History Main / StrawmanNewsMedia

* Type 4: The media are vapid, caring more about celebrity hijinks and [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome missing white women]] than about things like wars, poverty and corruption that are affecting far more lives. The news desk will be staffed by [[HotScoop women who look like they came out of a fashion magazine]] (or [[PublicExposure a men's]] [[PageThreeStunna magazine]]) instead of reporting on the goings-on in the world. Likely to display a bad case of WorstNewsJudgmentEver. Sometimes, this will overlap with Type 1 or 2, with the government or Big Business using these fluff stories in order to distract people from their less reputable activities. Other times, however, it is simply [[NetworkDecay selling out for ratings]] -- people don't want to be told that they're living in a CrapsackWorld, they want to escape from everything.

* Type 4: The media are vapid, caring more about celebrity hijinks and [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome missing white women]] than about things like wars, poverty and corruption that are affecting far more lives. Likely to display a bad case of WorstNewsJudgmentEver. Sometimes, this will overlap with Type 1 or 2, with the government or Big Business using these fluff stories in order to distract people from their less reputable activities. Other times, however, it is simply [[NetworkDecay selling out for ratings]] -- people don't want to be told that they're living in a CrapsackWorld, they want to escape from everything.

* A type 4 appears in ''InvaderZim'', when a [[Expy Girl scout Expy]] gets her foot stuck in Zim's lawn. The media flocks to report on the horror that the poor little girl is going through.

** A variation is that the media ''does'' cover war, crime, and poverty -- [[IfItBleedsItLeads to the point of obsession]]. Lurid stories and [[YouCanPanicNow scare tactics]] bring in stronger {{ratings}}, leading to the news media covering such things to the near-exclusion of all others.

->'''PR Guy:''' Our company is skilled in many other things that are never reported by the biased media.
->'''Media quote:''' Our company ____killed___m____other t__________er_________e______________s_______a.
->- [[{{Dilbert}} The Dilbert Principle]]

-> "''Do we have a free press today? Sure. It's free to report all the sex scandals, all the stock market news, [and] every new health fad that comes down the pike. But when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff" Such stories are not even open for discussion.''"
->-'''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb Gary Webb]]'''

-> "''Do we have a free press today? Sure. It's free to report all the sex scandals, all the stock market ->news, [and] every new health fad that comes down the pike. But when it comes to the real down and dirty ->stuff" Such stories are not even open for discussion.''"

-->- [[{{Dilbert}} The Dilbert Principle]]

** If they're conservative, then all of the writers, editors and, in the case of [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks cable news]] or {{radio}}, hosts will be [[StrawmanPolitical strawman]] [[{{Expy}} expies]] of RushLimbaugh, GlennBeck, and AnnCoulter, declaring that the only "true" Americans are white, heterosexual Christians who support the troops (''i.e.'' the Pentagon and the defense contractors) and everything that they do overseas. Often, it will be run by a major corporation that has a vested interest in an aggressive foreign policy and loose business regulations, overlapping with Type 1. Any resemblance to the FoxNewsChannel is purely coincidental.

** Britain has at least one national newspaper in every position. ''The Times'', the ''Daily Telegraph'', and possibly ''The Guardian'' are either Type 1 or Type 2, depending on your point of view. Papers like the aforementioned ''Daily Star'', the ''Daily Mirror'' and the ''Daily Sport'' are solidly type 4, ''The Daily Mail'' and ''The Daily Express'' are Type 2 and ''The Sun'' behaves like a Type 2 while actually being a Type 4.

** If they're conservative, then all of the writers, editors and, in the case of [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks cable news]] or {{radio}}, hosts will be [[StrawmanPolitical strawman]] [[{{Expy}} expies]] of RushLimbaugh, GlennBeck, and AnnCoulter, declaring that the only "true" Americans are white, heterosexual Christians who support the troops (''i. e''. the Pentagon and the defense contractors) and everything that they do overseas. Often, it will be run by a major corporation that has a vested interest in an aggressive foreign policy and loose business regulations, overlapping with Type 1. Any resemblance to the FoxNewsChannel is purely coincidental.
* Type 4: The media are vapid, caring more about celebrity hijinks and [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome missing white women]] than about things like wars, poverty and corruption that are affecting far more lives. Sometimes, this will overlap with Type 1 or 2, with the government or Big Business using these fluff stories in order to distract people from their less reputable activities. Other times, however, it is simply [[NetworkDecay selling out for ratings]] -- people don't want to be told that they're living in a CrapsackWorld, they want to escape from everything.

* OrsonScottCard's novel ''Empire'' depicts pretty much every media outlet except for FoxNews as a left-wing type three.

->'''Media quote:''' Our company ____killed___m____other t__________er___e___s_______a.

