Is the Media Creating News?

reply to post by whistler16


Of course you make a valid point here. But the fact that these commentators have the opportunity to address such large numbers of our
population gives them an inherent responsibilty to stay ethical, and have accountability, don't you think?

There should be a factual basis for their opinions, rather than just coming in with a few isolated events, charging forward with them as though there is a "crisis level" of events, merely to solicit viewers and pad their own ratings.

how many interviews of other interviewers did you see to come to this conclusion... dan rather interviews dan rather... but he had rather not... since he has been labeled a Patriot.... ha ha ha... yea, really dangerous time we live in - huh partner... well, I for one will be glad to see the people whopass ... for this is the First American Revolution... one for the history books....

are you aware that George Washington had a couple of mutiny's during the revolutionary war. 6 men were put to death for mutiny with cause,
cold, no food, no money... caused their deaths. but on lighter note:
we won the Revolutionary war... Now read MAO... the chinese have a very hard revolution and they are more nationalized and proud to be chinese,... just the way Americans Use To Be.... China is the New America. if I reading the tea leaves correctly.... now the crown is showing the real America... will we have enough balls to right this ship... or are we along for the ride....? remember 1999...? hong kong was turned over to the China... and now Tiawan is moving in that direction as well... how interesting...

Originally posted by casaloma
Back before the dawn of time, my husband and I were journalism majors at a respected US university. We were taught that the ethics of journalism was objectivity. Most of our professors believed that your readers or watchers should never have an inkling of what you really thought about the politics behind the story. ........
He can't stand to watch CNN and I don't believe Fox News has even been broadcast in our house. It isn't so much that we are liberal (though we are) it's that we were rigorously trained to have respect and awe for objectivity and ethical behavior.

We were taught that journalists played a key role in the democracy of the nation by their fierce devotion to the truth and their refusal to be self serving. I KNOW that's an impossible standard to always achieve, but how sad that now we don't have the objective at all.

Star and a flag. True and very sad.

For the people of a democracy to be able to make free and informed decisions about their future and future leaders.

..those decisions must be "informed" with the neccessary facts and the opinion/decision should be left to the people.

Report the news...don't create it.

Instead the talking heads do just the the opposite.

They rave and rant and tell us what to think while at the same time offer few relevant facts....

OBJECTIVITY DOES NOT PAY THE BILLS IN TODAYS NEWS BUSINESS

Example...Advertisers need to know that their Viagra commercial is being seen by people of a certain gender, age and income bracket (Demographic)
Research shows that a majority of those same folks of that gender, within that income and age bracket have given political views....

Get a talking head on TV who parrots what this demographic already believes...
re-inforce their opinions .......
make them feel good....
whatever idea they are angry about...DON"T dispell the missconception with factual reporting...
reinforce the view with ranting opinion....
get them loyally watching the bobbing head and feeling good about their uniformed political opinion...

then sell them Viagra..


Repeat with other product and related demographics..

bias pays the bills.

PAY ATTENTION TO COMMERCIALS WHEN YOU WATCH THE NEWS...ask What demographic usually buys this product...that is who the news is speaking to...it is a business.

Anybody old enough to remember these lyrics...?

I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I dont have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry

Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre up
Kick em all around

We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
Its interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
Running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry

You dont really need to find out whats going on
You dont really want to know just how far its gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry

Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybodys pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry

We can do the innuendo
We can dance and sing
When its said and done we havent told you a thing
We all know that crap is king
Give us dirty laundry!


[edit on 28-9-2009 by maybereal11]

reply to post by casaloma


Back before the dawn of time? LOL.

Thank you so much for posting. It does seem that factual information is no longer an objective. Yes, I remember too, that if the reader/viewer could even guess which side your personal position was in the matter, it was considered that you were not doing a good job. That was an absolute no-no.

And I do understand the difference between a commentator and a reporter, truely I do.

I'm just not sure the journalists do anymore.

Originally posted by crimvelvet
reply to post by casaloma

 

It is worse. Journalist who do hold a high ethical standard get fired for being honest. Derry Brownfield reported on Monsanto's unethical treatment of Us farmers and got kicked off the air. Two journalists in Florida got fired for criticizing Monsanto. I have gone a round or two with the head of Monsanto's publicity department. Corporations have interlocking directors with the media see ATS - Media Control? - 118 people...

