A little forward before I get into my topic, first brought up from my US Gov't and Politics class, and spread around to US history and World History classes. Some of the topics I brought up might sound a little Anti-America related (a nod to the moderators who did an excellent job of carefully monitoring the Anti-America thread a long time a go in the GR forums), but that is not my intention. I merely bring it up to bring up my discussion to you about our media, and whether or not it does us harm.

Discussion: Is TV media biased and improper? Will it bring about our demise?

Is it necessary for our media to report to people about:

1) Sensitive material like "Operation Lightning" ready (that gives away to the guerillas in Iraq, information about a major offensive.

2) Reporting with biases (there are subtle choice of words like "Scandal" or "Relation" or "Aggresion" or "intervention")

3) Entertainment based information (Check the New York Times. Undoubtedly one of the most famous American newspapers, no? Compare one today with one of say 5 years ago. Look at the difference in the nature of the material inside)


I think we will become our own demise if we don't do about something anytime soon. Even the most powerful country on earth, isn't invincible. When did "America, the savior" disappear, and become "America, the irritator".

In general, there was an agreement in my classes, along with many intellectuals who have spoken on this matter, that people began to move away from America post-Cold War, when you didnt have to cast your lot with the Soviet Union or the United States to survive(I use USSR vs. USA in general, though there were countless other countries that contributed to this balance. There was more than the USSR and USA that was in the equation). Agreed. During the Cold War, stationing 500,000 U.S. troops to block a Soviet aggression would be welcomed with open hands in a nation fearing a Soviet intervention.

What concerns me now, is that even our most staunchest allies are beginning to turn away from us. I cannot accept "so screw them" as a proper response. We are the most powerful nation on earth at the moment (Argument: English, is the dominant language because of America, just like French was the language of the nobles when France was the most powerful nation during Louis XIV and much afterwards.). US military aide and news is always on the front page. (Your personal agreement or not, US Military news is always reported with "much interest." Did anybody pay as much attention to the Russian military post-Cold War?)), and if we want to stay there, we have to prove we are fit for it and worthy of it.



Now here is where my topic goes into full swing: All of what I've mentioned here, is collected from newspapers, magazines, and news periodicals... including the "America the agitator" material... which was from Newsweek. (Did anybody read the Newsweek article a while ago, titled "Why America Scares the World"?). I think the best way to prove my point is comparing with history books and newspapers. Has anybody considered that anything the news agents want to cover, they're on the front pages, or notice that news agents reflect their political or personal affilitations? IE, Fox News's executives are dominantly republicans, as a result, during the elections they posted a lot of "Good Republican" news (concerning President Bush, the events in Iraq, world news concerning Bush, and etc), hence the nickname "most patriotic news agency". Other news agencies, many of them predominantly democratic, post more anti-Bush than pro-Bush. Perhaps there was a coincidence in news networks like CNN, where the vast majority of the staff claimed they were liberal, and just had more bad news about Bush to dig up. But now that the elections are over, you don't see as much "anti-Bush news in those other channels than you do now. If they really meant it, they would be working on it even now. Just like the legislation like the Draft (which was very anti-Bush), just disappeared now when the legislation was due this spring. It is getting harder and harder to decide what is news, and what is just... I hate to say it... propaganda.

That sort of stuff bothers me. Anything the news execs want to do, they can put pressure on anybody they want. Former President Theodore Roosevelt called them, Muckrakers, news agencies and people who dug up bad news about the opposition so they would lose support and create disinformation and disloyalty. These things do work, and with some news agencies slowly gaining prestiege for being around for a long time, the brand name makes us believe in it even more. So the next time you pick up a Washington Post article that accidently posted wrong information on say aliens, wouldnt you believe in it?(This is merely an extreme example, I'm just trying to prove a point.) It is after all, one of the most famous names in the news business...

Sensitive stuff there PB

As a national of an allied nation I am going to hold my tounge when it comes to US foriegn policy!

What I will say is it's good to see you drop in

ps: dang this place has got some carpy smilies

Nice post PB. Maybe a bit too deep for us on the "short bus", though. In my opinion, the news media has always been slanted, depending on the views of the reporter/editor. The degree of bias, I think, depended on the times and issues, as well as the particular medium (CNN, Washington Post, etc). Through that bias, the media attempts to form public opinion, rather than report it. And it's not just national news, either. Even on a state or local level they will twist the "facts" to fit their "truth". I've seen them go so far as to take individual words from an interview to create a new and fictitious "quote" that fit their preconceived conclusion. "Yellow journalism" has never really gone away, it's just been less noticable from time to time. However, I do feel that the degree of bias has increased in the time I've been around. I no longer read the newspaper, and rarely watch the TV news, it's gotten so pathetic.

I don't particularly feel the media is our demise. I believe our blind trust in the media is our demise. The media is just the bane of truth.

What other forums did you post this in?

An excellent thread, PB.

The sickness seems to dwell from the inability of the general public to define the phrase "News" correctly. News in the classic sense of "Assembled facts collected and distributed with neutrality" is no longer available to the mainstream. Companies such as Reuters and Associated Press collect information and sell it on to those who distribute it via media, be it the web, TV, paper or pigeon.

If your interest is in facts, then you are plainly best served by keeping your information hub as close to the source as possible. Rather like the children's game "Chinese Whispers", the more filters information has to pass through before reaching the end filter, the more likely it is to become corrupted by bias, errors of communication and suchlike.

The public developed trust in the Journalist when journalism was a profession akin to policework. Newspapers had entire investigative divisions dedicated entirely to the uncovering of the truth. The job appears to have changed from digging the roots of truth from the mire, to begging for scraps thrown from the Government Press Office trough.

So sad, really. Given that we now possess the the most capable means for distributing information, we find ourselves awash with so much knowledge we trust implicitly in others to interpret it for us. What a ghastly, orwellian concept that is. Somebody else, usually in the form of a corporation or comittee, has been handed the burden of thinking. The effort to dig through information to arrive at a correct conclusion is too much of an effort, it seems. When we consider that our opinions, the CORE FACETS of the our personality, are not hewn from the living rock of truth, but mass-produced, stamped psuedo-information thrown to us by an attractively packaged compay. When people simply swallow what they are told instead of chewing and processing that which matters, the word could be said to be lost.

To those who no longer watch the haunted fishtank, I congratulate you.

P.S. Good to see some of the 'old skool' here. I sincerely hope you are all well and that life continues to treat you kindly..

Nice thread and here are some points to throw in the bag;

I can not remember a time when you could call the US "the saviour". Maybe me not being from the US is the reason why I do not appreciate the relevance of this statement.

In England, my home country, there has always been a joke about US people not knowing or appreciating anything apart from what happens in their own state, let alone their own country.

Newspapers have always been full of propoganda. It just depends on what side of the fence you sit as to what sounds truthful or not. And TV's have ALWAYS been full of ****, if you do believe anything the news channel tells you then congratulations, you've just been sucked in. As someone else rightly stated, you really need to find out your information as close to the source as you possibly can.