THE APATHY OF THE MEDIA
I have been checking the news quite regularly for the last couple of weeks, and I am struck and horrified by a trend I am only beginning to understand. It seems that the mainstream media is being led around by the nose by the Bush administration. I know, I know, this is an old tune, but this time it has resurfaced with a new twist. Usually, I am angry at the Media for blandly accepting what they are told by the administration and reporting it as fact without any further investigation. I have sort of become numb to this kind of journalistic irresponsibility.
What kills me now is how easily, and how completely, the truly important stories have been thrust aside to make way for coverage of things that may matter, but may very well not. Yesterday, I was somewhat angry that EVERY major internet news site covered the judicial nomination instead of the indictments comcerning the Valerie Plume leak. That said, I do recognize that the nomination of a supreme court justice, particularly one as controversial as Alito, is a big story. The administration OBVIOUSLY timed that nomination to counteract news of the indictments, but I can't be mad at that. The democrats would do that just as fast in a reversed position, anyone would with an ounce of political sense.
This morning, I opened the front page of cnn.com, wondering whether they would lead with Alito or the Plume case. Instead, to my wondering eyes appeared our beloved doofus of a President, asking Congress for still more money we don't have to "prepare for a possible flu pandemic." A flu pandemic? Better yet, a flu pandemic that has not yet even happened in this country? Is this some sort of sick joke? Or have the news media really become such partisan hacks, such overwrought, self-important nabob's that they really can't make up their own minds about what is an important story anymore? If we are going to read words directly from the mouth of the President's writers, let's dispense with the middle man and have little speakers in our homes that broadcast his words, like in 1984. I do not need to hear those words cloaked in a veneer of authority and nonpartisanship simply because they were reread by some rich, makeuped clown with a permanent smile sewn on to his face. The news media in this country seems to have confused the idea of objectivity, of reporting the facts, with the idea of repeating whatever you are told. I expect nonsensical, self-serving BS from politicians. I just never thought that the media, once the bastion of honesty and toughness in our country, could fall so far as to become mouthpieces for the propaganda and manipulation that is ruining our country.
OGW
I have been checking the news quite regularly for the last couple of weeks, and I am struck and horrified by a trend I am only beginning to understand. It seems that the mainstream media is being led around by the nose by the Bush administration. I know, I know, this is an old tune, but this time it has resurfaced with a new twist. Usually, I am angry at the Media for blandly accepting what they are told by the administration and reporting it as fact without any further investigation. I have sort of become numb to this kind of journalistic irresponsibility.
What kills me now is how easily, and how completely, the truly important stories have been thrust aside to make way for coverage of things that may matter, but may very well not. Yesterday, I was somewhat angry that EVERY major internet news site covered the judicial nomination instead of the indictments comcerning the Valerie Plume leak. That said, I do recognize that the nomination of a supreme court justice, particularly one as controversial as Alito, is a big story. The administration OBVIOUSLY timed that nomination to counteract news of the indictments, but I can't be mad at that. The democrats would do that just as fast in a reversed position, anyone would with an ounce of political sense.
This morning, I opened the front page of cnn.com, wondering whether they would lead with Alito or the Plume case. Instead, to my wondering eyes appeared our beloved doofus of a President, asking Congress for still more money we don't have to "prepare for a possible flu pandemic." A flu pandemic? Better yet, a flu pandemic that has not yet even happened in this country? Is this some sort of sick joke? Or have the news media really become such partisan hacks, such overwrought, self-important nabob's that they really can't make up their own minds about what is an important story anymore? If we are going to read words directly from the mouth of the President's writers, let's dispense with the middle man and have little speakers in our homes that broadcast his words, like in 1984. I do not need to hear those words cloaked in a veneer of authority and nonpartisanship simply because they were reread by some rich, makeuped clown with a permanent smile sewn on to his face. The news media in this country seems to have confused the idea of objectivity, of reporting the facts, with the idea of repeating whatever you are told. I expect nonsensical, self-serving BS from politicians. I just never thought that the media, once the bastion of honesty and toughness in our country, could fall so far as to become mouthpieces for the propaganda and manipulation that is ruining our country.
OGW
posted by OGWiseman at 9:28 AM
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