Trends: Online and Digital News

U.S. Politics & Policy

IN CHANGING NEWS LANDSCAPE, EVEN TELEVISION IS VULNERABLE

Section 2: Online and Digital News

The percentage of Americans getting news from online and digital sources continues to grow, and that trend has been sustained in the last two years by an increase in the use of mobile devices.

The share saying they got news online yesterday is unchanged since 2010, at 34%. However, when those who get news from cell phones, tablets and other mobile devices are added, that figure grows to 39%. (The 2010 survey asked only about news online.)

The explosive growth of social networking sites has been another contributor to the online search for news, with the percentage saying they saw news or news headlines on social networking sites the previous day increasing from 9% in 2010 to 19%.

Many of the same trends also are evident in where people regularly get news. The percentage of Americans who regularly go online for news – those who get news online three days a week or more – has not increased. In the new survey, 46% say they get news online at least three days a week, which is unchanged since 2010.

However, the percentage who regularly get news on a cell phone, tablet or other mobile device has nearly doubled since 2010, from 9% to 15%, and the number regularly seeing news on social network sites has almost tripled, from 7% to 20%.

In the shifting online landscape, the use of mobile devices and social networking sites have replaced a traditional tool — search engines — as the driver of growth in finding news online. Search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo continue to be the largest single tool in finding news online, but the substantial growth in their use between 2008 and 2010 has leveled off.

Other online platforms have had less impact than social networking sites. Just more than one-in-ten (12%) regularly get news from reading blogs, a figure that has changed little since 2008. About the same percentage (13%) regularly gets news by email. Just 5% say they regularly get news by listening to podcasts. And just 3% of the general public regularly follows news on Twitter.

Regular Online News Consumption

About half (46%) of the public says they get news online three days a week or more, with about a third (32%) going online for news every day. Neither figure has changed much since 2010; in 2008, 37% said they went online for news at least three days a week and 25% got news online daily.

There continue to be sizable age and educational differences in online news use. Nearly two-thirds of college graduates (65%) regularly get news online, compared with just 28% of those with no more than a high school education.

Only about one-in-five (22%) of those 65 and older get online news regularly, by far the lowest percentage of any age group.

Online News Sources

There has been little change since 2010 in the websites people go to most for news and information. Yahoo, mentioned by 26% of online news users, is the top destination, as it was two years ago, while 17% name Google or Google News, 14% CNN, 13% local news sources and 11% MSN.

About one-in-ten online news users (9%) cite Fox as their top news destination. Nearly one-in-five Republicans (18%) name Fox as their top online news source, compared with 4% of Democrats and 8% of independents. By contrast, there are only slight partisan differences among those who mention MSNBC as the online source they use most often for news and information.

News Online, Mobile, Social Networks

In the current survey, 46% say they get news at least three days a week online or on a cell phone or mobile device; that is unchanged from 2010, when the question only asked about getting news online.

However, an increasing percentage says they get news on a cell phone, tablet or other mobile device. Currently, 15% say they regularly get news on one or more of these devices, up from 9% in 2010. In part, this is being driven by the increased internet availability on mobile devices. Two years ago, only about a third of the public (31%) said they accessed the internet on their cell phones. But today, more than half (55%) say they access the internet on a cell phone, tablet or another mobile device.

The percentage regularly getting news from a social networking site, such as Facebook, Google Plus or LinkedIn, also has increased dramatically – from just 2% in 2008, to 7% in 2010 and 20% currently.

These trends are complementary: Those who have smartphones – about half of the public (48%) – are far more likely to regularly see news or news headlines on social networking sites than those who do not (29% vs. 11%). Similarly, those who have iPads, Kindle Fires and other tablet computers (21% of the public) also are much more likely to get news from social networks than are those who do not own these devices.

More Get News from Mobile Devices

An increasing proportion of Americans say they regularly get news on a cell phone, tablet or other mobile device. But this growth has been driven mostly by the greater availability of mobile internet access. Mobile internet users themselves are no more likely to regularly get news on these devices than they were two years ago.