* In many video games where the protagonist is [[LaResistance a rebel]] fighting the [[ManBehindTheMan shadowy leaders that control the government]], you'll get to see or hear news broadcasts of either type 2 or 5. These are usually comically inept and utterly unconvincing, as to underline [[ViewersAreMorons for the player]] that we're dealing with an UnreliableNarrator. Or it's just PlayedForLaughs. BeyondGoodAndEvil and the new {{Starcraft}} come to mind.

* In many video games where the protagonist is [[LaResistance a rebel]] fighting the [[ManBehindTheMan shadowy leaders that control the government]], you'll get to see or here news broadcasts of either type 2 or 5. These are usually comically inept and utterly unconvincing, as to underline [[ViewersAreMorons for the player]] that we're dealing with an UnreliableNarrator. Or it's just PlayedForLaughs. BeyondGoodAndEvil and the new {{Starcraft}} come to mind.

** If they're conservative, then all of the writers, editors and, in the case of [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks cable news]] or {{radio}}, hosts will be [[StrawmanPolitical strawman]] [[{{Expy}} expies]] of RushLimbaugh, GlennBeck and AnnCoulter, declaring that the only "true" Americans are white, heterosexual Christians who support the troops (i.e. the Pentagon and the defense contractors) and everything that they do overseas. Often, it will be run by a major corporation that has a vested interest in an aggressive foreign policy and loose business regulations, overlapping with Type 1. Any resemblance to the FoxNewsChannel is purely coincidental.

** A variation is that the media ''does'' cover war, crime and poverty -- [[IfItBleedsItLeads to the point of obsession]]. Lurid stories and [[YouCanPanicNow scare tactics]] bring in stronger {{ratings}}, leading to the news media covering such things to the near-exclusion of all others.
* Type 5: The media are controlled by [[SoYouWantTo/WriteAConspiracyTheory some kind of conspiracy]]. Usually overlaps with the other four types. The masters behind this scheme to defraud the public tend to be more outright evil than among the other types, usually amounting to alien overlords, foreign spies, unpopular ethnic groups (ex: Jews), unpopular religions (ex: Scientologists), unpopular political groups (ex: Communists), or any other type of unpopular group (ex: nerds).

* In RealLife, every major news outlet has been hit with Type 3 over the course of its existence. FoxNewsChannel and talk radio stations usually gets the conservative version, [[AmericanNewspapers the newspapers]] and, more recently, {{MSNBC}} often get the liberal version, and {{CNN}} has gotten ''both''. Once again, please remember the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment.

** Britain has at least one national newspaper in every position. ''The Times'', the ''Daily Telegraph'' and possibly ''The Guardian'' are either Type 1 or Type 2, depending on your point of view. Papers like the aforementioned ''Daily Star'', the ''Daily Mirror'' and the ''Daily Sport'' are solidly type 4, ''The Daily Mail'' and ''The Daily Express'' are Type 2 and ''The Sun'' behaves like a Type 2 while actually being a Type 4.

<<|TheWarOnStraw|>>

** A variation is that the media ''does'' cover war, crime and poverty -- [[IfItBleedsItLeads to the point of obsession]]. Lurid stories of violent crimes and disasters bring in stronger ratings, leading to the news media covering those topics to the near-exclusion of all others.

* The media in VForVendetta was squarely in Type 2.

*** To that end, NBC and MSNBC usually don't do stories harming GE, CBS doesn't badmouth Viacom, ABC doesn't go off on Disney, and Fox won't say a bad word about RupertMurdoch.

In fiction, the news media will be presented in one of four ways:

-->''Sunday papers don't ask no questions\\

--->--'''Joe Jackson'''

WRONG!

---> Sutler: What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television... I want *everyone* to *remember*, why they *need* us!

* The classic example of Type 2 - George Orwell's NineteenEightyFour, where the government control was so intensive that they had an entire department devoted to altering historical records.

* USTV in ''{{inFamous}}'' falls squarely into Type 2. It is pure, unadulterated propaganda claiming that [[BlatantLies the situation in Empire City is fine]], and blatantly tries to cover up the very existence of Cole.

*** To that end, NBC and MSNBC usually don't do stories harming GE, CBS doesn't badmouth Viacom, ABC doesn't go off on Disney, and Fox won't say a bad word about Rupert Murdoch.

** A particularly infamous example of this was in 1898, when the yellow press arguably ''started a war''. Following the explosion of the ''USS Maine'' in Havana Harbor, Hearst and Pulitzer immediately started blaming the Spanish for the explosion, and published sensationalistic stories about Spanish atrocities in Cuba. The result was the Spanish-American War. A [[UrbanLegends common myth]] claims that Hearst told his illustrator Frederic Remington "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war" in response to Remington telling him that conditions in Cuba weren't bad enough to start a war over. To this day, it is unknown and hotly debated what caused the explosion aboard the ''Maine''.