The US media
Im sick of reading about our "liberal media" from those legions of hardline rightwing radio and tv pundits that infest the airwaves. Liberal media barely exists in the United States, apart from a few boutique publications like Mother Jones or The Nation. The vast bulk of what the population reads, sees and listens to is controlled and edited with the aims of big business in mind....namely the companies that pay for advertising space, by the management of the big businesses that own the media. I am not saying that there is anything intrinsically wrong with this scenario....a jungle law style market will result in this situation by default. However,
does this allow for a free, democratic and fair media in which a full spectrum of opinions, viewpoints, philosophies and ideologies share broadcasting space, as one would hope for in a nation that prides itself on having the most freedoms and liberties anywhere on the planet, as intended in our constitution? The answer is an emphatic NO on every count.
This study by the University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies finds that our media toes the government line, and the Iraq war was a flagrant example of this. A recent study doen by the BBC's ex director Greg Dyke came to a similar excoriating conclusion.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=4532300
Is this kind of situation acceptable in the world's supposedly most free nation? Or is this kind of thing more what one would expect in countries like the old USSR, communist China, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq? If this isnt acceptable...what can we do to rectify this? The airwaves belong to we the the people, but they have been stolen from us, and sold on the cheap to big broadcast media.
Thoughts?
does this allow for a free, democratic and fair media in which a full spectrum of opinions, viewpoints, philosophies and ideologies share broadcasting space, as one would hope for in a nation that prides itself on having the most freedoms and liberties anywhere on the planet, as intended in our constitution? The answer is an emphatic NO on every count.
This study by the University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies finds that our media toes the government line, and the Iraq war was a flagrant example of this. A recent study doen by the BBC's ex director Greg Dyke came to a similar excoriating conclusion.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=4532300
Is this kind of situation acceptable in the world's supposedly most free nation? Or is this kind of thing more what one would expect in countries like the old USSR, communist China, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq? If this isnt acceptable...what can we do to rectify this? The airwaves belong to we the the people, but they have been stolen from us, and sold on the cheap to big broadcast media.
Thoughts?
Comments
Speaking of wierd I am probably going to have to make an ad for a judge here soon, so I'm sure I'm going to be researching this stuff even more. incidentally he's a republican, though he says mostly bi-partisan.
We have hourly updates on the TV telling us how the Dow Jones/FTSE is doing, what the exchange rates are etc. Whole programmes are dedicated to giving investment advice/company news and enire channels dedicated to more of the same.
Yet how many of us are actually active and involved in those activities?
In contrast there is hardly ever any mention about employee/employer relations, organised representation of workers, workers rights, working conditions and benefits.
More people are directly affected by those subjects but they are hardly ever mentioned.
Once he raised the topic I remembered that when I was growing up I knew who the leaders of the Unions were. I was aware of the disputes/ negotiations/issues taking place in industry. I could only have got that information from the media and today its just not there.
Two words: Deja Vu.
Blame it on this nation I suppose, there are just more republican minded people who watch broadcast news who simply don't hear all they'd like too, or how they want too.