There’s a lot of bitching lately about ‘audience capture’, meaning that the newspaper or broadcaster is forced to keep pleasing only Democrats or only Repooflicans. The bitchers are blaming the audience, ordering us to pay for stuff we don’t want in order to prevent the broadcasters from being ‘captured’.
Wrong. Capture is permanent, inevitable and natural. When the only thing you offer is cheering for Team D, your audience will consist solely of Team D, and will insist that you keep offering only Team D.
This effect shouldn’t apply to products or services that everyone needs or wants, like food or beer. Their audience includes Team D and Team R plus the much larger Team FU. In the post-2000 free money era, many of the beer and food companies ALSO fell into the team setup because they DIDN’T NEED CUSTOMERS. They only needed to please Wall Street, which is exclusively** Team D. After Powell shut off the free money faucet, some companies are realizing that they NEED CUSTOMERS again, so they’re returning to the old uncapturable neutrality. Some haven’t figured it out yet, and they’re failing.
Before 1990 the Fairness Doctrine FORCED media to offer services that everyone wanted or needed. Local news, features, human interest stories, comedy. Newspapers were always more teamish, and not directly ruled by FD, but competing with FD-ruled broadcasters tended to keep them more neutral.
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** For some reason this plain fact is still either misunderstood or hidden by most team players and media. Before 1968, Wall Street was mostly Team R because R represented the economic and cultural interests of aristocrats. (See William F. Buckley III if this isn’t obvious.) R was NYC Yankees plus some farmers who didn’t seem to understand the betrayal. D was working people and small businesses, especially in Dixie. FDR had saved their lives, and Team D continued running on FDR’s vapors long after the actual D politicians had moved to Wall Street.
After 1968 the political teams officially and publicly switched sides, eliminating all doubt and delusion. Now Wall Street and NYC are exclusively D, and R is mostly Christians. Working people have no home. Many of them adhered to the FAKE appeal of Trump because nobody else is speaking for them. Trump is NYC. Trump is Wall Street. Everything he did as president was pure Wall Street, INFINITELY enriching the rich and not only killing but TORTURING the poor.
Polistra's Mill 