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Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion
by fortythirteen 9y ago
Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers.
That's essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.
- zeveb 9y ago> Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers. That wouldn't happen, because on the one hand no amount of money from the Republicans would persuade ABC/CBS/NBC to support them, and on the other hand they're quite glad to provide free support to the Democrats. The situation is reverse with Fox 'News,' of course. This isn't for any nefarious reason: it's just that pretty much everyone associated with mass media believes that the Republicans are evil and the Democrats are good. There's no amount of money which could persuade me to claim that all murder should be legal; likewise, there's no need to pay me to say that murder should be illegal. The situation is the same for the vast majority of showrunners & news anchors: they really are doing what they believe is right.
- DigitalJack 9y agoThe downvotes without reply to zeveb here pretty much prove zeveb's point.
- AndrewKemendo 9y agoThey do that all the time: Al Gore - 30 Rock Joe Biden/Michelle Obama - Parks and Rec Newt Gengrich - Murphy Brown Donna Brazil - Good Wife etc....
- pythonaut_16 9y agoFor 30 Rock and Parks and Rec, weren't those appearances after the people were already prominent and/or in office? The 30 Rock/Al Gore example in particular happened years after he was done running for public office. And even Parks and Rec wasn't so much advocating for Joe Biden/Michelle Obama as having a left leaning, political character be excited about the opportunity to meet them. I can also remember John McCain appearing on Parks and Rec.
- problems 9y ago30 Rock also pushed Obama a bit if I recall correctly and before the election - but they also cracked a joke about how Tina Fey's character would tell everyone she was voting for Obama but then secretly vote Republican. So think what you will of that.
- phdp 9y agoNewt Gingrich too on Parks and Rec.
- creaghpatr 9y agoOn that note, recall that NBC's SNL had Donald Trump HOST the show in late 2015, during the campaign. How nuts does that seem now, given how much the writers hate him? I think the fall from grace narrative arc was very entertaining. Most political candidates get to do hits on Late Night shows in a relaxed atmosphere whenever they want. I think it's a great part about America.
- fortythirteen 9y agoA writer pushing their political agenda is one thing and something you can't quantify. Is there a department at ABC whose sole job is getting politicians to pay for guest appearances?
- pulisse 9y agoThis is key. It's one thing to have creative staff that lean left, it's another for the injection of political propaganda to be the product itself. In that case, there's incentive for ever increasing amounts of propaganda (until it becomes so omnipresent that there's no marginal benefit to the buyer to having more of it, which would be pretty dystopian).
- hkmurakami 9y agoHey now, 30 Rock had Condoleeza Rice!
- objectivetruth 9y agoI hate to ruin your thesis, but: Parks and Rec also featured Newt Gingrich, Olympia Snow, and John McCain.
- AndrewKemendo 9y agoWhat thesis is that?
- 734786710934 9y agoThe writers for most prime-time sitcoms are Democrats. They do it for free.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- tomrod 9y ago[Citation Needed]
- tomrod 9y agoIt is unfortunate that a request for a citation is downvoted but not responded to. Not only is the claim that every comedy writer is conservative not supported, it's not even true. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Long https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Long (example of conservative sitcom writer) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Sandler https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Sandler (example of conservative movie actor/producer) Now, I don't subscribe to conservative politics myself. But it is simply a moral wrong to assume an entire profession is united in political views. Nor is it a good thing to invoke such identity politics. Let's move forward and focus on the real issues at hand.
- QAPereo 9y agoThat seems unlikely, especially under union rules. Do you have any evidence to support your claim? Edit: Downvotes in the absence of that evidence makes me concerned.
- pdpi 9y agoI’ve always suspected that the reason underwood is a democrat in house of cards is solely to deflect this very criticism.
- hkmurakami 9y agoHonestly I think it makes him more "relateable" by making him not "the enemy" for viewers
- mtgx 9y agoYou mean like the Pentagon has been doing for decades? https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-documents-expose-direct-us-military-intelligence-influence-on-1-800-movies-and-tv-shows-36433107c307 https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-documents-... I wasn't quite aware of this myself until a few years ago. Now I see it in almost every crime/spy/military-related show or movie. I've stopped watching several shows because of it and never started watching others.
- philwelch 9y agoMost of these conditions look to be along the lines of, "if you're going to use military property or equipment to film your movie, you don't get to turn around and disparage the military", which has done nothing to stem the tide of Hollywood films explicitly designed to disparage the military.
- objectivetruth 9y agoCan you please give me a list of recent -- or ANY -- Hollywood films that are explicitly designed to disparage the military? That is a BOLD claim and I'd love to learn more.
