We have to respect freedom in the media

I remember that towards the end of the Bush administration when Fox news was at the height of criticism, there were numerous calls, in particular on the left wing, to have this media group held accountable legally for their biases and misleading reporting. MSNBC was also not too long ago called to be shut down by some extreme individuals due to them not displaying "in god we trust" from the pledge. There were some members here, and among the public, who called for legal action to be taken against CNN and Fox news when they failed to display Ron Paul fairly as one of presidential candidates recieving the most donations. I cannot understand how people can call for legal action because a private media group decided to mislead, or be bias, or missed out something that may be important to viewers. I spend a considerable amount of my time on this forum attacking numerous media sources and blogs because of their political agenda, but never once did I even think of stripping the right to report the way they like. I don't think anybody has that right.

We have to respect freedoms in the media, even when we do not necessarily agree with what they're saying. By all means attack the source, attack the agenda of these media groups, websites, blogs, but don't attack their constitutional right to report how they see fit.

Some people may argue further about media groups incorrectly attacking individual people, private citizens? What about defamation? Well I do believe that in many cases we can leave the public to make the judgement, especially when the truth is solid and is standing right in front of you. There are times when, if harm is proven, there is a legal case against media groups to private individuals, but I believe this is a different situation all together.

I'd like to get views from other ATSers on this stance, because I cannot for the life of me understand how anybody could argue and insist upon liberty, but would then turn around and call for those fundamental freedoms to be stripped from media groups.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


"The Media" isnt objective but is being controlled and "fed" what to say....if it was open and honest id have no problem with it at all...if it was truthful it would be great to have....as it is,its controlled by special interest or the "White" house...bah...scumbags,all of them

Originally posted by Homedawg
reply to post by Southern Guardian

 

"The Media" isnt objective but is being controlled and "fed" what to say....if it was open and honest id have no problem with it at all...if it was truthful it would be great to have....as it is,its controlled by special interest or the "White" house...bah...scumbags,all of them

Yes, many people believe the media is controlled, I get it. They are private media groups to me, do you really want the government to regulate "truth" and "consistency" in the media? Once we do this, we're asking for trouble in my opinion.

If you want the real news then you're going to have to shop around and get it from various sources. If you're not used to doing that then it's going to be trial and error until you find the legitimate ones that are surrounded by the crackpots.

People need to stop crying foul and getting sue happy because one or two stations aren't reporting what they want them to. If you don't like what you're watching, turn the friggin' T.V. off or change the station.

I'm sorry but when it comes to the media, I disagree 100%. Any organization that is trying to get "news" out to the people of the world, should get that news out with complete accuracy and truth. Most Americans (unfortunately) get their news from the MSM and there should be NO reason they need to lie. None.

False advertising is illegal, why should it be any different when it comes to false reporting? Are you seriously saying that people need to just accept the lies as if it's "no big deal"? That's your idea of "freedom"? To have the general public be tricked and lied to? Please. Good luck with that.

I don't believe for one second that the MSM report the news 'as they see fit'. I believe they are told exactly what to report and how they should report it.

Peace.

Originally posted by Wookiep
I'm sorry but when it comes to the media, I disagree 100%. Any organization that is trying to get "news" out to the people of the world should get that news out with complete accuracy and truth.

So you want government agenicies to regulate "truth" in the media?

False advertising is illegal, why should it be any different when it comes to false reporting?

If we're talking about defamation, attacking a private citizen with lies, and it's proven that it was harmful, then they have a case a court. If we're talking about general propaganda, about misleading sources about presidential candidates, or the president, or public officials, groups, really, it's silly to expect the government to regulate this. If not in the media, we see plenty of these attacks on the internet, should we regulate the internet too? When we call for action over media groups to be truthful to our tastes, we're asking for a tall order in my opinion.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


I think there should be strict guidelines that protect citizens against trickery and propaganda yes, absolutely. It's pretty simple, not sure why you would advocate false news, but whatever.

ETA: Your social internet media example does not work. We're talking about established and already regulated "professional" media outlets.

Originally posted by Tachalka
I don't believe for one second that the MSM report the news 'as they see fit'. I believe they are told exactly what to report and how they should report it.

Peace.

I don't agree with this notion that theres a group of super villians sitting around a table in a dark room controlling the media. As far as I can see it, these are private media groups, they have rights over their own businesses, it's a weak excuse to insist that we should somehow control what they report because of some deep conspiracy. They have rights.

