"The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover"
About this Quote
Al Franken’s line lands because it refuses the comforting simplicity of “left vs. right” and replaces it with a motive almost everyone recognizes: money. Coming from a comedian-turned-politician, it’s a bait-and-switch punchline with a policy aftertaste. You’re primed for partisan sparring; he pivots to incentives. The joke isn’t just that the media is biased. It’s that the loudest bias is boringly transactional.
The intent is diagnostic, not absolving. Franken isn’t claiming ideology doesn’t matter; he’s reframing it as secondary to a business model that rewards attention, speed, and conflict. “Getting ratings” and “making money” are blunt phrases on purpose, stripping prestige from an industry that sells itself as civic infrastructure. Then he sneaks in the most revealing clause: “stories that are easy to cover.” That’s the quiet engine of modern news. Not only do sensational stories perform better, they’re cheaper: a panel segment beats a months-long investigation; a viral clip beats a trip to a county records office. Ease becomes an editorial criterion, and audiences mistake that convenience for importance.
The subtext is a critique of structural corruption without the melodrama of conspiracy. He’s pointing at a system where the incentives reliably manufacture the same pathologies: horse-race politics, outrage cycles, endless “both sides” framing, and an addiction to personalities over processes.
Context matters: Franken rose through satire, where exposing hypocrisy is the job, and later entered the Senate, where he watched media logics reshape governance itself. The line reads like a comic’s deadpan version of a grim observation: the camera doesn’t just cover reality; it selects for what’s cheapest to film.
The intent is diagnostic, not absolving. Franken isn’t claiming ideology doesn’t matter; he’s reframing it as secondary to a business model that rewards attention, speed, and conflict. “Getting ratings” and “making money” are blunt phrases on purpose, stripping prestige from an industry that sells itself as civic infrastructure. Then he sneaks in the most revealing clause: “stories that are easy to cover.” That’s the quiet engine of modern news. Not only do sensational stories perform better, they’re cheaper: a panel segment beats a months-long investigation; a viral clip beats a trip to a county records office. Ease becomes an editorial criterion, and audiences mistake that convenience for importance.
The subtext is a critique of structural corruption without the melodrama of conspiracy. He’s pointing at a system where the incentives reliably manufacture the same pathologies: horse-race politics, outrage cycles, endless “both sides” framing, and an addiction to personalities over processes.
Context matters: Franken rose through satire, where exposing hypocrisy is the job, and later entered the Senate, where he watched media logics reshape governance itself. The line reads like a comic’s deadpan version of a grim observation: the camera doesn’t just cover reality; it selects for what’s cheapest to film.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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