Among the public, 15% regularly get news on a cell phone or another mobile handheld device, up from 9% two years ago. About three-in-ten (28%) mobile internet users say they regularly get news from one of these devices, which is virtually unchanged from 2010 (27%).

People younger than 50 are far more likely than older Americans to regularly get news on a mobile device. This primarily reflects the huge disparity in mobile internet access among younger and older Americans: 75% of those younger than 50 say they access the internet on cell phone, tablet or other mobile device. That compares with just 30% of those 50 and older. (For more on increased mobile internet use, see “A Majority of Adult Cell Owners [55%] Now Go Online Using their Cell Phones,” June 26, 2012, Pew Internet & American Life Project.)

Mobile News Apps Also Increase

As news consumption on cell phones and other mobile devices has increased, so has the use of news apps, which allow people to access news and news headlines on their mobile devices. In the current survey, a quarter of all Americans, including 45% of mobile internet users, say they have ever downloaded a news app to their cell phone, tablet, or another mobile device. In 2010, 16% of the public, and only 20% of mobile internet users, said they had ever downloaded a news app.

Those who have downloaded news apps tend to be young, well-educated and wealthy. More than four-in-ten (43%) of those with family incomes of $100,000 a year have ever downloaded a mobile news app; that compares with just 19% of those with incomes of $30,000 a year or less. Even among mobile internet users, there are sizable income differences: Fully 60% of mobile internet users with incomes of at least $100,000 have downloaded a news app, compared with 40% of those with incomes of $30,000 or less.

Not surprisingly, those who have downloaded news apps are far more likely than other Americans to get news from digital sources. Fully 70% say they got news online or digitally yesterday. Yet they are not any less likely than others to get news from traditional sources.

More than half (54%) of those who have downloaded news apps say they watched television news yesterday and 39% listened to radio news. Among all adults, 55% watched TV news and 33% listened to radio news. Comparable percentages of the public (29%) and those who have downloaded mobile news apps (30%) say they read a newspaper yesterday, but news app users are more likely to read the paper digitally and less likely to read a print version.

News on Social Networking Sites

The use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Google Plus or LinkedIn to get news and headlines owes in part to the substantial increase in use of social media in general by Americans. About four-in-ten (41%) of all adults say they had used a social networking site on the previous day, up from 30% in 2010, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Yet those who go on social networking sites also are far more likely to see news on these sites. Overall, the percentage of all Americans who regularly get news from social network sites has roughly tripled – from 7% to 20% – since 2010. And the proportion of social networkers who regularly get news there has more than doubled, from 16% to 36%).

Young people, who use social network sites at much higher rates than do older adults, increasingly use Facebook and other social network sites to get news. About a third or more of those ages 18 to 39 regularly see news or news headlines on social networking sites. Two years ago, fewer than one-in-five in younger age groups said they regularly got news on social networking sites.

Twitter for News

Far more Americans go on social networking sites than Twitter. Just 13% of adults say they ever use Twitter or read Twitter messages. And Twitter users are less likely to get news from the site than are social network users.

Among the public, Twitter barely registers as a news source. Just 3% say they regularly get news on Twitter, while 4% sometimes get news there. Nonetheless, the percentage of Twitter users who get news on the site is growing. In the new survey, 27% say they get news regularly on Twitter while another 28% say they sometimes do this. In 2010, only 17% said they regularly got news on Twitter, while 15% said they sometimes got news on Twitter.

As is the case with social networks users, more Twitter users follow news on the site than use it to share news. About one-in-ten Twitter users (9%) regularly tweet or re-tweet news headlines; a similar percentage of social network users (10%) shares news on social network sites.

Twitter users appear to be more closely connected to professional journalists and news organizations than their social networking counterparts when it comes to relying on them for online news. More than a third (36%) of those with Twitter accounts use them to follow news organizations or journalists. On social networking sites, 19% of users say they got information there from news organizations or journalists.

