Fringe Media

Conservative radio and television commentator Glenn Beck coined the term “fringe media” on September 16, 2009, for what had been termed the “mainstream media” (MSM). Beck noticed that television news and major city newspapers for the most part had reported on news stories that he broke only after they were over. (The Van Jones story was reported only after he officially resigned his White House position; the ACORN story was reported only after Congress voted to de-fund the group.) Beck said that there was nothing “mainstream” about the MSM—media that were “on the fringe” of real news.
 
The term “lunatic fringe” applies to groups outside of the mainstream. It is not known if Glenn Beck considered “lunatic fringe” part of the definition of “fringe media.”
 
Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh calls the MSM the “drive-by media” and the “state-run media.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Glenn Beck
Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American radio and television host, political commentator, author, and entrepreneur. He hosts The Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Beck also hosts the Glenn Beck Show on Fox News Channel. He refers to himself as a libertarian and a conservative who is “fighting for individual rights”.
   
Wikipedia: Mass media
Mass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use centuries. The term public media has a similar meaning: it is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which may require union membership in some large markets such as Newspaper Guild, AFTRA, & text publishers.
 
Mass media includes Internet media (like blogs, message boards, podcasts, and video sharing) because individuals now have a means to exposure that is comparable in scale to that previously restricted to a select group of mass media producers. The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda. The term “MSM” or “mainstream media” has been widely used in the blogosphere in discussion of the mass media and media bias.
 
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Main Entry: fringe
Pronunciation: \ˈfrinj\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English frenge, from Anglo-French, from Vulgar Latin *frimbia, from Latin fimbriae (plural)
Date: 14th century
1 : an ornamental border consisting of short straight or twisted threads or strips hanging from cut or raveled edges or from a separate band
2 : something resembling a fringe : edge, periphery —often used in plural “operated on the fringes of the law”
3 a : something that is marginal, additional, or secondary to some activity, process, or subject “a fringe sport” b : a group with marginal or extremist views
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
lunatic fringe, a minority group of adherents to a political or other movement or set of beliefs; also attrib
1913 T. ROOSEVELT Hist. as Lit. 305 There is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement.
     
FOXNews.com - Glenn Beck
Title: Out of Touch?
Published: Wed, 16 Sep 2009
Description: The mainstream media is no longer mainstream
(...)
I used to call it the mainstream media and—the last few days it can’t be called mainstream media anymore because it’s not. They’re not covering anything that mainstream is talking about I mean. I think people are surprised. About acorn only—the mainstream media. That’s why I believe we now have to start calling it the fringe media because that’s exactly what it is it is on the fringe. They did they are in bed with those in Washington in the special interest and they’re—lunatics some of them are absolute lunatics. It’s fringe. This. Is. This is why they want you to now just forget about everything else and just and just listen
   
Glenn Beck - Radio - Show Recap - Sep. 17, 2009
The Fringe Media 
Glenn is no longer calling the mainstream media the MSM—instead he’s calling them something much more appropriate: The fringe media. They are consistently missing the boat on what America is actually thinking. They target Glenn—and underestimate you as a mindless Beck robot. The fringe media has virtually ignored the Czar story, but now that the DNC has created a 30 second ad bashing Glenn, the fringe will probably pick the story up. Mostly because it’s not even close to accurate.
 
Don’t rely on the mainstream media (aka the fringe media) for your information. Become a glennbeck.com Insider.
 
Free Republic
The Fringe Media (Glen Beck)
Posted on Friday, September 18, 2009 10:12:38 AM by RBW in PA
Last night Glen Beck began referring to the Main Stream Media as the Fringe Media. Based upon the latest Cable News ratings shown below, FNC has captured 50% of the viewing audience and if we can make it 51% the MSM will truly be the fringe.
 
Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for September 16, 2009
 
FNC – 1,548,000 viewers CNN – 563,000 viewers MSNBC –421,000 viewers CNBC – 212,000 viewers HLN – 336,000 viewers
 
I think it would be a very affective tactic if everyone on Free Republic followed Glen’s lead and began to refer to the MSM as the Fringe Media. Imagine the stigma they would have to deal with if they were no longer known as the “Main Stream”.
 
The Provocateur
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Fringe Media
Glenn Beck has really had it with the MSM. He’s so fed up that he’s now calling them the fringe media. Now, if it were easy to change my tags, I would change them all, but I will continue to use the tag of the MSM. Still, the fringe media is an apt title for them. Just think about the important stories of the day and then think about what the fringe media is covering and how the cover it.