Trump has been saying Media runs the Dem party now.No, the Media ARE the 'Rats. The Media run the 'Rat Party and the GOPe as well. The Media are this country's worst enemy. - TTFlyer
Think you have to go back to who owns the media. NYT (Carlos Slim) and WaPo (Bezos) are no blogs for billionaires.
The central fact is, IMHO, that media is a misnomer in more than one way.The character of socialism - call it liberalism or progressivism or whatever - is exactly the same combination of cynicism toward society and naiveté toward government which we see in journalism.
- First because media is, in Latin, a plural noun, and secondly because it isnt the medium, it is the topical nonfiction format - news which is the problem. The fact that journalism outlets can be radio, TV, or print is not the point. The point is that we do not have independent journalism. Journalism as we know it is various outlet of a single journalism. Presses can be 'associated,' or presses can be independent:
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of NationsObviously journalists - people of the same trade meet together. What is painfully obvious, if you allow yourself to look at it, is that journalists are in a continuous virtual meeting all the time, via the Associated Press in particular, and all wire services in general. And have been doing so for a century and a half.It is no wonder that all journalists speak with the same voice. No wonder at all.
- Second, very specific aspects of journalism cause it to speak in the particular voice that it does:
The implication of those two facts is that journalists are claiming that negativity is objectivity. But the implication of such a claim is inescapable: the conceit that negativity is objectivity is a perfect definition of cynicism.
- Journalism is negative, and knowingly so. Any journalist will tell you that If it bleeds, it leads.
- Journalism claims to be objective. It is too obvious that journalists need to do this, to require any illustration.
Journalism has cynicism built into it. What does that mean? It does not mean that journalism is cynical about government. As Thomas Paine pointed out in the opening paragraphs of Common Sense, society and government are in a very real sense opposites. Society is a patron, government is a punisher. Society is a blessing, government - at best - is a necessary evil. Government is considered necessary only to the extent that skepticism toward society is considered valid/necessary. The implication is that cynicism toward society is a rationale for faith in - if not naiveté toward -government.
What is then to be done? IMHO the Associated Press and its membership should be sued, joint and several liability, for all the abuses of the people which their cynicism toward society has motivated them to perpetrate. One egregious example is the George Zimmerman case, in which a propaganda campaign sought to railroad Zimmerman into jail, and all of the MSM joined in it. Zimmerman had to defend himself from an attacker motivated by that propaganda. The Duke Lacrosse team rape fraud by Crystal Mangum and Michael Nifong is another obvious case. And so is the FL 2000 call of Florida for Gore before the polls were all closed, resulting in the narrowest of margins of victory by the Republican who should have won relatively comfortably. The name of such cases is Legion, for we are many. The AP should be sued into oblivion, on antitrust grounds. And claims of objectivity by its membership should be completely delegitimated.
We have a free press. We require free and independent presses.
BTTT
I like how you think. I’ve been saying similar things for decades.
That is very good and well put. Thank you, c_I_c