Where do you get your news from? Obviously if you are reading this, you are someone with curiosity and enough intelligence to look beyond the glare of your television screen or the mindless droning anger of talk radio. I watch a lot of news from a lot of sources with a critical eye. I watch CNN, BBC, SKY, CNBC, SAHAR2, Al Jahzeera and the French network news. On SKY, we see the CBS Nightly news at about 1:30am. The Nightly News on NBC comes on at 12:30. Of all the news we watch, the American Newscasts are usually 85% fluff! The big stories are ignored, very pitiful sacharine coverage of the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon. Iraq has disappeared into a few furtive seconds of brief mentions of violence. We have been treated to a non stop barrage of sensationalistic non news about John Mark Karr and the Jon Benet case or the Austrian girl who was kidnapped for 10 years. Hours after she was found, there were experts going on and on analyzing her mental state and speculating endlessly on what had occurred. The rest of the news is in depth special reports on the latest prescription drug side effects scandal or some touchy feely America cares moment. Have a nice day.......
There is no in depth reportage about anything real. The administration usually has their speeches reported on and any statement is reported as fact and rarely questioned.
Then there is the proliferation of hate stuff, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Beck, Savage....the list goes on and on. Misinformation that is pure entertainment, there is a very real lucrative market in spreading hate and pure propaganda misinformation. They have created a market which fuels itself, the proof is the phenomena of Ann Coulter, who is a one woman industry who has to constantly try to push the limit, go further with her outrageousness to feed this frenzy.
This seems to be a very American Phenomena. It exists on a smaller scale in Europe, but the news media here in France is very aware of its role. Political Fairness is legislated. All side recieve equal time and given a chance to respond. This is kept track of and tallied.
Political discussions are broadcast in Primetime and can last for one and a half hours.
They are usually the highest rated shows in the time slot.
The results? A highly literate, knowlegable and opinionated public. A wide spectrum of political parties from the very far right to the very far left.
There is no paid political advertising here.
Where do you get your news from? How can you hold the networks accountable for the information and mis information they convey? Why is extreme hate so popular on the airwaves in America? MediaMatters is an organization which tried to hold media accountable for its irresposiblity. Any Ideas?
2 comments:
News in America was probably broken beyond repair before 9/11. Once the profit motive entered the equation the end was in sight. 9/11 has killed the news though, once and for all. I have to blame the general public for this failure. Although it's true that the Bush administration has played the fear card like no administration in American history, people in America cultivate ignorance like it's a virtue. We want a lazy, fast-food answer to everything from spiritual matters to politics. If we were presented with the unvarnished truth, we'd kill the messenger. Like Bill Maher discovered.
It's like the begining of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The proto humans are being killed by a leopard. Is is the leopard's fault that it's a predator? No, it's the human's responsibility to stop the leopard. Unfortunately we can't sit around waiting for some big black monolith from outer space to put the idea of a club into out heads. We need a Gandhi or King to put the idea in our head that we're in charge, that we'll get what we demand. The news media would be glad to sell us the brand of journalism we demand. Right now what we demand is entertainment. It's part of our ridiculous sense of entitlement. We're entitled to live our lives free of thought. We're entitled to constant entertainment. We're entitled to an inflated standard of living. We're entitled to act unilaterally in the international arena. Everyone from politicans to news people know that you suggest otherwise to your peril.
Mitch, I've stayed up late a few times to watch Katy Couric on CBS...it gets broadcast here on the SKY satellite station and comes on around 2 am!
What is this? It's a touchy feely talk show! It's Katy speaking to the entire nation like we were all tranquilized 8 year olds!
Her non-interview of Bush was spectacularly lame.
For sheer boredom and lack of content alone, CBS wins hands down as the blandest new ever.
I can't believe that CBS wasted the money they did on her and the promo and hype surrounding her move from NBC was just a flash in the gossip pages!
I really don't thionk she's going to last long.
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