For the most part, those who see political news on Twitter and social network sites prefer sources with no particular point of view. About half of those who get news on Twitter (52%), and 56% of those who get news on social networks, say they prefer news sources that do not have a particular point of view. Just 26% of Twitter news users and 25% of those who get news from social networks would rather that these sources share their political point of view.

In this regard, the views of Twitter and social network users are similar to those of the general public. Most Americans (64%) say they would prefer to get news from sources that do not have a particular point of view, while 26% prefer news from sources that share their political view. (For the views of regular news audiences on this question, see Section 4: Demographics and Political Views of News Audiences.)

Getting News from Email

There has been no growth in the past two years in the percentage of Americans that gets or shares news by email. Currently, 13% say they regularly get news by email, while 14% say they sometimes do this. In 2010, 27% said they also regularly (12%) or sometimes (15%) got new or news headlines by email.

Only 4% say they regularly use email to send news or news headlines; 11% say they sometimes do this. This also is little changed from 2010, when 3% regularly sent news stories by email and 11% said they sometimes did this.

About one-in-ten Americans (12%) say they get news directly from news organizations by email. This figure also has shown little change since 2010 (10%).

Searching for News Online

After a sharp increase from 2004 to 2010, the use of search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing to find news has leveled off. After growing from 11% to 33% between 2004 and 2010, the number of adults who use search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo to search for news three or more days a week has steadied at 33%.

The same leveling-off of search engines also has occurred among regular online news users. Just over four-in-ten (42%) say they used search engines to find news three times a week or more. Prior to that, the number of online news users who frequently turned to search engines had jumped from 19% in 2004 to 44% in 2010.

There are few demographic differences when it comes to search engine use. As with other online news activity, older Americans and those with high school educations or less use search engines somewhat less than do younger people and college graduates.

Reading Political Blogs

Slightly more than one-in-ten (12%) of all Americans regularly read blogs about politics or current events and another 21% say they read them sometimes. Just less than half (45%) never read blogs or do not use the internet. The numbers of those who read blogs regularly are little changed since 2008.

There is little partisan difference when it comes to blog-reading: 14% of Republicans, 13% of Democrats and 10% of independents say they read blogs about politics and current events.

Among age groups, regular blog reading is lowest among those 18 to 24 (6%) and highest among those 40 to 49 (17%). There is little difference in blog reading among the age groups in between. Looked at by education level, 15% of college graduates and those who have had some college regularly read blogs, a number that falls to 7% for those with high school or less.

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Trends in Watching, Reading and Listening to the News

U.S. Politics & Policy

IN CHANGING NEWS LANDSCAPE, EVEN TELEVISION IS VULNERABLE

Section 1: Watching, Reading and Listening to the News

Television continues to be the public’s top daily news source. In the current survey, 55% say they watched the news or a news program on television yesterday. That is little changed from recent news consumption surveys. In the 1990s, however, far more Americans said they watched television news yesterday.

The percentages saying they listened to radio news and read a newspaper yesterday have steadily declined over the past two decades. Currently, 33% say they listened to radio news, while 29% say they read a newspaper yesterday.

Nearly four-in-ten (39%) got news online or on a mobile device yesterday, including cell phones and tablets. In 2010, 34% got news online; this did not include those who got news on a mobile device. In 2004, just 24% said they got news online during the previous day.

When other online and digital news sources are added in – including seeing news on a social network or Twitter, getting news from email and listening to podcasts – the percentage getting news digitally yesterday approaches the share watching television news (50% vs. 55%). In 2010, 44% got news from one or more digital platforms yesterday.

Traditional and Digital News Platforms

Despite the rapid growth of digital news, more Americans continue to get news from traditional news platforms than from digital platforms. Seven in ten (71%) say they watched television news, read a print newspaper or listened to radio news yesterday. That compares with 50% who got news from one or more digital platforms.