Originally posted by Wookiep
reply to post by Southern Guardian

 

I think there should be strict guidelines that protect citizens against trickery and propaganda yes, absolutely. It's pretty simple, not sure why you would advocate false news, but whatever.

I don't advocate for false media, I am advocating against this idea that government should be regulating truth and impartiality in the media. This is exactly what you're calling for, and it's rather silly. Aside from the fact that we'd be throwing tax payer money everytime something is stated wrongly on the media (which is nearly every time), we'd also put aside the political agendas of the government itself. It doesn't make sense to me.

ETA: Your social internet media example does not work. We're talking about established and already regulated "professional" media outlets.

I don't see the difference between a lie being spreading on a website, and a lie being spread through the news. It's the same action to me, it's equal in damage. Just because a media group like fox is established, and a website like prisonplanet is not, doesn't mean that their responsibilities to the truth are any different.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


You don't have to worry about it. The Govt does enough lying of it's own. They won't ever support a regulation that promotes "truth and impartiality" anyway. Hell, most people on ATS believe the Govt is what feeds the nonsense the MSM spews anyways.

So you're safe. You get to keep your lies and propaganda because it's oh so important we keep our news corporations in the clear, while everyone else gets to remain in the dark, or come to ATS.

reply to post by Wookiep

False advertising is illegal, why should it be any different when it comes to false reporting? Are you seriously saying that people need to just accept the lies as if it's "no big deal"? That's your idea of "freedom"? To have the general public be tricked and lied to? Please. Good luck with that.

Wish there was an "applause" button.

What freedom. DC has been handing out the scripts since 2002.

reply to post by NightGypsy


The problem with freedom of speech, especially here in America, is that people don't want to take personal responsibility for the harm their words can cause.

This is one of the issues I have with our media now. American journalism is occupied by cowards these days. They exercise all the freedom of speech they can in order to pull the wool over our eyes. I don't know if these people actually believe what they print, but I'm sure many of them know it's b.s. So why don't these journalists take the high road and call out these publications for what they are? They just continue to deceive. The media is the method that is being used to sail us down the river. Will the media be held accountable. No way......they are exercising their First Amendment Rights.

Sad.

reply to post by Southern Guardian

I cannot understand how people can call for legal action because a private media group decided to mislead, or be bias, or missed out something that may be important to viewers.

Can you really not understand? Sigh... So if I was the news and I told you that radiation in our water supply was good for you, would you be satisfied with their freedom to mislead?? Would you be happy to get a glass of water from your tap, just to end up with radiation poisoning a month later, due to lack of proper knowledge to get clean water? Would you still advocate for the awesome misleading, free news?

I spend a considerable amount of my time on this forum attacking numerous media sources and blogs because of their political agenda, but never once did I even think of stripping the right to report the way they like. I don't think anybody has that right.

Political agendas are opinions, but if you feel like a reliable news source is only reporting one side of the story and promoting someone only because of their popularity within a corrupted government... why wouldn't you say something? Not everyone has the ability to sort out that kind of information from truth, and you would just let people be brainwashed because of your opinion that the news should be allowed to be as corrupt and deceitful as they wish?

We have to respect freedoms in the media, even when we do not necessarily agree with what they're saying.

Correct! And everyone should be treated as equals right? I believe that this is an important thing that is overlooked far too much. I see no problem in biased media, assuming I get the same opportunity to express my opinion in the same fashions. As I'm sure many people at ATS would tell you, many times when you write to a media source telling them to back up their ridiculous claims , there is either no response, or an automated response they give to everyone. More-over, a news source that wants to get an opinion out there will make sure to get it out there, by doing things like: talking to people with other views that are clearly uninformed, getting more people on the show that already agree with them to make a statement, falsifying their data to make a point, etc. ect...

How is that fair, when the news wouldn't even let another viewpoint to be expressed without shutting it down immediately?

Some people may argue further about media groups incorrectly attacking individual people, private citizens? What about defamation?

What about it? Don't tell me that you find slander is acceptable when it is extremely unlikely that the news source will bring the person defamed into the studio to talk to the audience! How does that make any sense? I thought free speech had some sort of responsibility to it? You can't just walk up to a cop and tell him to f-off if he didn't do anything wrong. What if I went up to a little kid and told them that his parents hate him and that he should steal their money and leave town, isn't that in my freedom of speech rights too?

I cannot for the life of me understand how anybody could argue and insist upon liberty, but would then turn around and call for those fundamental freedoms to be stripped from media groups.

