A Partisan Press?

Tim Rutten, the ever observant media columnist for the LA Times caught on to something I've not been paying attention to. We have long known that Fox News is the media outlet for the GOP. But what of the other cable news outlets?

After watching the recent Democratic Debates, which I missed, Rutten noted something, that the show was right out of Barnum and Bailey. In fact, Rutten points out that our media outlets are all choosing up sides -- not for ideological reasons, but in search of the buck. With Fox taking in the GOP faithful, what of the other outlets. With Keith Olberman as its face, MSNBC has become the network of the Democrats. CNN, which is the original cable news network, Rutten suggests has become the voice of the "Independent" populist crowd. And who is its voice and face? Well Lou Dobbs.

Dobbs, Rutten points out (because I don't watch him much) has taken up the anti-immigrant, anti-free trade populism, and gives hints he might enter the ring himself -- a sort of newborn Perot candidacy.

As for this trend; he writes:

Cable's descent into partisanship probably has gone unremarked upon because it occurred simultaneously with two other trends: the harsh politicization of nearly every aspect of American life -- the great red/blue divide -- and media consumers' growing insistence that television entertain them at every available minute.

Clearly, some significant number of our fellow Americans think it's fun to watch angry people rant. Others among us would prefer to watch something more dignified, say, a cockfight. (Actually, it might be entertaining to watch O'Reilly and Olbermann locked in an empty room and going at each other with luffas. It's impossible, though, to imagine being amused by anything involving Dobbs.)

Of course it would be nice to get a bit of nonpartisan coverage -- but don't we really want to hear the news that's in sync with our own poltical views? Those owners of the cable news outlets -- they're not dummies. They know how to make a buck!