Is our media being made intentionally confusing to keep us from understanding?

Before cable televison our tv news was what was given to us from our local stations. Top stories and investigative journalism consisted of issues involving your local city and state, and comentary was only used during the very major stories or on the rare occasion when a timeslot needed to be filled. For the most part news was straight to the point reporting with an occasional interview on the topic, and then on to weather and sports. Unless it was an election year, politics were reported only when an accomplishment was achieved or a major issue concerning the american people was found. Democrate, republican...it didn't matter. People formed their own opinions from what they learned, but typically the news you watched was whatever local channel you could pick up with your rabbit ear antennas.

Now at our current time, our media is hardly a ghost of what it once was. Cable tv came in, bringing with it our modern news networks. You get your choice of left wing, right wing, and all the other "wings" in between!

Quite possibly the biggest change however has been the commentary. What used to be straigt forward reporting of facts have turned into powerhouses for personal opinion. Instead of reporting what is observed, our media has turned to 30 seconds of reporting on a story followed by 5 hours of random faces...each giving less and less of an informed opinion, and more and more complaining about how the other party dropped the ball. Our news has gradually shifted over time to the point that now almost no time is spent reporting the issues as the majority of the time is being spent by the commentators slandering and complaining about how the competition has reported the issues themselves. What's worse, is as the major networks continue to grow, the more the local stations we've grown up on are being assimilated. As each passing day goes by, our local stations look less and less of what we've come to expect, and more and more like mear reflections of their larger counterparts.

So now we have every major network focusing very little time on facts, and the majority of their time feeding you what they think you should think, and their opinions why you shouldn't think like their competition. That alone makes it very difficult already for the average person to form a truely educated opinion on what's going on in our world, and this is only the start of the layers that seem to be put in place (intentionaly or not) to confuse us.

Now take into concideration the rediculous amount of non-news related stories we have to sit through to find the real news. Every day we see less news, and more about what random addition to the family Bradjolena have adopted from some third world country, or what crazy crap lady gaga has decided to call clothing this week. We'll see months and months of opinions on whatever "bombshell tonight!" Crazy Totmom missing child case the media has decided to focus on and vulture off of for the rest of this quarter, and yet no reference to just how many other childeren have gone missing or been exploited during that same quater.

Throw in todays random bill or law our politicians are passing, the latest stockmarket trends, two hour expos on what ever the hottest new tech gadget is, and a neverending parade of comercials insisting "nows the time to buy gold", and a hundred others insisting "there's never been a better time to sell gold!"...its amazing anyone can find any real news at all!

With the hundreds of random faces on a network calling the hundreds of random faces on the competing networks liers, how is it anyone can possibly truely gain any form of grasp on our current situation. If one was to truely want to form an honestly logical opinion, the only means of doing so would be to watch every network congruently at all times...at which point that individual would be on such an opinion overload that their thoughts remain far from a just opinion in the end anyways. This is probably the biggest factor why the majority do not have an informed opinion, and instead simply repeat what ever it is they heard from what ever random commentator they happened to catch on the tv that day.

Now don't get me wrong, there is certainly nothing wrong with someone having a preference over one media or another, but the major issue is each network references (twisted into their own opinions) the opinions from the competing network's talking heads. So for someone banking on the opinions of their preferencial network...they fail to realize they are forming their own opinion from someone elses opinion on what the other network may or may not have said. This litterally makes it nearly impossible for anyone to truely have an educated veiwpoint on anything, because everything we're given is derived from the opinion of one person, that then has been derived someone elses opinion all together.

Because of our current situation with our media, it would not be inaccurate at all to make the statement: "none of us have any clue what's really going on anymore!"

For those of you who may still be on the fence about what I have said thus far, I have one final thing for you:

Regardless of media outlet preference...wouldn't you agree its a sad state of affairs when you get more facts in 5 minuets from the little news ticker at the bottom of the screen, then you do from watching the whole days worth or actual news programs?

Whether this is a conspiracy or not, I cannot say. This is more a thought I had, and the more I let the idea fester the more it seemed to have all the indications of something that quite possibly runs deeper. I searched and didn't see anything similar, so if this has been posted before I apologize.

Thank you for your time, and at the least I hope this has jarred some thoughts loose in a few of you!

May peace, and hopefully just a little sense of clairity come to us all!

-MutatisMutandis-

I recall about 20 years ago, I stopped watching the news because I saw it turn into a "News Show", and to me it was just like any other show on TV, all they cared about was looking good and the ratings.

I know since i have been on ATS, there has been a lot of people noticing this, but I think it's mostly the younger crowd, I'm 50, anybody thats around my age should know all about the MSM news show, and know not to watch it for anything significant.


and to answer your question;
"Is our media being made intentionally confusing to keep us from understanding"

I think it's more like they want to steer you into a certain direction, and your confusion and understanding of things are part of the game too.

Don't Forget when you're watching it next time, it's a "NEWS SHOW"


Thanks for bringing up this topic.





Peace

reply to post by FutureThinker


They're most certainly steering us towards something...just whether its towards their own viewpoints or just further pushing us apart in order to keep us arguing for the sake of ratings remains unclear...

Thank you for your input...and I agree, it certainly is just a 'news show'