OurCivicDuty.com: Modern Media

CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and the other major media outlets cover whatever they wish. Does it mean that it's newsworthy just because its on the news?.

The Modern Media

Our worldview is shaped by the information that we are exposed to. Which way we vote, what we buy, and sometimes what we believe result from decisions that we continually develop from this information. Most Americans turn to a Main Stream Media (MSM) news or entertainment outlet for the news. We then develop beliefs and conclusions that rely on the accuracy, completeness, and relevance of that information. This leaves us with an important question. Is it wise to allow the MSM to influence us so dramatically?

If the modern media wasn't in such a deplorable state, then this site and nearly all the issues it addresses would not exist or would have already been resolved by a more-informed American people. The MSM has abandoned nearly everything that originally made it a valuable asset to our country. Today the media is sympathetic to the wishes of authority whether it be government or powerful corporations. Instead of simply repeating what these parties say, however, the media has an inherent responsibility to question everything in pursuit of true insight for their audience. Maintaining a healthy skepticism regardless of the source alongside of good old-fashioned "muckraking" is essential. We can watch C-Span to hear what government officials have to say or watch commercials to learn what corporations want us to think, but it is the media's responsibility to find the weak points in their arguments and expose the truth behind what's happening every day. This rarely occurs in today's MSM.

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

- Thomas Jefferson, 1786.

The Free Press?!

The media in the United states is often referred to as the "free press." Though our media is theoretically unrestricted with regards to what it is able to present, the modern media has repeatedly chosen to restrict itself. For example, every once in a while we hear a news story telling us about a 100 mpg carburetor or a water/gas hybrid that does even better, but where is the follow-up report that explain why it will never be available in my car? Why do certain captivating stories that stand to greatly benefit the public quickly disappear while random missing persons cases that have hardly any effect on the common citizen's life remain frontpage stories for months on end? There is no question that the journalists and reporters would prefer to write stories that would ultimately benefit society (and many do), but there exists an unseemly relationship between the press, "government," and powerful corporations that turns a blind eye to what is best for the people of this country.

For instance, how many Amerians are aware of the $2.3 trillion that went missing from the Pentagon that was reported September 10, 2001 in a press conference by Donald Rumsfeld? The story was eventually picked up by CBS News online (article still accessable here and dated Jan 29, 2002) and possibly by some other sources, but even after the events of Semptember 11th subsided and the country returned to business as usual, this mammoth of a news story was still not adequately addressed or even widely presented to the American people. The amount of money is such that it should have been front page news in most newspapers across the country followed by congressional investigations. After all, that was our money that went missing, and it didn't just disappear. It went somewhere, and someone or some part of the government, perhaps a "black" project for the defence department, benefitted greatly from the money that was taken from the American people and then squandered by the bureaucracy. This is news that would captivate people, raise ratings, and, in general, do the country some good, but we still don't have any answers about where such a huge amount of money was lost, an amount equal to $8,000 for every person in this country.

"There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press."

- Mark Twain.

Fake News Read More

The current state of the media is considerably evident in our country when one considers the constant deluge of fake news stories that are offered up on a daily basis. One needs only to listen carefully to an hour block of programming and then put its content into context to realize its true absurdity. There are numerous wars going on at any time, millions starving, constant scandals involving our top government officials, and hundreds of other revealing, provocative stories that seem to be quite newsworthy, but most of these stories will never be presented to the American public. The media would instead focus on Fake News involving select missing persons, celebrity trials, and even paid endorsements for goods and services that appear to the audience as actual news reports. The stories that directly affect the lives of citizens are few and far between.

Media Monopoly

Section coming soon...

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Posted by tom on Tuesday, 09.11.07 @ 12:41pm | #18

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