The battle over control of the media is obviously as serious as ever. There is ever more tightening and consolidation of the mega-players that own most “news outlets”. The number of newspapers shrivels monthly and even the ones that are left tend to run the same generic Associated Press or corporate sponsored coverage. Yes, journalism is probably at or near an all-time low. Journalism and free press is something obviously allowed under the U.S. constitution, but how to construct and support it has always been a tricky and ethically difficult matter. Papers were normally owned by tycoons and consolidated companies. The differences and trends between true journalism, yellow journalism, propaganda, corporate news, and outright sensationalism and lies has always been hard to navigate.
As marred as the private enterprise of journalism is, obviously relying on any government news is even sketchier and riddled with problems. Although respectable news outlets such and NPR and traditional PBS shows as the MacNeil-Lehrer Report took mostly balanced news coverage, it is enormously well documented that the U.S. and other governments have a strong history of hiding the truth. It’s nearly uncountable how many wars, bad policies, and outright corruption have been hidden for decades by government agencies. One can never trust “the official version” because politicians ultimately and always report to the oligarchs first.
Now we are left with a system of journalism that’s largely corporate controlled and a social media era where people are refusing to pay for daily newspapers or monthly magazines. We are in the era of media and news being “free”, meaning that most largely accept the corporately constructed news and lack of any critical analysis. There are pockets of investigative journalism, but they are getting harder to find, and they either rely on shaky and unsustainable funding from small donors or are supported by large philanthropic entities which could have dubious stakeholders and funders.
Needless to say, we are awash in an era of mangled and manipulated news where no one trusts anyone else's sources and that everything is seemingly easily refuted or disposable. The truth is an extremely rare commodity and a thing that many have given up believing in; instead only believing in the power of money to create reality and policy and define the most optimum course for those in charge.
What is “news" anyways? Who defines what that is? And who are those who will ultimately ask for something more… something for the rest us. For the tired, poor, and huddle masses congregated far away from the purchased media spotlight. Aren't those people the real and just owners of something termed “social media”?
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News outlets in the past did a pretty good job of keeping opinion separate from the "news", reporting only the facts and leaving it up to the viewer/reader to form their own opinion.
Nowadays that kind of "just the facts Ma'am" reporting is gone...every news outlet has made it clear which side of the "fence" they are on, and gleefully tell their viewers/readers that they are unbiased, but you should probably see things their way if you are smart.
In the past, you could turn on the news and see "truth"...now, forget it!
"Real news" should be "just the facts ma'am".
Thanks for your opinion. I really am somewhat uninformed as I refuse to watch any news through any major media outlets... i don't watch that horseshit. I use independent sites, my preferred in general is theguardian.com
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