I have no problem whatsoever believing this. It's rumored that the news stations have been bought anyway......huge propaganda machines just churning away. Even the public radio station has been censored, or was at least a couple of years ago. Signed, sealed and delivered. But by who?

Interesting that I'd stumble across this thread today.....I just read a great article and I'd like to share the very ending of it....and invite you to read the entire thing.

I'm still mulling over my thoughts on it..

The honest, disinterested voice of a true journalist carries an authority that no self-branded liberal or conservative can have. “For a country to have a great writer is like having another government,” Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote. Journalism, done right, is enormously powerful precisely because it does not seek power. It seeks truth. Those who forsake it to shill for a product or a candidate or a party or an ideology diminish their own power. They are missing the most joyful part of the job.

This is what H. L. Mencken was getting at when he famously described his early years as a Baltimore Sun reporter. He called it “the life of kings.” Linky

The entire article is a very good read....and puts a good focus on what may be plaguing the media in general nowadays.

Originally posted by lpowell0627

News shows, like everything else, have to turn a profit and in order to do so must have a niche in order to attract the most viewers.

If they all reported on the exact same stories, using exactly the same facts, it would make them all interchangeable. In order to make it their own, they have to add "flavor". It's their uniques spin that makes a person choose one over the other.

Hm. Define "flavor", and at what point does flavor become propaganda?
How much should they be permitted to get away with?

I understand where you are coming from to a degree. But I don't think we need to worry about them not turning a profit. The major networks seem to be doing a fine job for themselves in that department.

It's the addition of exorbitant "flavor", which concerns me. At what point might they hammer and hammer something until they have us in a race war? Or a sniper at the border killing "illegals". Or punching a man out because his wife is wearing a berka?

I really don't want to appear to be an alarmist here, because I don't really think I am. But to use "Thedailyplanets" thoughts; the news kept using the word "knife" and "stabbing" over and over again, and everytime they did, coincidentally there was another stabbing. So much so there appeared to be a correlation, and even so, it continued.

Now this was sensational. This drew attention. But was it responsible?
At what point will ethics kick in? And if ethics has to compete with ratings, which should come first? Should there be a line drawn somewhere?

I have a close friend who works for the NYT's. I have admonished him at times for printing certain things. Yep. Sure have. And his response is "it could have been a lot worse. Some things I leave out because of courtesy, but actually we can print whatever we choose".

Of course, I would defend our right to free speech.....of course, of course.
It's what makes us who we are.

But sometimes events are so completey taken out of context, blown up and spinned, that we wind up falling for something that perhaps is not really an issue at all.....but becomes an issue due to irresponsible reporting.

Due to way too much "flavor", if you will.

[edit on 9/28/0909 by ladyinwaiting]

reply to post by maybereal11


Wow. Just "wow" to everything you said. Yes.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree completely with every word of it.

I've never made the jump from the nightly news on major networks becoming competitive with the rival cable news.

So, we see that what the cable news/commentators did in order to attract viewers away from the network stations has become moreless contagious. It's spread like a very attractive but sickening virus.

I like to be entertained, and I like to keep up with the news. The news as we all know is entertaining enough in it's raw form.

This is quite an important film to watch as it features interviews with various high ranking news editors and CEOs of media outlets.

'Orwell rolls in his grave' documentary.

"Could a media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth?..."

Link:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Cheers.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


Thanks. For what it is worth I get nearly all my news from NPR radio.
They are available online also at NPR dot Org.

They are not commercially funded. They are not perfect, but to me they appear the last bastion of objectivity in US news.

When CNN started and the news became a profit center rather than a loss-leader...that was the end of consistently objective reporting.

reply to post by cranberrydork


There's a great deal of truth in those words, I think. At least ideally.
Thank you for posting it.

reply to post by karl 12


Shoot! I've got to figure out what's going on that I can't access a video.
It was fine until yesterday.

