I Understand Lou Dobbs

Does Lou Dobbs feel sheepish about finding himself the troglodyte of American broadcasting?

That is a rhetorical question. To be the troglodyte of American broadcasting -- TAB -- is to have broken through to the sweetest spot in the media business. You've reached the heights of the form. You're going for immortality in your profession.

Curiously, it looks easy. Any Neanderthal, it seems, could do it. You don't have to be smart, you have to be stupid. Just let all your bias and anger hang out. Don't filter.

Actually, reasonableness and nuance are easy, conflict is hard. The TAB is that person, on radio or television, who, through mind-numbing repetition, is able to articulate and represent a point of bitter conflict in American life. Making this more difficult, the TAB has got to do this before America knows it's a point of bitter conflict. The TAB has got to become one of the main characters of this conflict.

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Comments

[Plus15]

As well as you do Murdoch?

[DestinationsUnknown]

I wonder why none of these cable outlets hear AMericnas Screaming for real news?

I wonder why all the cable and msm repeat the same stories over and over and over

Is it any wonder why Americans do not rank in the top 25 for Worldwide ranking in education?

Do you think the msm has assisted with this decline? I surely do

Where was HUFF Post yesterday with the Health care Protests in DC 7-30-09?

[jrw712]

I'm wondering if the correct understanding of Dobbs derives from a dwindling audience, i.e. a progressively smaller number of consumers of the product he delivers. So Dobbs and other purveyors of the same type must compete ferociously for market share, which, after all, determines their ratings and consequently their compensation. And they compete by introducing "new and improved" products that they hope will draw comsumers from their particular niche market. Of course, with the ever more rapid introduction of new products, the shelf life of products already in the market drops with corresponding rapidity, especially in vew of the free, multi-media, global advertising that coincides nearly instantly with the roll-out of new product. Indeed, reporters, and all their ilk, line up to be the first to spread the word on the very newest and greatest entry in that marketplace. Cycle time dwindles, and on and on. Perhaps the correct model for the analysis of this particular phenomenon is the grocery store tabloid.

[ReedYoung]

That's the most generous interpretation of Dobbs' "editorial decisions" possible, and the most cynical, and I'm afraid it's also correct.