By wide margins, Americans 50 and older continue to rely more on traditional news sources than digital sources. But the differences are more modest among those 25 to 50. And among the youngest Americans – those younger than 25 – substantially more get news digitally than from traditional news sources (60% vs. 43%).

Moreover, since 2010 there has been a sharp decline in the proportion of Americans who got news yesterday only from a traditional news platform – from 40% then to 33% currently.

As previous Pew Research news consumption surveys have found, a plurality of Americans gets news from both traditional and digital news sources – 38% currently, up from 34% in 2010. And the percentage relying only on digital platforms for news also has increased, from 8% to 12%.

Notably, the falloff in the use of just traditional news sources has not come just among young people. Among those 40 to 49, just 24% say they got news yesterday only from televis

ion, print newspapers or radio, down from 40% in 2010. Two years ago, about as many people in this age group said they got news only from traditional platforms yesterday as from both traditional and digital platforms (40% vs. 39%). Today, nearly twice as many of those in their 40s blend digital and traditional sources as get news only from traditional sources (47% vs. 24%).

Many Young People Go Newsless

In spite of an expanding variety of ways to get news, a sizable minority of young people continues to go newsless on a typical day. Fully 29% of those younger than 25 say they got no news yesterday either from digital news platforms, including cell phones and social networks, or traditional news platforms. That is little changed from 33% in 2010.

Older Americans are less likely to go newsless: 19% of those between 25 and 39, and smaller percentages of older age groups, say they got no news yesterday. These figures have changed little over the years.

Young people also consistently spend less time with the news than do older Americans, which is in part attributable to the relatively large share that gets no news on a typical day. In the current survey, those younger than 30 spent an average of 45 minutes getting news yesterday. Older age groups spent an hour or more with news, on average, with those 65 and older spending an average of 83 minutes with the news yesterday. Age differences in time spent with the news have changed little since the 1990s.

People Spend More Time with TV News than Online/Mobile Sources

While the proportion of Americans who get news from any online or mobile source now rivals the share watching television news, people spend far more time with television news than online news.

On average, television news viewers spent 52 minutes watching TV news yesterday; fully half (51%) watched television news for an hour or more. Online and mobile news consumers spent 40 minutes on average with news online, and just 30% spent an hour or more. About half (49%) of those who got online or mobile news yesterday spent less than 30 minutes getting news from those sources.

In fact, people spent more time on average getting news from radio than getting news online. And while just 30% of online news consumers spent an hour or more getting news from online and mobile sources, 41% of radio news listeners did so.

News and Daily Life

Far more older Americans get news on a typical day than engage in a variety of other routine activities. Higher percentages of those 50 and older got news yesterday than visited with family or friends, called a friend or relative just to talk, or watched something other than news on television.

But for young people, news faces stiff competition from a number of other daily pursuits, particularly social networking. Among those younger than 25, as many used Facebook or another social networking site yesterday as got news from all sources combined (76% vs. 71%).

More young people go on social networking sites than watch news or entertainment programs on television; just 40% of those younger than 25 watched something other than news on TV yesterday. Even among those 30 to 49, nearly as many used social networking sites (49%) as watched entertainment television (55%).

Gaming also has become an increasingly popular daily activity. In 2006, 17% played games on a computer or video game console yesterday; in the current survey, 33% say they played a game yesterday on one of these formats or on a mobile device. Among those younger than 30, more played a game yesterday than watched TV news.

Daily and Regular News Consumption

The long-term trends in regular news consumption are generally similar to trends in where people got news yesterday. Among television news sources, the percentage saying they regularly watch local TV news has dipped below 50% for the first time (48%). And the percentage watching cable news channels has fallen five points since 2010 and 2008, from 39% to 34% currently.

The regular audience for nightly network news, which declined markedly through the 1990s, has changed little in recent years. Currently, 27% say they regularly watch the nightly network news on CBS, ABC or NBC. This percentage has not varied by more than a point or two since 2006.

