We Need A National Debate On What To Do With The Media

[LC EFA]

20score  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sun Feb-15-09 05:56 PM
Original message
We Need A National Debate On What To Do With The Media   Updated at 5:57 PM
   
Edited on Sun Feb-15-09 06:00 PM by 20score

As everyone who has been paying the least bit of attention knows, the Bush administration is responsible for myriad crimes. Torture, spying, outing a CIA agent, lying the country into a war; the list goes on and on. The majority in congress are also culpable in most of the crimes, and it’s a safe bet they will never pay any price. But none of these crimes would have been allowed to stand if the media had simply done its job.

The press was given freedom to be a check on the government, not to facilitate war crimes and massive theft of the treasury. And the media we now have is not only a national embarrassment with daily distractions, avoidance of important stories and a general dumbing down of contents, but they have been actively working against the well being of our country for years. And nothing has changed to guard against a repeat of past mistakes. We now have a better congress than we did five years ago; and many in congress have admitted they’ve made a mistake regarding the Iraq War. The change in the executive branch is immeasurable - but the media has yet to even acknowledge a single misstep on their part. “How could we know? The government gave us this information.” With the fact that the majority of the world knew the Bush administration was lying about Iraq, the real question would be – how could you not have known? As a whole of course, you did know, but chose to lie. There were of course individuals who didn’t know, but in general it would have been impossible for the media to be less informed than the people they were informing.

If the major stations and two of the three 24 hour news channels had broadcast a real news show like Democracy Now!, the war would never have happened, and the populace would have demanded trials by now for the crimes that were committed. But in reality, if the media had broadcast real news for the last few years, no one like Bush would have been taken seriously enough to get into office, so the trials would be moot.

There is talk of reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, which may or may not be the answer. But it should at be discussed openly. The least that should be done, in my opinion, is the breakup of the media giants along with strict oversight on the news divisions to guaranty they are serving the public. And we need a national debate on what should be done.

I do know one thing for certain - doing nothing should not be an option.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5060566

How can any rational person think the "media" has been anything other than blatantly hostile to the right at any time in the past decade ?

I will concede that what appears in the mainstream media has indeed been "dumbed down" .

pretzel4gore  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sun Feb-15-09 06:16 PM
Response to Original message
2. the pigmedia MGHT consider doing something
   
about the liberal media....' might' as in not...lol
actually, let's face the facts. We've been whupped. By sissie draft dodgin nazipoohs who giggle at the sight of babies being buried alive. And our big tough men all wanna go over and kick the peasant farmers' who threaten Olde Glory, right in the face; the same men will DIE to defend the gentlemen who plan to exterminate their children (after raping them all). They will excuse the rapo's actions on the basis that reactionary rapos 'are made, not born'; and these rapos is now 'born agin!' which excuses them from justice...Shee, i thot everybody already knew all this ( )

When R&D perfects the CrazyPerson->English software, send me a memo.

annabanana  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Sun Feb-15-09 06:29 PM
Response to Original message
5. simple, logically. . near-impossible, politically
   
I would make it illegal for any company that owns a mainstream media outlet to bid on, or receive no-bid, ANY government contracts.

As it is now, the media outlets are basically "loss-leaders" for the Corporation's "real" businesses.

Your plan is even more stunning in it's utter incoherency than any before. It'll just have to work !11!!1

[DumbAss Tanker]

And the media we now have is not only a national embarrassment with daily distractions, avoidance of important stories and a general dumbing down of contents, but they have been actively working against the well being of our country for years.

Well, I can certainly agree with ol' 20score on that line, but for entirely different reasons, I'm sure.

 

[TheSarge]

How can any rational person think the "media" has been anything other than blatantly hostile to the right at any time past decade ?

As I said in another thread...they believe the media isn't on their "side" because Fox News an Rush Limbaugh are allowed to exist.

The DUmmies believe that if the MSM was truly as Liberal as WE all know it is...those two entities wouldn't be allowed to be on the airwaves.

