Why Can't The Media Tell It Like It Is?

[Yavin4]

If the right wing calls Obama's speech to the children of America "socialist indoctrination", and there is not anything close to such a depiction in his speech, isn't it the responsibility of the media to call such a depiction ludicrous? Or, better yet, call into question the motive of the people making this charge?

When people make scurrilous charges and such charges are entirely without merit, it is the media's job to not give these people air time. Even in the original lesson plan by the Dept of Education, there wasn't any "socialist indoctrination".

By not questioning those making the charge, the media gives these lunatics a sense of legitimacy.

[Greenpeach]

1. Think who signs their paychecks.

This is nothing new. It's disgusting though, I know.

[david13]

2. No. It really isn't their job to editoialize. The lunacy or whatever

that has taken over these people is reported. It is then up to the commentators, the editorials, and the letters to the editors to sort it out.
But you have to remember that this all stems from a bigotry. And that does not start with reason and ration. So it can't be changed or altered or amended by it either.
dc

[Bjorn Against]

8. It is their job to report the facts even if those facts may make some people look bad.

It is not editorializing to call a spade a spade, when the facts clearly show someone is wrong it is the media's job to report the facts which prove them wrong.

[Hekate]

11. What the MSM does is called "false equivalency". As in: "On the one hand historians say that...

... 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust; but on the other hand, some people say that the Holocaust never happened."

False equivalency pretends that there are "two sides" to every "issue" and that they should report what each "side" says with a straight face and without stating the truth of the matter, which in this case is that the Holocaust really happened, and that 6 million Jews -- and Gypsies, and gays, and the insane and retarded, men, women, children, and babes in arms -- were mercilessly slaughtered by the Nazis. It Happened. There is no other "side". There is historical context that can tell us what, where, when, why, and how, and there are abundant photographs and other evidence. There is a great deal to say, but to say that it never happened is a lie.

The job of the reporter is to report the facts -- not to allow people to tell lies and get away with it. The former is conscientious journalism, not editorializing -- the latter is sloppy, lazy, and helps spread the lie by letting it stand as equivalent to the truth.

Guess which style has been in vogue for over a decade?

Hekate

[depakid]

13. "Guess which style has been in vogue for over a decade?"

Of course, this is almost entirely an American phenomena. Other western nations' media doesn't routinely elevate delusional statements to equal prominence and credible status with truthful, reality based ones.

At least, nowhere near the extent one can see or hear every single day.

[Robber M]

3. Do the words "bought and paid for" mean anything?

[Laelth]

4. Welcome to DU.

:dem:

-Laelth

[jtrockville]

5. Their purpose is to profit, not to inform.

They'll say or do whatever it takes to get money from advertisers. It's only by chance that they ever report anything that's actually true.

[The Gunslinger]

6. The media will find a way to twist his words

so that they can call it "socialist indoctrination"

[Uzybone]

7. to paraphrase

its hard for someone to tell the truth when their paycheck depends on them not telling the truth

[santamargarita]

9. The mainstream media is run by fascist pigs

!

[Kat45]

10. Remember when those people were known as the "lunatic fringe"?

They were totally marginalized. Nobody paid any attention to them, with the exception of occasional eye rolling or making fun of them. But for many years now, the lunatics have been running the asylum, unfortunately running the government and the media. Now their ravings dominate the news and are presented as legitimate. How did this happen? How did we let it happen? Did it start in the Reagan years?

[Triana]

12. I'll answer that with a question: Who owns them?

7 huge megaconglomerate CORPORATIONS.

http://www.fair.org.

This is THE problem with the lame$tream media.

[Hekate]

14. Right: follow the money and follow the org charts...

My own favorite question is "Who does it serve?" It generally leads to the same answers.

Hekate