Though there may be a tiny grain of truth in what you are saying, the part that bugs me is that media will often sell something to you as "proof". They will tell you their beliefs and opinions, or tell people what they are forced to say, whatever, but they will not tell you when it's an opinion or provide any objective information that leads to a different, plausible answer. It is right that everyone should have freedom to speech, but everyone has to have a responsibility to it as well. The media should be truly as fair to us as most people tend to be toward them. Honestly, I'd almost be inclined to listen to their lies if they just told us it was a lie beforehand, but who the hell would even do that? No, media should get equal rights as everyone else, not more.

The mainstream news media - news entertainment industry as I refer to it - is made up of major corporations. As such they have big shareholders, banks and other corporations, and conversely, they also invest in other industries.
So, would they report negative stories about another corporation in which they hold stock? Would they report negatively about a war when they hold stock in the arms industry and are making lots of money? Of course they wouldn't.
These big media corporations also have embedded advisors from government and big industry / banking to further vet what is, or is not, printed. Conversely, they also have people embedded in government and government departments as media advisors. The whole system is riddled with corruption and lies and it stinks!

Remember, they are also under no obligation to print the truth! See how many stories they print that come from anonymous, uncorroborated sources. Fact checking went out the window a long time ago and the editors print whatever the corporate execs tell them to.

Then we have the old saying "knowledge is power", which explains the attempts and proposed legislation to effectively censor the internet. They can't have the people getting facts from others on the ground where events are happening, rather than the vetted or even fabricated stories they prefer us to read.

So, in essence, our media is already controlled and there is little or no freedom of the press.

reply to post by Britguy

So, in essence, our media is already controlled and there is little or no freedom of the press.

Haha! Good point, Britguy....

Hey, OP, if you're so concerned about the freedom of speech for the press, why don't you take this up with the people who are really stifling their freedom, eh?

Originally posted by PhysicsAdept
Can you really not understand? Sigh... So if I was the news and I told you that radiation in our water supply was good for you, would you be satisfied with their freedom to mislead??

No I would not be happy that they mislead views, and if there was a revelation that they were mislead, they would be held accountable for it by the public, no?. What, do you want the government to hold them accountable for misleading viewers?

Political agendas are opinions, but if you feel like a reliable news source is only reporting one side of the story and promoting someone only because of their popularity within a corrupted government... why wouldn't you say something? Not everyone has the ability to sort out that kind of information from truth, and you would just let people be brainwashed because of your opinion that the news should be allowed to be as corrupt and deceitful as they wish?

Why would I not say something? You are certainly right, we must say something, we must hold these media groups accountable, this is not something the government should be left to regulate. As for people who are mislead by an ideologically and politically leaning news source, they allow themselves to be mislead. The is an abundance of information out there, we have access to multiple sources. I think it's a really weak excuse to insist upon this notion that people don't have the ability to sort out truth, they do. They're just too lazy or to emotionally invested in one view to bother to search for the truth.

How is that fair, when the news wouldn't even let another viewpoint to be expressed without shutting it down immediately?

It's not fair, but then again this isn't a fair world. If a property owner refused to sell his house to a couple in a neighbourhood merely because they were gay, that wouldn't be fair, but then again it's his property. He can sell it to whom he wants, he can invite whom he'd like to invite.

What about it? Don't tell me that you find slander is acceptable when it is extremely unlikely that the news source will bring the person defamed into the studio to talk to the audience! How does that make any sense? I thought free speech had some sort of responsibility to it?

There is a fine line between being opinionated, being biased in a view, and making a threat, or to use speech for the intention to harm a person.

Though there may be a tiny grain of truth in what you are saying, the part that bugs me is that media will often sell something to you as "proof". They will tell you their beliefs and opinions, or tell people what they are forced to say, whatever, but they will not tell you when it's an opinion or provide any objective information that leads to a different, plausible answer. It is right that everyone should have freedom to speech, but everyone has to have a responsibility to it as well.

There are no clear responsibilities written in the constitution regarding freedom of speech. In many ways it is blurred. Yes, morally there should be a responsibility to freedom of speech, but not everybody is going to follow those responsibilities, neither can we force them to do so. The minute we get the government to regulate "truth" or "honesty" in the media is the time we allow the government to impose more of their will on what's being reported. This is not a good idea in my view at all.

reply to post by Britguy


While I agree with much of what you're saying, how do you suppose we have these media groups report responsibly? Your saying these media groups are tied in the with the government, but you want their biases and lies to be held accountable somehow. By whom should they be held accountable to? The government? And around in circles we go.

The only way we're going to combat the lies out there is if we factcheck ourselves and do our own research.