As in previous news consumption surveys, more say they regularly read a newspaper than say they read a newspaper yesterday. Nearly four-in-ten (38%) say they regularly read a daily newspaper, which is largely unchanged since 2010 (40%) but down eight points from 2008.

The proportion of Americans who get news online at least three days a week has leveled off, after a period of dramatic growth. Currently, 46% say they get news online or on a mobile phone or device at least three days a week, unchanged from 2010 (when the question only asked about getting news online). About a third (32%) of the public gets news online every day.

Profiles of Regular News Audiences

As the 201o news consumption survey found, there are substantial demographic and political differences among regular news audiences. In general, most audiences for individual news outlets are older than the public generally, but there are exceptions. Among 24 news outlets asked about on the survey, news comedy programs – the Daily Show and Colbert Report – attract the largest percentages of young people.

About four-in-ten regular viewers of The Colbert Report (43%) and the Daily Show (39%) are younger than 30. Among the general public, 23% are younger than 30. In contrast, audiences for cable talk shows skew much older than the public: 42% of regular Sean Hannity viewers are 65 and older, as are 40% of regular Bill O’Reilly viewers. Among the public, just 17% are 65 and older.

Business publications draw a heavily male audience: 73% of those who regularly read magazines such as the Economist and Bloomberg Businessweek are men, as are 71% of regular Wall Street Journal readers. Women comprise relatively large shares of the regular viewers of daytime talk shows, such as The View or Ellen DeGeneres (73%), and morning news shows (62%).

The cable talk shows and news comedy programs continue to attract highly ideological audiences. Fully 78% of regular Sean Hannity viewers, and about seven-in-ten Rush Limbaugh listeners (71%) and Bill O’Reilly viewers (69%), are conservatives. Slightly more than a third of all Americans (35%) describe their political views as conservative.

Rachel Maddow is the only program whose audience is more than half liberal: 57% of regular Maddow viewers are liberals. Among regular Hardball watchers, 48% call themselves liberal. Additionally, about four-in-ten Daily Show (43%) and Colbert viewers (40%) are liberals. Among the public, just 22% say they are liberals.

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Trends in News Consumption: 1991-2012

Pew Research Center News

In Changing News Landscape, Even Television is Vulnerable

Trends in News Consumption: 1991-2012

Overview

The transformation of the nation’s news landscape has already taken a heavy toll on print news sources, particularly print newspapers. But there are now signs that television news – which so far has held onto its audience through the rise of the internet – also is increasingly vulnerable, as it may be losing its hold on the next generation of news consumers.

Online and digital news consumption, meanwhile, continues to increase, with many more people now getting news on cell phones, tablets or other mobile platforms. And perhaps the most dramatic change in the news environment has been the rise of social networking sites. The percentage of Americans saying they saw news or news headlines on a social networking site yesterday has doubled – from 9% to 19% – since 2010. Among adults younger than age 30, as many saw news on a social networking site the previous day (33%) as saw any television news (34%), with just 13% having read a newspaper either in print or digital form.

These are among the principal findings of the Pew Research Center’s biennial news consumption survey, which has tracked patterns in news use for nearly two decades. The latest survey was conducted May 9-June 3, 2012, among 3,003 adults. For more on the growth of mobile technology, see the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism report: “The Explosion in Mobile Audiences and a Close Look at what it Means for News,” released Oct. 1, 2012.

The proportion of Americans who read news on a printed page – in newspapers and magazines – continues to decline, even as online readership has offset some of these losses. Just 23% say they read a print newspaper yesterday, down only slightly since 2010 (26%), but off by about half since 2000 (47%).

The decline of print on paper spans beyond just newspapers. The proportion reading a magazine in print yesterday has declined over the same period (26% in 2000, 18% today). And as email, text messaging and social networking become dominant forms of communication, the percentage saying they wrote or received a personal letter the previous day also has fallen, from 20% in 2006 to 12% currently. There has been no decrease in recent years in the percentage reading a book on a typical day, but a growing share is now reading through an electronic or audio device.

