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() Also, I work in the "mainstream media". Have since 1987. At the end of the day, the only "agenda" a news department has is to be first on the air with a story, and to get big ratings numbers. With a GM and a sales department breathing down everybody's throat to "give them numbers we can sell", media covers what gives them numbers. "Mainstream" in Salt Lake City is vastly different from "mainstream" San Francisco. Fox News found their niche by having a conservative angle. If Fox News pulled only a few thousand viewers, they'd pull the plug and go in a different direction.
There are also enough choices for news now, between cable news, local television and radio news, national and local print media, and the internet, that the lines between who is and who isn't mainstream has been so blurred it's now virtually impossible to tell even where the line is.
We don't use the phrase "mainstream" to describe the vehicles we drive (what would be mainstream? Cars? Trucks? SUVs?), the music we listen to (what would be mainstream - Top 40, Country, Adult Contemporary or Jazz?) or the books we read (what would be mainstream - Sci-Fi, Horror, Fiction, Non-fiction?), or even our own politics (what would be mainstream - Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, moderate?) If there are as many forms of media as there are categories for book at a Barnes & Noble, there is no mainstream anymore.
It's better anymore to stop using the term "Mainstream Media". It's a catch phrase people use when they don't agree with the direction a news organization is going. If you are going to complain about a media form, state the specific organization you are disagreeing with. I don't agree with MSNBC because, or I don't like Fox News because. Nothing wrong with opinions; I know they are encouraged here. But please, if you ask the media to give you facts, not generalizations, then please also do the same.
Anyway, that's my story.
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