Racing to Irrelevance

[Mythsaje]

Dear Corporate Media:

We've played this game before. You pretend to be journalists and give what you call news, but your wording reveals obvious bias. I don't know if you think we're too stupid to notice, but I've got news for YOU. We're not.

When you turn an ordinary procedural operation like choosing a Senate Majority Leader into a "battle for control" of the Senate amongst members of the same party, that's not reporting the news. That's deliberately creating spin. It's not in-fighting...it's a group of people trying to decide amongst themselves who'd be best to fill the spot. And you could have reported it like that. But instead you tried to make it out as more than it was. For ratings, or, just perhaps, to chip away at the new Congressional majority to serve a less than honorable agenda.

We'll reserve judgment. For now.

When you play the "Conservatism carries the day" meme as a reason for the Dems winning, that's not reporting the facts, that's spin. The people elected a self-described SOCIALIST DEMOCRAT to the Senate, and replaced him with a liberal Representative in the House. Montana elected a pro-choice, pro stem-cell research, anti-war candidate to the Senate. One of the MOST conservative Democratic candidates on the ballot LOST to a Republican simply because--well, if you're going to vote for a Conservative, you may as well vote Republican.

Your job is not to spin, or to create controversy where it doesn't exist. Your job is to report the facts. Democrats ran on three things, primarily, this election season. The War in Iraq, Congressional Corruption, and protecting the Middle Class. As much as your corporate masters would like us to believe otherwise, they DID have a plan, and will be working to implement it come January. Maybe you should tell the American people about it, now that they've put them in office.

That plan? Improving opportunities for ALL Americans, not just lining the pockets of the wealthy corporate fat cats who've been getting a free ride for the past 6-12 years. It's about HEALTHCARE for all Americans--because a healthy nation is a stronger nation. It's about a living wage for all Americans, because the poor and middle class SPEND money rather than horde it. Spending money stimulates the economy. Sitting on it does not.

For the past several years you've become more and more complacent, and complicit in the crimes perpetrated against the citizens of this country. You may have forgotten your role in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, but I assure you, WE did not. We remember the flashy graphics and music...the triumphant martial melodies that accompanied the "March On Baghdad" banners that flashed across our TV screens.

Your job should have been to present us with the facts--both sides of the issue. Like why George H.W. Bush, also known as Bush 41, did NOT go into Baghdad at the end of the 1st Gulf War. Because his advisors knew damn well THIS is what we would get for our troubles. Because they knew it would be liking sticking our leg in a bear trap.

You could have interviewed the Generals who said that the plan would never work, such as it was, because toppling a government is a far cry from occupying a country. But you didn't. The war brought you viewers and advertising revenue and, well, that has become more important to you than Journalism.

You protected your access to the White House by throwing softball questions at the President and his spokesmen when given the opportunity to ask serious questions. You worried about keeping your jobs more than you worried about DOING your jobs.

You made it necessary for us to seek other sources of information, and we did. We went to the web, and created our own form of media. We had no choice. We recorded what they said, and compared it to what they did, and what they said later. We compared and contrasted, and found the blatant lies. Over and over again. And we made sure you knew what we found. And you did nothing with it but try to bury it under more spin.

This failed Administration, and the Republican Congress that rubber-stamped damn near everything it asked for, is as much YOUR baby as it is the child of the Republican Party. You kept telling us that the Dems had no plan, that they had nothing to say, yet you never asked any of them where we could hear their answers.

I repeat. Did you think we were stupid?

I suggest you do something to restore our faith in your journalistic integrity. I suggest you learn how to ask real questions again. And don't think you're going to fool anyone by suddenly playing hardball with the Dems again now that they're in charge of Congress.

You don't get to spit White House talking points at us and call it "news." You don't get to bash the Democrats while giving the Republicans a pass. You don't get to pretend that putting three "conservatives" on to give us their views, while matching them with a single Democrat to refute them, is actually BALANCED coverage.

And you don't get to act as though the ideas that most of America agrees with are "Far Left." Universal Health Coverage, a raise in the minimum wage, and Science-based policy decisions aren't "Far Left." They're mainstream and Main Street, and we WILL continue to call you on it if you keep doing this.

The New Media is growing stronger by the day. We'll be watching Capitol Hill, and we'll be watching you. And we're not going to sit idly by anymore and pretend that we have no power. This last election was evidence of the "netroots" flexing its muscles, and some of that power comes from the ability to access and trade information at astounding rates.

This is a warning. Play it straight with the American People. We will be watching, and we will be talking. And if you try to spin us, we'll call you on it. Every time. Either become the journalists you set out to be in the first place, or become irrelevant.

Those are your choices.

[lcordero2]

1. LOL

The MSM is already irrelevant. The only reason why I even turn on the TV is because someone warns that KO or Maher is on.

[Mythsaje]

2. For us, yes.

But most people haven't quite caught on yet. But I think they're starting to get the picture.

I haven't watched TV news, except for the occasional local broadcast when the weather's getting screwy, for years now.

I give my best friend a hard time about it sometimes. I'll ask him, "you still watch this crap?" I try to convince him that they're playing with his head, which is why someone as perceptive and intelligent as him still believes some really screwed up crap...

At least my old man knows he's better off reading the newspaper. And knows that the good stories are usually buried. Of course, he's been listening to me for years now. LOL