While print sources have suffered readership losses in recent years, television news viewership has remained more stable. Currently, 55% say they watched the news or a news program on television yesterday, little changed from recent years. But there are signs this may also change. Only about a third (34%) of those younger than 30 say they watched TV news yesterday; in 2006, nearly half of young people (49%) said they watched TV news the prior day. Among older age groups, the percentages saying they watched TV yesterday has not changed significantly over this period.

The changing demographics of the TV news audience are particularly noticeable in the audiences for local and cable news. The overall share of Americans saying they regularly watch local television news has slipped from 54% in 2006 to 48% today – and in that regard it remains one of the news sources with the broadest reach. But the number of 18-to-29 year-olds regularly watching local news has fallen from 42% in 2006 to 28% today.

Over this same period, the regular audience for cable news also has aged. In 2006 and 2008, there were only modest age differences in regular cable news viewership. But in the current survey, more than twice as many of those 65 and older as those younger than 30 say they regularly watch cable news (51% vs. 23%).

CNN’s Losses Continue

Among individual cable news outlets, CNN’s regular audience has declined since 2008. Four years ago, nearly a quarter of Americans (24%) said they regularly watched CNN; that has fallen to 16% in the new survey.

Regular viewership for both Fox News and MSNBC has not changed much in recent years.
About one-in-five Americans (21%) say they regularly watch Fox News, while about half as many (11%) say they regularly watch MSNBC.

Print on Paper: Going, Going …

While Americans enjoy reading as much as ever – 51% say they enjoy reading a lot, little changed over the past two decades – a declining proportion gets news or reads other material on paper on a typical day. And there is new evidence in the survey of a shift in reading to electronic platforms.

In the new survey, only 29% say they read a newspaper yesterday, with just 23% reading a print newspaper. Over the past decade, the percentage reading a print newspaper has fallen by 18 points (from 41% to 23%). Somewhat more (38%) say they regularly read a daily newspaper, although this percentage also has declined, from 54% in 2004. Figures for newspaper readership may not include some people who read newspaper content on sites that aggregate news content, such as Google News or Yahoo News.

Over the past decade, there have been smaller declines in the percentages of Americans reading a magazine or book in print (six points and four points, respectively) than for newspapers.

Just as online newspaper readers make up an ever-greater share of all newspaper readers, so too are more magazine readers and book readers abandoning the printed page for tablets, digital books and other devices. In the current survey, 9% of those who said they read a magazine yesterday, and 20% who read a book, read them in a non-print format.

And substantial percentages of the regular readers of leading newspapers now read them digitally. Currently, 55% of regular New York Times readers say they read the paper mostly on a computer or mobile device, as do 48% of regular USA Today and 44% of Wall Street Journal readers.

By contrast, most readers of such magazines as Harpers, the Atlantic and the New Yorker still read them in print. But even for these magazines, nearly a quarter of regular readers (23%) say they read them mostly on a computer or digital device.

Online News: More Mobile, More Social

While traditional news platforms have lost audience, online news consumption has been undergoing major changes as well. Nearly one-in-five Americans (17%) say they got news yesterday on a mobile device yesterday, with the vast majority of these people (78%) getting news on their cell phone. Among smartphone owners, nearly a third (31%) got news yesterday on a mobile device.

The second major trend in online news consumption is the rise of news on social networks. Today, 19% of the public says they saw news or news headlines on social networking sites yesterday, up from 9% two years ago. And the percentage regularly getting news or news headlines on these sites has nearly tripled, from 7% to 20%.

In part, this is a byproduct of the explosive growth in social networking. In the current survey, 41% of all adults, including 47% of online adults, say they used Facebook or another social networking site yesterday. (For more on social networking, see surveys conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.)

On top of the increase in social network use, the poll finds that news is also more prevalent on social networking sites. The share of users who saw news there yesterday nearly doubled from 19% to 36% between 2010 and 2012.