This looks fantastic. I have been in situations, seen situations where a lie has become the truth. Think about it. It's real. I've bookmarked your thread so I can go back and read it entirely.

Case in Point: This whole vile, dispicable business about someone having a question on Facebook as to whether Obama should be killed, is now on national news. Is this giving some type grandeur to an ignorant psychopath? (Yes, I know that word is obsolete, but I still like it.)

It this worthy of a network news program?

Is it simply stirring up a bunch of equine manure?

I bet Fox will have this as their lead story........"Let's make it an issue, because it proves so many people hate this man as much as we do, that they are discussing his murder".

Propagandizing?

Well, I just want to thank you for the reminder. It has been so long since I have heard honest journalism as I was taught, I had almost, not quite, but almost forgotten.

Way back in my day they called it 'yellow' journalism.

Just a note to add: I see Christine Amanpour is starting a new show this weekend to address "the real issues".

I wonder, oh how I wonder, what will they be? Real or created?

I bet people will be freaking out about all kinds of "major" issues they didn't know they had, until of course, Ms. Amanpour told them.

Originally posted by Jenna
To be fair, Beck and O'Reilly aren't news reporters, they're news commentators. As are pretty much all of the people who have their own shows. They are naturally going to voice their opinions which makes their reports more biased than those that come from actual news reporters. The difference between reporters and commentators is frequently overlooked but it shouldn't be.

I do agree that the news in general though is biased according to the reporters opinions and beliefs on the subject. It's rather unfortunate that this is the case. Any one who wants an unbiased take on pretty much anything that's made headlines has to go out of their way to find multiple sources that cover the topic from multiple angles and then cobble together the truth.

Mikerusselus brings up an excellent point as well. It's hard to know how much of the perceived bias is real and how much of it is just our impression based on our own biased opinions.

I agree with that, only thing is that Bill O Reilly does it live...

(warning - profanity)





Personally I dont watch the news, its full of nonsense and I would recommend that everyone switches off there televisions once in a while.

[edit on 2-10-2009 by XXXN3O]

This is a good subject.
I remember the show with whats-his-name that was pretending to be reporting from the "battlefield" with a scud missle going off. His co-host ducked and came up with a gas mask on. It was all a studio set up. It was the most dorky amateur show. It was absolutely Wag the Dog.

And I remember the two reporters, I think they were Faux News, who defied their boss and reported on the growth hormones in the milk we are getting thanks to Monsanto. (Not just that, but there udders are so swollen and enlarged from the hormones that the skin cracks and gets infected and so now a certain percentage of blood and pus is "allowed" in your milk.

And then there was a local reporter who raced to the scene where a mother had just seen her son shot in the face. The reporter breathlessly ran up to the mother to ask "how do you feel?" It was so crass and so heartless. I puked and turned the TV off for 7 years. That was the last thing I saw.

I don't read the newspaper either. I will not support the liars and the agenda makers.

[edit on 2-10-2009 by Alethea]

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting
This looks fantastic. I have been in situations, seen situations where a lie has become the truth. Think about it. It's real. I've bookmarked your thread so I can go back and read it entirely.

Ladyinwaiting ,thanks for the reply -the film certainly was a bit of an eyeopener (to me anyway).
This speech made by RFK in New York also makes some extremely good points about the corporate media:

Part One:
www.youtube.com...

Part Two:
www.youtube.com...

Cheers

Newspapers, TV stations and radio stations have creditors. Many are in bankruptcy or need to borrow money. Who has the money they need? Goldman Sachs and company on Wall Street.

Also, many will file for bankruptcy and wind up in the hands of their creditors-this is against the law, but we do not really seem to follow the law anymore.

online.wsj.com...

www.dailykos.com...

Edited to add link
Edited for grammar.

[edit on 2-10-2009 by amaranth]

[edit on 2-10-2009 by amaranth]

Capitalism is flawed and filled with loopholes that eventually allows a few corporations to control the flow of public information. Combine that with citizen complacency, and the internet is useless as the last source of a Free Press.

People at these types of forums are a small fraction of the population, which is mostly too busy working too hard, or on the other end, complacent/happy with their electronic gadgets, their army tank automobiles (SUV's) and their implanted girlfriends.