on the bottom, then it must be because MSM is manipulating some left wing agenda to spin the numbers.

MSM is, however, a part of large global capitalism, which has no politics per se, except what is good for large global capitalism. However MSM reports the Iraq war it will be distasteful to somebody’s political sensibility. MSM only cares about that part of it to the extent it can homogenize or differentiate the news to fit the temper of the times.

If anything, MSM shields the public from unpalatable news such as wars gone bad. Take Iraq for instance. For a long time MSM was bought into the mission accomplished announcement made by President Bush. Then the terrible and tragic facts surfaced from reporters, soldiers, politicians, government officials, civilian workers, and citizens actually working in and for Iraq—all of whom decided to speak out against things gone tragically wrong.

MSM knows that bad news sells well too, especially when it comes in the form of a tsunami of irrefutable facts. Now, they report the tsunami. Even the most rabid right wing bloggers don’t talk much about things gone right in Iraq, for there are none. They talk about grand concepts like patriotism and kill ratios.

The right wing market fundamentalist is once again crying foul. It’s not fair that his boy is unpopular because the facts don’t fit his apologetics. When the market turns against the right wing market fundamentalist, then it must be because some Commie bastard has subverted the market.

But let’s never forget that both the Right and the Left do not like MSM. Let’s not forget that MSM loves us one and all—right down to the last penny in our pocketbooks.

And for golly sakes, if you are going to criticize the beast, at least learn the nature of it. It’s business and nothing personal.