{"id":1182,"date":"2004-08-03T14:24:34","date_gmt":"2004-08-03T19:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/2004\/08\/the-problem-with-media-consolidation-political-cover\/"},"modified":"2004-08-03T14:24:34","modified_gmt":"2004-08-03T19:24:34","slug":"the-problem-with-media-consolidation-political-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/2004\/08\/the-problem-with-media-consolidation-political-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"the problem with media consolidation: political cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

a while ago we got the news that doonesbury was being dropped<\/a> by a group of newspapers. i was curious about that, and eventually found this:<\/p>\n

\n
Continental: Complaints Led to Drop-‘Doonesbury’ Poll<\/a> [editor & publisher, july 21, 2004]<\/div>\n

[Continental Features President Van] Wilkerson said he conducted the survey because Garry Trudeau’s comic “created more controversy than other strips.” In the poll e-mail he sent Continental’s newspaper clients this spring, Wilkerson wrote: “(I)t is my feeling that a change in one of the features is required. I have fielded numerous complaints about ‘Doonesbury’ in the past and feel it is time to drop this feature and add another in its place. … If the majority of the group favors a replacement, you will be expected to accept that change.”<\/p>\n

Of the 38 papers that run the Continental-produced Sunday comics section, 21 wanted to drop “Doonesbury,” 15 wanted to keep it, and two had no opinion or preference. “I wouldn’t call the vote [to drop ‘Doonesbury’] overwhelming, but it was a majority opinion,” Wilkerson said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

there we have a good statement to hang this comment on: you will be expected to accept that change<\/em>.<\/p>\n

i like the democratic process, but here we have one of the threats exposed, and it is a huge threat as we work competition out of the media industry: the tyranny of the majority.<\/p>\n

wrapping this decision in a poll gives wilkerson political cover (he didn’t decide to axe doonesbury – in fact, he has doesn’t “have an opinion about ‘Doonesbury’ one way or another.”) no personal responsibility or accountabilit required. the papers voted. we’re just doing what they asked us to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a while ago we got the news that doonesbury was being dropped by a group of newspapers. i was curious about that, and eventually found this: Continental: Complaints Led to Drop-‘Doonesbury’ Poll [editor & publisher, july 21, 2004] [Continental Features President Van] Wilkerson said he conducted the survey because Garry Trudeau’s comic “created more controversy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}