Here's a story about how the New York Times wouldn't run a requested opinion piece about the Time Warner/AOL merger at the time because it didn't stick to the script. (via Ethel the Blog)
I think Bob Somerby is the one who really understands this phenomenon. Despite its many heads, the 'media' really is a single-brained beast, narrowly framing any discussion around the accepted script. Anyone who deviates radically from this script is treated as if they just tried to claim the Moon is made of Green Cheese, or that Clinton actually was a more popular president than Reagan, or some other similarly twisted idea. The occasional "contrarian" view is allowed, which is usually either not very contrarian at all or a straw man used to discredit a particular viewpoint.
Mr. Rushkof gets the last laugh.
