In my opinion, this will be the headline in November.
Regardless of which candidate you are backing, how do you feel about the Television news, TV and movie personalities actually deciding who is to become president?
I raise this question because of what is happening right now. Never before has NBC, CBS and ABC news sent their anchors to follow a presumptive presidential candidate on a foreign trip. Fox News was not invited. Oprah filled a 50,000 seat stadium for Obama. Will Smith has endorsed Obama. These are just a few examples.
Do you think this election should be based on the popularity of the men and women running for office or should it be issue and fact based. A recent statistic indicated that only 25% of voters every study the candidates and where they stand on issues. The other 75% are influenced by TV and movie STARS, friends and family. The average American is too busy working and raising his/her family to delve into the myriad of information. Thus, decisions are made based on 2 minutes TV news coverage, 30 second political commercials, and who did my favorite STAR like.
Since TV became a part of every American household, it has influenced people, but has technology finally brought us to the point where the people in the media will decide who becomes President of the United States of America?

And if you want to know what he's going to do
just Google, New + US President

But won't the Fairness Doctrine fix all that, or is that only to get rid of Talk Radio and give a total monopoly to the left!

FWIW, the bill Obama is supporting also has provision for "Community Leaders" to be involved with content and production values!

If the media and Hollywood choose presidents, why would GW been elected at all...but twice?

Brussel, 1st time was 8 years ago( hanging chads). 2nd time was 9-11 driving it. Things has drastically changed with the media.

Good point - it's not like he was actually elected twice.

The media’s impact on politics is nothing new. For at least the last 3 decades most of the focus at election time is on the candidates’ personal lives. In 1980 when Ed Kennedy ran all you heard about was that infamous car wreck. Same thing with Hart’s infidelity in ’88, Clinton’s personal life, who did or didn’t inhale... You can't really blame the media though. They may be the arbiters of what constitutes news, but the truth is they market what sells. The American public is offered only what they are interested in buying and scandal outsells policy any day of the week.

When the media actually does get around to something substantive, it doesn’t help that TV news is dominated by 5 corporations. There’s a reason monopolies are a bad idea. Media deregulation started during the Reagan years, but Clinton kept it going. There are now 8 companies that pretty much decide what Americans get as news. Clinton bears responsibility for Clear Channel's dominance of radio and the fact that Sinclair Broadcast Group is now the biggest TV chain in the country. Clear Channel owned 40 radio stations before the Telecom bill. They owned better than 1200 soon after. Sinclair had 11 stations before the bill now it’s 62. And for all you hear about “the liberal media,” the media is undeniably slanted toward the right.
NBC, CNBC, MSNBC are owned by GE. Defense contracts. Nothing more need be said.
Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch and most certainly reflects his political views.
ABC is owned by Disney. Disney radio is where you go for Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Drudge, etc.
CBS News is owned by Viacom, whose CEO endorsed Bush on behalf of Viacom.

That list is not lookin' too liberal to me.

Here’s a really good article that covers the topic in depth:
http://aida.econ.yale.edu/karlan/papers/newspapers.pdf

It's obvious that Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews are not liberal because they work for corporations (corporations = not liberal)that are owned by a corporation (not liberal) that has defense contracts (ergo not liberal). Nuff sed. Thanks for the explanation.

gentlemen and ladies...........you are beginning to drool!

NBC, CNBC, MSNBC owned by GE. Defense contracts. Nothing need be said? Surely, Leah Ann yee jest!
If Jack Welch were dead he would be doing back flips in his grave over where Immelt has allowed, no endorsed the direction of its NBC division. You cannot possibly go any further left.
The only breathe of fresh air for conservative listeners is FOX the rest are in the liberal can. Not stating HO just the facts . Yale study (even though 2007, slanted and dated)like one would expect a Yale study to be.

"it's not like he was actually elected twice". Also dated!

Sorry, Leah Ann, but he was ELECTED twice. Our system worked the way it was designed to, just not to your liking. Had the Supremes ruled in favor of Gore (and the halfwit voters who complained because they couldn't poke a stick through a piece of paper), I imagine all would be right with the world now. Life is cruel. And, really, in retrospect, Al would have made everything okay, right? Those mean people would have just left us alone. Because he knew how to save polar bears.

I am being deliberately facetious. It is not as easy as the mainstream media makes it sound. We are not victims; we are participants. Let's just tell the talking heads to shut the F**K up and do what we know is right. Is that really so hard?

I tend to think it is more that the right wing radio/television folks dug their own grave on this one. There was a time when Rush and Bill O'Reilly owned their respective airways and had an extremely devoted following that they eroded with their own hypocrisy. Rush's illicit drug habit, O'Reilly's harassment suit ( how I wish I had never heard that recording-we have been a falafel free house ever since). Live by the sword, die by the sword.