- philwelch 9y agoAvatar comes to mind, as do all of those depressing post-Vietnam movies.
- objectivetruth 9y agoSo the main point of Avatar in your opinion -- the reason it was explicitly made -- is that the military sucks? Not colonization or overcoming physical adversity or even just a fun sci-fi romp? It was just $100 million of "lol the army sucks?" And you realize that a movie about the horrors of the Vietnam War isn't necessarily anti-military, right? America lost tens of thousands of young men and hundreds of thousands more were injured -- the country was torn about the war, with people literally dying in protests. It was a BIG DEAL. Which is why tons of movies and tv shows have dealt with those issues in the ensuing 50 years. If your movie says "the Vietnam War sucked" or even "Lots of American soldiers came back from Vietnam with incredibly severe mental and physical problems" -- that's not anti-military. That's the truth. If you want rah-rah, "go Army!" then there are plenty of archived Army recruitment and propaganda films from the 40s, 50s, and 60s on YouTube.
- philwelch 9y agoParks and Rec ran for seven seasons, and its protagonist was a fictionalized Hillary Clinton. The West Wing ran for seven seasons and explicitly featured a Democratic Presidential administration.
- objectivetruth 9y agoA fictionalized Hillary Clinton? That's... quite a leap. You could easily argue Robin Wright plays a fictionalized Hillary Clinton on "House of Cards." Personally, I think that the free market that the conservatives love to salivate about is making this happen. It cracks me up to imagine Hollywood producers saying "Well, I COULD make more money by making a super-conservative show but I just NEED to get my liberal views out there in the American brain!" Nope. They know that conservatives are going to stroke it to Duck Dynasty and that's about it.
- philwelch 9y agoLeslie Knope is a blond, Midwest-born woman who believes strongly in using government to improve people’s lives. Despite being stopped short from achieving her goals time and time again, she never loses her optimism or her determination. She prepares long, in-depth policy briefings that no one ever reads, comes under attack from ignorant yokels, and even makes understandable, innocent mistakes that get blown out of proportion into major scandals. That is exactly how Hillary Clinton’s supporters see her. The show also started around the same time as her incredibly popular tenure as Secretary of State.
- objectivetruth 9y agoYou just described about half of the female civil servants that I've met in the Midwest. Wow, blond AND from the Midwest? A dedicated and caring public servant? Shit, I guess NBC is lucky that Hillary didn't sue them for such a blatant rip-off. Oh wait, one is a real person who served as Senator and Secretary of State and the other is a fictional bureaucrat who served 3 months on her small city's council and loves waffles.
- nlperguiy 9y agoThere's a good book called Primetime Propaganda, showing how exactly ABC, CBS and NBC were doing that, and are still doing it.
- lr4444lr 9y agoPrivate web services are fundamentally different from the FCC regulated limited band of the RF broadcast spectrum. This was a major point of contention in the Net Neutrality debate, but it certainly has no application to Facebook.
- Steeeve 9y agoImagine... If somebody like Rush Limbaugh had a nationwide radio show where day by day he created content based on RNC talking points. Or a network like Fox or MSNBC went all in on party loyalty and based all their content on party talking points. Or a media conglomerate like Sinclair or Clear Channel pushed out political messaging to their affiliates in small markets that had to be aired during prime viewership. oh wait...
- TYPE_FASTER 9y agoThe goal in for-profit communication is always going to be the same: getting return visits. The best way to do that is to tell people what they want to hear. This is why Rush and Fox and MSNBC and Breitbart have the content they have. This is also what Facebook is doing. However, since they have the advantage of being able to complete personalize your feed to give you what you want, they can provide 100% coverage across all demographics.
- Danihan 9y ago>The best way to do that is to tell people what they want to hear. It's about providing validation and reassurance. Which doesn't always require telling people what they want to hear, but it certainly helps. Rush and Fox and Breitbart exist because there is a need -- millions of people who are seeking emotional validation that their worldviews are correct. It's the same reason left-leaning publications exist. Emotional validation disguised as news.
- threeseed 9y agoI never understand why people put Fox News and MSNBC on the same pedestal. Fox News is an an outreach of Trump's political apparatchik. MSNBC was never particularly close to Obama.
- adjkant 9y agoWhy are people downvoting this? What is incorrect here?
- nautilus12 9y agoWhoa, wait a sec, what makes you even slightly suspect this doesn't already happen?
- fleitz 9y agoThat's not so far fetched, I mean CNN gave the debate questions to Clinton...
- JSONwebtoken 9y agoHow do you think Alec Baldwin got a job?