There is no questioning that the increasing concentration of the broadcast media into a few hands is cause for great concern, and perhaps the reason for the increasing chasm between the evening news and the facts.
I agree too that a free press has historically been part of the checks and balances of our democracy, and that the freedom of that press is in even graver danger than free speech in general. In fact, in that a culture can be said to constitute the stories we tell to each other, the whole culture is in danger, maybe; look at our stories. More and more they are told by people who have little to say but much to sell. Some would argue that the broadcast media however were never journalists in the first place. The one hour format is too short to support thoughtfulness, and television succumbed very early to the temptation to cater to ratings, which is why a local fire will always trump any national or international news. I certainly don't think that people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are journalists, no, though they do have the right to free speech. Perhaps they are whores in the sense that they perform for money, but I suspect that they believe in what they do, actually. Sadly. I have a feeling that neither you nor I would agree with Ann on which media in particular were whores, and I am not sure that we would agree with each other either. For example, I don't agree either that the news is about reporting the answers as given. Supposing someone said you were an idiot, I could report that someone said you were an idiot, sure. Probably without fear of a libel suit. But is this responsible? Maybe it is about trying to approach objective truth through some thought. If person A says Mike D is an idiot but further inquiry reveals that person B and person C say that he is a coding god and person D says he's a damn good father, perhaps I should disregard person A altogether, hmm? It is also about deciding whose facts you report as correct. In Jschool the government is viewed as some objective authority, ie if the department of Labor says that employment is up in the manufacturing sector then this is so. The Bush administration has brilliantly exploited this flaw by such tactics are redefining manufacturing employment to include fast food chains jobs. And this gets reported only in formats that can support a multi-paragraph story containing multi-syllable words. And perhaps the truly conservative media are reluctant to criticize a president who would seem to be on their side, as the progressive media have been reluctant to talk about the condescension that has been the downfall, perhaps, of the side they were championing themselves. It is above all about reasonable discussion, which has never known to be fostered by using words like whore. And stupid. Dana On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 19:54:18 -0600, Gruss Gott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Michael wrote: > > "Who cares about truth. Better to sacrifice the truth in order to get > > something done." > > Ok, let's test your theory. > > What's the truth about the election? Rigged or not? > What's the truth about the the invasion of Iraq? Did the President > think there were WMD? > > We don't know the truth about any of these things, yet the press has > reported on all of them. What sources should've been asked that > weren't? I can't think of one, yet we still don't know the truth. > > Journalism is about asking questions and reporting the answers as > given, not providing "truth"; that's what religion is for. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Gold Sponsor - CFHosting.net http://www.cfhosting.net Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:135813 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
