@Frank Apisa,
Frank Apisa wrote:
It tells me you are clever at asserting a fiction which strengthens a position you favor.
I do, however, agree that there is little doubt that a fair measure of whether the US media is dominated by left or right would require all sorts of "it depends" factors being considered. But a more interesting take than the one you proposed might be:
What do people outside the United States feel about this?
Well your assertion about media dominance referred only to the American media, and I replied to that. I believe it is generally recognized that relative to the distinctions between left and right that prevail in this country the main media outlets including newspapers the main TV networks and most entertainment enterprises are by their numbers mostly left wing by our usual standards. This includes the leading newspapers including the NY Times, Washington Post and the main papers in Los Angeles, Chicago and most major American cities , as well as the principal TV networks (with the exception of Fox). This has been true here for several generations.
I'll agree that existing right wing talk radio outlets and the Fox network get a lot of attention now from their liberal opponents, but apart from them and the Wall Street Journal , there isn't much out there.
Why is it necessary for you now to change the subject and address our presumed political position relative to the rest of the world? The fact is that politics throughout the world changes continuously. Canada and Australia have elected governments far more conservative than ours. The tide of economic performance that once sustained the social welfare states of Europe has been receeding for over two decades, as growth stagnates and chronic unemployment of the young becomes the norm. Reactionary conservative movements are rising in France, Hungary and other countries. It's a dynamic, changing situation and I think you should rethink your sweeping generalities and implications. I'll readily agree that the U.S. has long pursued more conservative econbomic policies than most European States since WWII, and that difference shows in our relative economic growth rates and average incomes. That said we have lost a lot of our former advantages in economic performance over the past decade and particularly since our limp economic recovery from the last recession. I have a few right wing opinions about that too.
