by Chad Groening
Several recent surveys indicate viewership of network television continues to decline as more people turn to cable and the Internet for their news.
In a November survey by the Pew Research Center, only 17% of respondents indicated they got their news from the TV networks. That compares to 30% in mid-September, just after the terrorist attacks. The same survey indicated 53% turned to cable, compared to 45% in September.
Liz Swasey of the Media Research Center says people are tired of the anti-American bias. “They do recognize the slant [and] they don't want to hear the slant — and they're getting their information elsewhere,” she says. “That is exactly market forces at work, and that's one of the many things that is so wonderful about this country.”
She predicts there will be changes in the future. “I think market forces will cause [the networks], as it has already with CNN, to re-evaluate what they're doing,” she says. “Perhaps when the 'old guard' — the Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, etc. — retire, perhaps we will see a new breed of journalist who doesn't feel that it is beneath them to be anything other than anti-American.”
“We will get through this,” Swasey says, “and hopefully those in the media who don't deserve to have Americans listening to them by the millions every night someday soon will not have that audience.”
Another study conducted by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy showed that Internet use continues to rise and is taking away from television viewing time. Many conservatives turn to Internet news services like WorldNetDaily and Newsmax.com for stories they will never get from the major TV networks.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
