Smaller government, fewer restrictions on private power, whether corporate or individual, an unregulated market economy these are the watchwords of the right. There is more freedom from government, but less protection from the predations of other individuals, institutions, or the blind forces of circumstance. But either way, it is precisely what makes conservative rhetoric more telegenic. Moving further to the right, these simpler conservative ideals become crude precepts, which mask a host of uncritical assumptions and myths. In the, bumper sticker politics of sound bites and shouting heads, the electronic playing field tilts decidedly to the right.
American journalism is founded on a glorious contradiction.
Virtually all of it is commercially based or market dependent, even in the nonprofit sector. It is sometimes compromised, and always limited, by that dependence and its attendant pressures. In this sense, the media can't help being conservative. Thus, however ensconced in the private sector, serious journalism like public libraries and public education also has an intrinsically egalitarian purpose. Two orthodoxies have historically served as the great sea anchors of American culture, blunting and deferring its collisions with modernity.