American Journalism goes flatline

[justinsb]

It is my opinion that there US MSM have disqualified themselves as journalists. It is not necessarily the reporters but the editorial policy which gives priority to Michael Jackson over DSM, to theoretical attacks that might happen someday over lies about WMD and terrorism, to runaway brides over guantanamo, to Tom Cruise over global warming, to local crime stories over global poverty.

IMO, there needs to be an alternative, even if it is only a web site or mailing list and I don't mean a left wing alternative but something with a sound journalistic standards and practices policy that forus' on real news and current events and not pop stars, celebrity trials, fad diets, scandal mongering and trivia. Something that is willing to tell the truth, as best as it is known, without regard to right wing, or left wing, Republican or Democrat etc.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Yeah, just get a media...

whose raison d'etre is the investigation of the powerful, regardless of political affiliation. The duty of the media is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

[justinsb]

4. Not necessarily just to investigate

the powerful, but just to have real news, of any sort. MSNBC and Fox are both republican mouthpieces, CNN has become the national enquirer of TV news and the networks, most of the time, seem too paralyzed by fear to report hard news. Enough anecdotal local stories, celebrity interviews and speculation about things that might happen someday - just news.

[brainshrub]

2. American journalism is alive and well.

I don't think it's accurate to say MSM, they are not "mainstream media": They are corporate stooges with the wrong job title.

I prefer "Corporate Media", or "CM."

American journalism is alive and well, it just doesn't have a vehicle to bring information to the public because the public commons (a.k.a. the broadcast spectrum.) has been co-opted by big-business.

[bryant69]

5. Corporate media works pretty good.

It definately lets people know that there is more than one kind of bias.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[flamin lib]

7. Yes, exactly. There are a lot of bright young people coming

out of Journalism schools with high ideals and lofty goals. They just don't have any where to ply their trade. If they do find a job in real journalism the pay is so low that they will never pay off the student loans they took out to get through school.

I have a master's degree in Journalism (class of '75) and after being a professional sales rep for 25 years now have a Real Estate business. You have to feed your family.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Welcome To Make Your Own Media

With so many cable channels, website, radio shows, newspapers, magazines and so on spewing all sorts of "information" and opinion we're entering the age where we're all creating and filtering our own interpretations of what's going on...and what's real and what isn't.

It's like music. A decade ago, you had a handful of albums and whatever the radio was playing, so you were limited to what you were hearing. Now, if you have the resources, you have every song you ever wanted and listen to them when you want and how you want.

The clue is being a discriminating reader as much as depending on others to provide you with information.

[flamin lib]

9. Absolutely! I long for the days when Woodward and Bernstein

had to go their editor for an okay. They needed two or three corroborating sources which is why the media of that era was something to pay attention to. Now a single unidentified source is good enough.

[flamin lib]

6. A brief history of Television News.

In the '50s when TV was a fledgling medium and the FCC still thought that the air waves were owned by the public the networks set aside some time for the public interest. The first news broadcasts were typically very short and covered only world and national news. They were offered as a public service and did not make money.

With people like Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley delivering real journalism it gained in popularity until the three networks expanded the evening news to a half hour.

Vietnam war coverage was probably the high point of video journalism. In the early years of the war coverage was very positive and the military loved journalists. As the war effort began to fall apart in the late 60's and Mom & Dad America began to see actual combat footage, journalism began to take heat from the government but continued to do what journalism is supposed to do: cover events as they are.

With the end of the war it was hard for national news to hold America's attention. Then the death knell of journalism was sounded when the networks found that they could make a profit on local news broadcasts. Local "talent" and low production costs gave rise to covering hometown events. Everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame, thus was born Cutesy News.

National news agencies followed suit. Every minute of air time had to provide profit for the networks. The public interest was relegated to a few Public Service Announcements broadcast at 2:00 AM.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have wall to wall Runaway Bride and all Jacko all the time while record numbers of soldiers are dying and Cheney can get away with saying that the insurgents are in their last throes.

[cthrumatrix]

8. it's all about the "powerful" and ease of accompalishing an agenda

when the TRUTH is told to America.... they need an uninformed populous...otherwise the people would get pissed.