The increasing use of these sites for news has not just occurred among young people. In fact, those in their 30s are nearly as likely as those 18 to 24 to say they saw news or news headlines on Facebook or another social networking site yesterday (30% vs. 34%). And about a quarter of adults in their 40s (23%) saw news yesterday on social networks, up from just 8% in 2010.

The two trends in online news consumption – growing numbers getting news via mobile devices and the increasing use of social networks – are complementary. Overall, 55% of Americans access the internet on a mobile device, such as a cell phone or tablet; among this group, 30% say they saw news on social networking sites yesterday. That compares with just 9% of Americans who are online but do not access the internet on a mobile device.

Getting News on Twitter

While news gathering is very common among Twitter users, the overall reach is limited because the audience remains relatively small. About one-in-ten Americans (13%) ever use Twitter or read Twitter messages. By comparison, more than half (54%) ever use other social networking sites, such as Facebook, Google Plus or LinkedIn.

As a result, far fewer people get news on Twitter than on other social networking sites. Just 11% ever see news on Twitter, while 3% got news there yesterday. Nearly half of adults (47%) ever get news on Facebook and other social networking sites and 19% got news on one or more of those sites yesterday.

Nonetheless, Twitter users are increasingly getting news on the site and sharing news stories with others. Overall, 83% of Twitter users ever see news on Twitter and 26% saw news there yesterday; both percentages are up considerably from two years ago. And most Twitter users (59%) tweet or retweet news headlines on Twitter. About the same percentage of users of Facebook and other social networks (61%) use those sites for sharing news or news headlines.

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Media Intentionally Hides Republicans’ Economic Failures And Democrats’ Success

Media Intentionally Hides Republicans’ Economic Failures And Democrats’ Success

By: Rmuse more from Rmuse

 

Monday, February, 23rd, 2015, 9:47 am

There was a time when the media, once called the Fourth Estate, was tasked with reporting the facts and truth to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” with the goal of providing a voice for the powerless masses. Of course those days are long gone. In fact, the converse is particularly true in 21st Century America.  It is likely that because American media is owned and operated by the comfortable, and that afflicted Americans are incapable of comprehending that Republicans actively work against their best interests, journalists report anything but the glaring truth; Republican policies are failures and the reason the number of “afflicted” Americans is growing. It is true that Republican policies are why Americans are rapidly losing economic ground to the few wealthy elites, but the media is not only culpable, they are facilitating this country’s slide into oligarchy by perpetually campaigning for the rich and powerful. 

 

It is interesting to see the media give inordinate attention to public figures intent on demeaning the President of the United States by questioning his love for America instead of why Republican-led states are in debt and cutting services for their residents. This is particularly true of Sunday political programs that provide some Americans with the only ‘news’ about their politicians’ viewpoints and opinions on why their constituents are suffering. However, the majority of Americans get their news from local sources that are as beholden to corporate advertising as the major networks pandering to conservative economic ideology. Democrats are just as guilty of failing to cite Republicans’ economic failings in states they control and it certainly contributes to why voters sat out the last midterm elections; they were unaware why their states are in economic distress or how to correct the problem. A problem, by the way, that a majority of Americans actually know exactly what it takes to correct.

The really sad fact is that there is an abundance of empirical data proving that every state controlled by Republicans is suffering economically, and conversely how Democratically-controlled states are succeeding and leading the nation in economic growth. However, these statistics never make the evening news, or Sunday political talk shows and it is further proof that the media is actively campaigning to impose conservative economic failings on the entire population. In what is a telling narrative, recent polling demonstrates that Americans overwhelmingly agree with the economic policies that allow Democratic states to grow their economies, pay down Republican debt and deficits, and create jobs. It is likely why the media is concealing the key to Blue states’ success; taxing the rich and investing in people.

