do you believe what you see??

I hear a lot of stuff from a lot of people, that you americans just accept whatever the media dishes out to you, without question. Or is it just some of them??

But Id like the opinion of the actual populace, before I make conclusions.

im sure fellow ATS members can help me understand the US media more....

Well, you my friend are stereotyping a whole country based on a few people on a CONSPIRACY board. No one here (from what I know) is a brainwashed maniac. Why else would they be here? Enlightenment is what I come here for, personally. I don't watch TV (less it be Spongebob Squarepants or Family Guy) because it serves me no purpose other than to show me what the Newscasters want me to see. I am one of many, but I'm sure there's people who follow blindly.

Ah the media has a way of twisting stories to bring in more viewers. It's the dog eat dog way of the world. Make your story more exciting and get more viewing, get more viewers, make more money.

For many people in the US this does seem to be the case, but not for all. I do watch the televised news, but am the opposite as I automatically think everything is a twisted truth or just a flat out lie. If I think that the information is relevant to me or important in some way, I find further information through the different sources (usually international) or at ATS.

You have pretty much answered your own question by posting it on a sight that guarantees a certain flavour of response.
Any mainstream media outlet is regulated by an agency of one type or another ie: FCC which just happens to be.....OH MY GOD a government agency.
Take for example an opinion poll, if a government wanted to run a poll asking a question about whether or not people thought the government was doing a good job and have a positive spin on it, the best place to take that poll would be D.C. itself. Basically a much higher percentage of the people they asked would work for the government and therefore would answer in the positive.
What I am trying to illustrate is that by asking the question here, as Wasteddeath pointed out, ON A CONSPIRACY site, you have set yourself up to get a predetermined answer. Of course almost everyone here is going tell you that they never take anything the mainstream media feeds them at face value because we all assume it has been filtered and watered down so much before we get the goods that it rarely resembles the truth. And the truth is what we are all here trying to find.

Yet, still I've seen the following argument way to often here on a consipracy site: "If that is true, then why haven't I seen it in the evening news?" or "that would've major news by now, so it's not real/doesn't exist " etc...

I HARDLY believe a thing I SEE on TV......sitcoms AND the news seam the SAME to me.

I have a background in film making.....and I KNOW first hand how to make THINGS look SO REAL! and its all very simple.....so easy to set up and get others to BELIEVE whatever you want them to believe. They can even SEE it with theyre own eyes!......no I dont trust the NEWS process via the television set.
So me? believe the news media? no way. Not on your life.

I stopped watching the news over 10 years ago, and I dont miss a thing.
I make a VERY big point of NOT watching espescially during ELECTION times.
Sadly....I have family members who believe every single thing they see on the news........they swallow it up hook line and sinker!

I like to listen to the radio for news.... PBS stations....and the like.

IF some station was to start up a "GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD" and report on how the dog made toast for grandma would I watch......HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!!! things ya know? then....and ONLY then, could they count me in as a 'watcher'..........

I'd watch that channel too! I'm always amazed at the way people automatically believe something they see in the news, in print, on TV or even on the net. I would never believe something that a stranger off the street walked up a told me, so I'm not going to believe complete strangers who tell me something through the TV either. People should realize that the media is a business, they are in the business to make money so they stay around, and that money will always be their chief concern. Therefore you should understand everything they do is colored by that.

Bang on Bandit I posted this comment on another thread.

The irony (if I'm using the word correctly) is that now more than ever we question the information we are fed by the White House's information disemination centre known as CNN, we question any information given to us by the authorities but in the end we find any conspiracy theory hard to accept until those same authorities admit that any given one is true.
And worse yet if they ever did come clean a whole new round of theories would evolve explaining that the admissions are disinformation to sheild us from another even deeper darker secret.


[edit on 10-6-2004 by echosounder]

Yes, is there a reason not to. If it's on CNN then it has credibility, if its on www.drudgereport.com then I have doubts. It all depends what channel its on. I have my doubts about the local media, because it was proposed that OJ Simpson was a mass serial rapist/murderer. I didn't actually follow it closely at the time, because I was like 15 or 16 and had no interest in the news. It was amazing how quickly people jumped to conclusions and labeled him a mass murderer. Then it occured to me, had he had not been a professional football (American form of rugby not to be confused with the beautiful game), player there would be no interest. No one would have carred, because it happens all the time in the news. Hence creating lost revenue for the media. OJ Simpson was more like a figure head that the media used to generate revenue.

i only observe the news when i see fit...which is close to never, for i figured that all news is means nothing, except to further the political gains of whoever is in control. it all goes to nothing in the end.