[franksolich]

How can any rational person think the "media" has been anything other than blatantly hostile to the right at any time past decade?

The media's been blatantly hostile to anything to the right of Fidel Castro a lot longer than that.

I'm not sure of the exact turning point, but based solely upon the print media, the media's been left-loving as far back as when John Kennedy was in the White House.

That was about the same time the old-time journalists were retiring, and being replaced by younger celebrity-stricken "journalists" more prone to idol worship than to reporting the news.

And then about a quarter of a century later, there emerged a new generation of "journalists," those prone not only to the cult of the personality, but equally determined to become "names," to become "celebrities," themselves.

It goes back a ways; it can even be traced to the early days of Franklin Roosevelt, the early 1930s--the reporting on the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, as even the socialist George Orwell said, was a professional disgrace.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

pretzel4gore  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sun Feb-15-09 06:16 PM
Response to Original message
2. the pigmedia MGHT consider doing something
   
about the liberal media....' might' as in not...lol
actually, let's face the facts. We've been whupped. By sissie draft dodgin nazipoohs who giggle at the sight of babies being buried alive. And our big tough men all wanna go over and kick the peasant farmers' who threaten Olde Glory, right in the face; the same men will DIE to defend the gentlemen who plan to exterminate their children (after raping them all). They will excuse the rapo's actions on the basis that reactionary rapos 'are made, not born'; and these rapos is now 'born agin!' which excuses them from justice...Shee, i thot everybody already knew all this ( )

Now who can argue with that?

[Carl]

Funny they can never come right out and say what they think in the name of fascism.
What they want is a total silencing of anything that doesn`t agree with them.

[Chris_]

That silly old 1st Amendment and its quaint little idea of "free speech." 

Who needs it?

[BlueStateSaint]

As I said in another thread...they believe the media isn't on their "side" because Fox News an Rush Limbaugh are allowed to exist.

The DUmmies believe that if the MSM was truly as Liberal as WE all know it is...those two entities wouldn't be allowed to be on the airwaves.

Remember something, Tx . . . the DUmb****s think that they represent "the common man."  Therefore, they feel that only their views should be in the "marketplace of ideas."  This goes hand-in-hand with their assumption that anyone who votes Republican votes "against their best interests."  They feel better-informed, and smarter, than us.

Bernard Goldberg hit it on the head.

Arrogance.

It's all arrogance. 

[USA4ME]

Remember something, Tx . . . the DUmb****s think that they represent "the common man."  Therefore, they feel that only their views should be in the "marketplace of ideas."  This goes hand-in-hand with their assumption that anyone who votes Republican votes "against their best interests."  They feel better-informed, and smarter, than us.

Bernard Goldberg hit it on the head.

Arrogance.

It's all arrogance. 

I agree with both you and TRG.

I have a good friend who's a psychologist and saw him a few weeks ago and had some time to chat.  Hadn't seen him since before the election and we starting talking politics, and he's conservative. 

I mentioned that I wanted to better understand something, that is, liberals base their ideology on emotions, not logic and analysis, and yet they confuse their emotional viewpoints as being based in logic and analysis, and I wondered if their was a clinical term for that, and exactly why they can't see that's what they do.

He knew exactly what I was talking about, but said their isn't a medical term of which he's aware that provided a concise diagnosis, but that in his more liberal patients he sees it all the time.  He, too, attributed it to an arrogance that tells them their feelings are superior, therefore because they view themselves as being more in empathy with others, any conclusion they reach is automatically considered by them to be logical.  IOW, they equate stronger emotions with being a better person with being more logical.

He also said they are the most difficult to treat because they refuse to see their own faults.  I got a good laugh when he told me that.

.

[franksolich]

He also said they are the most difficult to treat because they refuse to see their own faults.

Hey, thank that professional for confirming something this amateur always suspected, but had not the education or professional standing to back him up.