Post
by saultime » Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:08 am
The Media is broken, guys.
I guess--I'm not sure, but I think that once upon a time you could flip the news on or grab a paper every now and again and more-or-less figure out what's up in the world.
It might have scewed, from time to time, a bit left of center. But guess what: stories about the poor, minorities, war, and the oppressed almost always contain FACTS that aren't exactly favorable to corporate interests and the funding base of the Republican party in geneneral. If that's bias, then whatever.
The defacto news format now is two opposing hacks reading, often yelling at each other from their RNC or DNC script, with the "journalist" in the middle, doing no more than making sure each side gets an equall amount of time to yell. The anchors never call either side out on the facts. It's insane. Example:
RNC HACK: Greedy trial lawyers cause hurricanes.
DNC HACK: No they don't. Bush wants to bring back the draft.
Tucker Carlson: Well, it's up to the veiwers to decide, folks! See you next time on CROSSFIRE!
2 weeks later, there might be an article on page 7 of the Washington Post about how they've discovered trial lawyers really don't cause hurricanes. But because the same RNC hack has been on Crossfire, Hardball, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough every fucking night for 14 days repeating the same fucking lies, the damage has already been done.
TV news is a source of information for people. Regardless of the truthfulness of what's said, a large proportion of the population is inclined to believe it, just a little bit, if it's on TV.
The swiftboat stuff is the prime example of this breakdown.Those guys should have NEVER been allowed on TV. (I know I catch a little bit of shit for saying that, but it will be from one of the same 3 guys who prove my point by believing it--because it's on TV.) The swifties have never EVER had a single fact to back up what they've said. They're just pissed, 30 years later, because John Kerry came back from Vietnam and protested their dirty little war. The Navy's records, and every man except one that served with Kerry, as opposed to around him back up his story 100%. Case Fucking Closed.
The very notion that anyone would have for more than 30 seconds entertained anything those guys said proves that the media isn't doing its job. If John O'Neil wanted to slam Kerry (he's been doing it for 30 years now) on cable news every night for 2 weeks, they should have asked him to bring some fucking facts with him first. The Media gave credibility to their claim just by letting them on TV.
Something has to change.
When is the Douchebag Rapture?
Of course Novak would say that, Jon's always referring to him as a douchebag. 