Monday, September 8, 2008
Barry / Media / Politics Memo to Bob Mueller and WKRN
Posted by Bruce Barry on Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 4:28 AM
“Forty million people tuned in to watch [Palin’s] speech. Thirty-seven million tuned in to watch the spectacle of Barack Obama’s Super Bowl halftime show without the football game.”Reuters, waxing factual, reveals the lie: Obama’s speech at the DNC was seen on American TV by 38.3 million people. Palin's speech at the RNC was seen on American TV by 37.2 million. This will strike some, understandably, as relatively small-bore prevarication in the grand scheme of things. But it came in the form of a direct and unqualified assertion of outright fiction as truth by a guy whom Mueller introduces on air as a “media and political expert.” Will WKRN correct the record and rebuke its “expert”? Or is the point of Mueller’s panel each Sunday to showcase expertise as the fine art of propaganda?
Comments (5)
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Are we surprised? Ultimately it looks like Steve Gill is using the "Republican facts" which are running so rampant in this presidential race.
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He's a right-wing talk show host - of course he makes shit up. Mueller has to be well aware of this and yet he continues to have Gill on the show. It's why I stopped watching it some time ago. Do I need Gill's lies and bile with my breakfast on a Sunday morning? I do not.
And don't forget to demand an apology from that right-wing lunatic fringe called the AP which ran the headline: "More than 40 million people see Palin speech"
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h1PNEAlNhi736iLSoZ4vEsFWALhgD9305CCO0
and from the New York Times, which contradicted its own stories by claiming Obama had over 40 billion
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/us/politics/01repubs.html?ref=us
Or, perhaps, as you suggest, this is relatively small-bore prevarication.
Mike S. apparently has some issues with reading comprehension. The AP story reports Palin over 40 million (correctly) because it is incorporating an estimate of viewship via PBS and CSPAN, which are not counted in Nielsen ratings. That same AP story also has Obama's speech over 40 million for the same reason. So one cannot assume that Gill's falsification of the difference between Palin and Obama viewship was an innocent reliance on the AP dispatch unless we assume that Gill (like Mike S.) is incapable of reading and comprehending past the first sentence. The reference by the Times to the 40 million number is obviously based on the same calculation.
What's most striking to me is the paucity of female panelists. So long as the show's producer favors a penis panel, viewers will continue to receive a message that the only women who know anything about politics are Liz Garrigan, Sandra Roberts and one or two more names I could mention.
The problem with Gill is that he has at least two forums: his show and his TENNESSEAN column. So much for any hope of escape from the effects of media consolidation.
Prior to these opportunities (one derived from the other), Steve's claim to fame was as a failed candidate.
Bob's show exists to impress the FCC come license renewal time. Channel 2 obviously doesn't care about the overexposure of most of Mueller's guests.
Note to WKRN: If you want intelligent political discussion from someone with a flawless voting record (I've voted in every primary and general election for which I've been eligible over the last 35+ years) and who, like Steve, is a print and broadcast journalist who has also been involved in local party politics (see my CV at http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/2851/author.html- Whoops! I need to update it), I'm your "girl."
Stacy Harris
Publisher/Executive Editor
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://www.geocities.com/stacy.harris/
