Freedom of the purse

There seems to be a lot of talk concerning what is or is not news lately. The FOX News Channel, (FNC), though rated higher than its four major competitors —CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC — is being criticized by the White House administration and its supporters. Many believe that the FNC is reliable in its reporting and displays a more balanced view in the programming it airs, while major network programming is often slanted left and far past the mainstream liberal view.

Have you ever noticed that liberal talk radio and television hosts complain that the government needs to step in to provide much needed support to lift up the news industry, while conservative talk show hosts and the FNC are looking to fill positions of reporters, graphic artists and on- and off-air technicians? Bill Press, a liberal radio host, says that radio stations aren’t giving them a chance. Oh, yes they are!

The consumer will pay for what he wants, and he doesn’t want Bill Press.

His national audience, which hangs somewhere around 100,000 is slightly more than that of local Kansas City radio host Chris Stigall. So why should the White House interfere with FOX News and conservative programs? They shouldn’t. The free market works.

People support FNC and its sponsors, which is how it prospers. Support for the advertisers of The New York Times has fallen off, because, they say, “we have fallen on hard times,” referring to the recent announcement that the Times was slated to lay off 100 more employees by Dec. 10.

Why is it that four major news networks and several major newspapers are calling for community and government bailouts, while the FNC needs no such help? Well, of course, it’s the freedom of the purse. If you like what you’re getting, you’ll pay for it. People liked what they saw when they watched ACORN getting caught ripping us off and spanked publically. Viewers of this story saw this as a truly awesome report. Only the FNC reported it, with ABC on their heels a not-so-rapid six days later. Those networks are no longer on the cutting edge, because they are in the tank for the current administration. The mainstream liberal media will go off the air if they are not bailed out by the government. And if they are bailed out by the government, they will become state run and will no longer be news.

Jerry Maccoux, St. Joseph