Posted on 01/25/2012 5:00:48 AM PST by Brent in TN
Vanity: What can we do to neutralize the power of the liberal agenda-promoting mainstream media?
Only two things have worked.
Don’t buy the paper, magazine or watch the network. Ratings and circulation is what counts to print and broadcast media.
Write letters to the advertisers. If the media don’t have sponsors they can’t stay in business.
Then you can do the opposite for the media that you support.
Those are pretty much your options.
Should have been done years ago. It’d take a massive organization campaign though.
Boycott their sponsors, BY name and be seen to do it!
I haven't watched broadcast television more than an hour in the last twenty years, and I haven't had cable in more than ten years.
I haven't watched an evening news broadcast since the mid-1980s.
Anything I want to watch I watch on the internet. I get my news here, mainly.
As I've said before, every news outlet is biased. I choose to get mine from a news outlet that's biased in a way I like.
That is if you want to replace coffee with ground grass clippings, soap with whale blubber, and toilet paper with a trusty corncob.
Best idea...just don't watch them. They know their ratings are in the toilet (near your trusty corncob).;-)
I found when dealing with large companies and their horrible service (not the same EXACT thing, but similar)
1. I write a letter. Not a postcard, not something preprinted. A letter in your own words, addressed to the head of the company and the head of marketing.
2. I make sure that I find every site where they market their product online. Then I post a comment—not a rant and not a shout—a realistic recitation of the situation.
3. I make sure that I link to those on my facebook page, and I ask all of my friends to go like my status or whatever.
4. Then I ask my friends to ask their friends.
After a while you have a small army focused on ONE thing, ONE event and that will start to get their attention.
Now if you multiply that by a large group—focusing like a laser beam you will get your way.
Your individual action is important, but there has to be something for the company to lose. Generating a well based, non-rhetoric filled, focused effort will have an effect.
Ranting and raving, using old slogans, extreme positions, etc. will not get you anywhere. Be articulate, clever, and show that there is a group if voices that are serious...and you will win.
I can’t afford to by most products advertised on the Lame Stream Media anymore - so I guess I’m boycotting without even trying.
If you have satellite tv you are pretty much being viewer tracked on the spot....ever check out that “Active” button on DirectTV? Stay off the networks.
I guess if it makes you feel good, do it. You’ll hear all sorts of people telling you they don’t watch this program or that program they think is biased. Sure, fine but that didn’t really change anything beyond making one person feel good. If serious, you should take the time to write letters to advertisers, local papers, blogs and websites that are read by more people than a self-selected cheering audience of people who think just like you do. Engage in debate and be intellectually honest.
1. Do not buy your local or national liberal newspaper and convince your friends to do likewise.
2. Do not watch ABC,CBS,NBC,CNN, PBS and their related networks. That includes not watching Football. Convince your friends to do likewise.
3. Subscribe to conservative news magazines such as the World. You need to support conservative publications as much as you need to avoid liberal media.
If just a few people started doing this each day, liberal media would be gone in a year.
We quit getting the Austin paper a long time ago. They have called many times to restart our subscription and I tell them to “fly a kite” or something similar. We watch little TV, other than local news.
It is better to pick one network like ABC and target only the companies that run ads during their news programs.
Liberals did that to Glen Beck and while it took awhile, it worked.
Ask Glen Beck how it worked for him.
Get a bunch of your Internet buddies and start a letter writing campaign. Be aggressive and pull no punches.
Having worked in the media I can say this.
Media outlets will continue pushing their agendas as long as they have $1 left to do it with. As has been stated here, their circulation/ratings is what attracts a potential advertiser. The poorer the circ, the less they can charge or the fewer advertisers they can attract.
The paper I worked at, once containing several sections and 30+ pages, now has about 10ish on a given day. This was the result of two things. Insane ad rates driving advertisers away and to the net where they got a better return for their ad dollar, and people sick to death of the BS we printed. People got sick of puff piece/psuedojournalism and simply stopped buying the paper.
Management however blamed everything but themselves and their agenda, poor editorial policies and decisions. NEVER expect a media outlet to do anything different than they do now. They are filled with old-school ideas that no longer work in the internet age. And their politics is only a portion of their problem.
Advertisers only respond to boycotts temporarily since the pressure is invariably temporary. Once the smoke clears, they are right back to placing their ad dollars where it makes business sense to do so. Remove the financial incentive for them to advertize at a propaganda outlet and all but the most agenda-driven of ad buyers will take their business elsewhere.
Don’t allow television or newspapers in your house. Works for me.
I don’t even have a TV connection at home, broadcast or cable. I do have a large screen TV connected to a PS3/BluRay player that I watch on occasion. As far as I am concerned, TV is all junk as are most Hollywood movies. The internet is where I (selectively) get all the content I want.
Yes. Massive focused boycotts can work. Even the threat of them works for the light-footed brigade and the race pimps.
But it will have to be a well organized, 501(c)(3) nonprofit with full-time employees and a popular message.
It could start here on Free Republic.
You can take the pledge to never purchase a product from a CBS news advertiser for the rest of your life. That message packs a wallop.
Then you could have a web site...say, iPledge.org, where people can check on the news/progress of the organization, download pledges for their families and sign up to take the pledge to boycott the advertisers. National databases could be developed for pledge petitions that could be shared with specific advertisers for specific offenses.
There could be iPledge.org billboards and internet advertising. There are a lot of people who put their money where their mouth is.
This could be done effectively.
I can only particite myself...by not watching, not buying. I don’t watch the networks, get most of my news from the internet (FreeRepublic is TOPS). I don’t go to the movies (the hell with Hollywood) and I don’t bank at any of th big banks. I boycott GE and GM. It may only be a drop in the bucket..but I vote with my wallet. At least it makes me feel a bit better.
Oh yeah, I use BING not Google.
So now what is the best way to reach people like you to let you know that our business is out there? Internet is very expensive and there are a lot of rip-off sites out there like yellowbook.com. Plus bad information (like a wrong phone number) will appear and, once published on the web, runs through every web crawler like a virus. On TV, at least we can control our message and make sure we're projecting exactly what we want to project. Facebook? A lot of people, like me, are not exhibitionist and do not feel comfortable on facebook. So people like me will never be reached via facebook. (Our business has a facebook page, but it is a business page and therefore it is restricted as to what we can do).
Even though there appear to be tons of options out there, local TV on the network affiliates has outperformed everything else.
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