Liberal Media’s  Ongoing Quandry

 
Has anyone else noticed that the silent majority seems to be involved in a silent boycott of all the biased news outlets that have been attacking President Bush, our military and the nation's Christian heritage this past year?

 If we believe a 2004 report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which collects and monitors circulation data for newspapers and magazines, the liberal press is in deep doo-doo.  Some of the nation's largest daily newspapers reported steep circulation declines and overall circulation is down across the industry.  The top 20 papers are suffering the largest weekday and Sunday declines, among them the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.  Fancy that, eh.

 Two years ago, Newsday, Hoy, The Dallas Morning News and The Chicago Sun-Times were caught overstating their circulations by tens of thousands of copies each day.  The parent companies of these papers had to set aside over $130 million to reimburse advertisers.

 Even the liberal AP admitted it:  "Circulation declined at most major newspapers across the country in the last half year, the latest blow for an industry already rocked by a scandal involving circulation misstatements that has undermined the confidence of investors and advertisers."

 In 2004, the liberal L.A. Times reported a major loss in circulation numbers -- down by over 53,000 subscribers in just the first six months of that year and still declining.

 In November of 2004, The Washington Post's Executive Editor, Leonard Downie, Jr., met with hundreds of employees to outline new plans to combat ever-declining circulation.  The plans slowed the bleeding some but didn’t really help.

 As I repeatedly reported in other places, the newspaper industry has struggled for years with stagnant or decreasing readership levels.  Most liberal newspapers are losing money.  Many are almost bankrupt.  So, they inflate their actual sales numbers so they can charge advertisers more.  That keeps them in business for a few years longer.  Until they get caught, that is.

 The problem is, these companies are also lying to stockholders about the health of the corporation when they do that.  The Securities and Exchange Commission kind of frowns on that stuff.  Which means, these newspapers will soon see multi-million dollar fines -- some are quietly arguing their case for that already.  Then, they will realize much less income because they will be forced to lower advertising rates to where they should be, based on their actual circulation.  That will, of course, put them even deeper in the red.

 For those newspapers already running in the red, this means they will probably be going out of business soon.  Interestingly enough, this mostly seems to apply to the liberal rags.  Many conservative publications seem to be doing just fine.

 Of course, this is a natural shakeout.  Old Media -- the liberal contingent, anyway -- is no longer respected, or even believed, by what is approaching a majority in this country.  After all, this is the dawning of the age of the New Media, and a more honest and fact-based viewpoint.  The palpable liberal media bias so obvious in the last two presidential election cycles went far to show the American people just how completely twisted and out of touch Old Media really is.

 Unfortunately, though, Old Media is too stupid and/or bullheaded to realize they are stabbing themselves in the gut by being so blatantly biased.  They refuse to clean house and hire reporters to report the news instead of "journalists" who want to twist the news to the left.  Or, perhaps media corporation stockholders are willing to sacrifice their investments for the promotion of socialism.

 Anyway, we look for another major wave of lay-offs to begin at the larger newspapers starting by the end of this year.  By this time next year, there will be a few thousand well experienced liberal scribblers out of work and wandering the streets. (Unfortunately, some will then become teachers.)

 Those who can do straight reporting, and/or write from a conservative viewpoint, may be very much in demand.  As Old Media gives out one last gasp of reorganization to save their newspapers -- their publishing corporations -- their stockholders may very well demand that they dump the "journalists," try a round of honest "reporting" and perhaps tend towards a more conservative bent.  If not, the writing is on the wall for them all. Few will survive the next five years.

 Should we care?  Yes.  We still need local newspapers.

 But, after the way the mainstream liberal media trashed President Bush these past few years, I'll have to say that they deserve what they get.  Which, ultimately, could be bankruptcy.