A recent Associated Press-GfK poll that found that the majority of Americans agree with President Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on the richest income earners. This is a stark contrast to the economic policies being imposed in Republican states, or proposed by Koch Republicans in  Congress, cutting taxes on the rich and raising them on the poor and middle class. Republicans continue to claim, like they have for over thirty years, that cutting taxes on the rich grows economies, creates jobs, and provides incredible revenue streams to invest in much-needed state programs.

Of course, the thirty year experiment in ‘trickle down’ economics is a monumental failure, and there are no better examples than most Republican-led states suffering massive debt, job losses, and revenue shortfalls affecting everything from education funding to road repair. Conversely, there are just as many examples of Democratic-controlled states that rejected Republican economics and raised taxes to increase revenue, create jobs, reduce deficits, and allow for investment in areas important to the people; roads, schools, law enforcement, healthcare and social services for the people.

For example, main stream media is deliberately concealing several Republican-controlled states that drastically cut taxes for the rich that led to unsustainable debt and deficits leading to greater cuts in education, services, transportation, healthcare, and lost jobs. The same Republican states, like Koch Republicans in Congress, have either proposed, or are already, increasing taxes on the poor and middle class to increase tax relief for the rich and still are suffering revenue shortfalls.

Just a sampling of Republican-controlled states that cut taxes for the rich leading to budget deficits are; New Jersey – $2.7 billion deficit, Pennsylvania – $1 billion deficit, Kansas – $1 billion deficit, Wisconsin – $2.2 billion budget deficit, Arizona – $1.5 billion deficit, Alaska – $3.5 billion deficit, Alabama -$950 million deficit, Louisiana – $1.6 billion deficit, Alabama – $700 million deficit, Michigan – $454 million deficit, North Carolina – $445 million deficit, and Oklahoma – $600 million deficit. Now, none of these numbers are theoretical, conjecture, or ideological; they are hard numbers that main stream media cannot be bothered to report on the national level any more than the overwhelming economic successes being experienced in Democratic-led states like California.

After twelve years of Republican economics in California, the state was left with a $42 billion deficit and high unemployment with massive program and social service cuts unable to save the state’s economic demise. As is usually the case on the national level, the people elected a Democratic governor and legislature that went to the people for permission to raise taxes and save the economy. The people had the same sentiment the recent AP/GfK poll revealed most Americans have and they voted to raise taxes and the results are indisputable; and not reported by the main stream media. California’s deficit is falling rapidly, the state is investing in education, law enforcement, healthcare, road repair, social services, leading the nation in jobs created, and posting a $4 billion budget surplus this year.

This economic success should be the leading economic news across the nation and yet, even in most California media the reports are that Obama and Democrats are intent on continuing to destroy the nation’s economy, and jobs, by proposing higher taxes on the very richest Americans. Sadly, even low-intellect Californians beholden to bible-conservative ideology believe the media and oppose the same Democratic economic policies they are benefitting from; more jobs, services, greater healthcare access, more law enforcement, and social services that are the reason they flock to the Golden State to receive. Part and parcel of the dumbing down of Americans is due to conservative media that is likely the only ‘education’ stupid California transplants, like the Confederate states they left, will ever  experience.

Many Americans are perplexed by idiot voters’ habit of perpetually electing Republicans to enact economic policies that are detrimental to their supporters’ self-interests. It is likely it is because the stupid have no idea that there are proven economic successes in Democratically-controlled states the media never reports any more than the Republican failures ravaging red state economies across the nation.

Republicans are responsible for the gross income inequality killing off the middle class and sending poor people deeper into poverty, but they would not have such an easy time without a willing media facilitating enactment of failed Republican economic policies. The sad fact is that journalists would not have to explain anything to their audience; just provide a list of red states in economic distress and blue states experiencing budget surpluses, job growth, and increased services. However, that would entail contradicting Republicans. If Americans have learned anything over the past decade, it is that the media will not do anything contrary to the whims and wishes of their Republican masters because it would mean afflicting the comfortable.

Media Intentionally Hides Republicans’ Economic Failures And Democrats’ Success was written by Rmuse for PoliticusUSA.

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