Cable News' War Against America; Time to Fight Back

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_070422_cable_news__war_agai.htm

Cable News' War Against America; Time to Fight Back

by Rob Kall Page 1 of 2 page(s)

snip//

Sure enough, copycat activity began appearing around the country. And it's not over yet. NBC/MSNBC in a hand-wringing sort of way covered their own coverage of the Cho story and their release of the lurid, nutcase videos that the killer sent them. They tried to explain that it was okay because all the other media used the same footage. I didn't buy it. They pulled their top ratings with it, but who knows how many months or years it will be before some sick kid, maybe who's just had his antidepressant dosage upped, which makes him crazy, will go out into a busy campus with a fully automatic weapon he picked up, courtesy of the NRA?

NBC, Fox, CNN, will surely spend days covering that event too. Will they discuss the possibility that their beyond saturation coverage of CHo could have planted the seed for this next massacre? I don't think so. But then again, you never know-- the hubris of the network news management is getting worse and worse. After all, before the Cho-splosion, there was the total and ongoing waste of the airwave on the Simpson death/suicide/murder-- whatever it was-- I don't care.

We have to face the facts. It's not just bad programming that drives the news networks to run marathon coverage of murders, kidnappings and celebrity nonsense. It's a way to NOT cover news that should be featured.

It is surely time for a public backlash and possibly congressional hearings. The mainstream-- I'm calling them LameStream media are flouting their privelege to broadcast, wasting the airwave resource, or worse, toxically hurting America-- failing to cover important news-- while at the same time injuring the psyche of Americans, particularly young Americans, by continuously showing morbid, psychotic images.

more...

[Mika]

1. I like it - LameStream media

:kick: & rec'd.

[givemebackmycountry]

2. I with you 100% - everything you said was dead on -

I tuned MSNBC on briefly this afternoon and they were running one of those stupid "doc-blocks" hours.
The "documentary" was on "Rampage Killers" and I watched about 30 seconds of the nut-job that shot up a McDonald's about 20 years ago in California.

Let's see "Rampage Killers" is scheduled the day before the one week anniversary of this tragedy.
Coincidence?

I think not.
It backs up everything you just pointed out.

Kicked/Rec'd and everything damn thing else...

[pretzel4gore]

3. they hate us....

when they swiftboated Kerry, they were really swiftboating the American people. When they mocked Al Gore, they mocked the American people. When they scheme to misinform the dupes who believe their pap, they're giggling at the powerless American people, who had to watch helpless as Clinton gets impeached for cheating on his wife....
The entire 'Monica' affair was a ruse to humiliate the American people, to ram 'blue dress', 'blow job' 'sperm' and other distasteful, if not outright revolting, terms on the American people, who again watched helpessly as a juvenile sexual escapade of one of the hardest working people in the country, a true tribune of the people, was dragged out into the open and repeatedly ad nauseaum flaunted until many of us felt almost sick. fukk i hate them filthy bastards!

[tavalon]

4. Yep

It's almost criminal what they do. But we as a nation have some culpability too. If we didn't watch in huge numbers, they wouldn't saturate us with it. They do it for ratinga and we give them the ratings and so they do it over and over. We love tabloid crap (that's the royal we there - I quit television a few decades ago) and so they give us what we want.

[Scribe]

5. I don't need you

censoring my news. The Cho video was informative and newsworthy and I don't need you deciding that my psyche (or my child's) can't handle it. You weren't interested in the Simpson suicide? So what? Obviously other people were interested and in great numbers. Do you understand what ratings are? They represent people. If NBC managed to maximize its rating, it managed to give more people what they wanted than anyone else. That's a good thing.

No journalist should ever try to predict the effect a story might have. Prediction is difficult, especially involving the future (Neils Bohr). If a story is news (and Cho was) and accurate, I want to see it. I don't want you deciding I can't handle it. Or, that ANYone else can't handle it. Or dreaming up some other reason to censor it!

Your post is total egomania. You don't think other people's interests are as worthy of coverage as yours. You imply that lesser intellects cannot see through the mainstream media as you have been able to. Worry about yourself and try to appreciate the absolute fact that other people's interests are as worthy as your own.

[Wednesdays]

6. Translation: I love my TV drivel!

:eyes:

[symbolman]

9. How much coverage of the Gonzo

fiasco did you see in the wake of this GLORIFIED KILLER?

No, there is a LIMIT and they passed it. Nothing to do with censorship. Boundaries of good taste and the responsibility to the public, and that MEANS TEENAGERS and Little KIDS..

We DO own the airwaves. I didn't want my 2 year old to see an INSANE KILLER'S Face plastered everywhere, and frankly it was on nearly EVERY STATION.

I had no idea how LONG it was going to continue.

And if you think I'm being ridiculous have a look at my site Takebackthemedia.com which we started around 2000, with the first Flash Political attack ads that brought us over 100 million hits our first year alone. I've had Scarborough threaten to turn off my microphone, and O'Reilly was a shit as well when I went on that show.

I'm not for Censorship, but THAT was totally irresponsible, and beyond the pale.

I think the OP is saying that it's not just that, but what we MISS during that period as well.

[babylonsister]

11. For starters, it isn't MY post, so quit calling names. I'm curious; what

exactly did you get out of the non-stop Anna Nicole death-a-fest we were 'treated' to? And I'm talking 24/7 for a week, excluding important coverage like the Plame hearings. We are being denied REAL news by lazy journalists who know sensationalism sells better than what's out there in the real world.
I stand by this article, which I did NOT write.

And DUers who piped in, thanks! :hi:

[OneBlueSky]

7. at last . . . some concrete ideas to combat the media monopoly . . .

otherwise (and more accurately) known as the BushCo house organ . . .

- minimizing (or ignoring) the real news, while substituting titillation and mayhem to keep idle minds occupied . . .

- emphasizing (and even exacerbating) our differences (race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, politics, etc.) while minimizing (or even denying) our common humanity . . . (which, btw, encompasses all of humankind) . . .

both of these (very intentional) trends need to be reversed . . . and fast! . . .

[beevul]

8. I agree with the premise but he lost all credibility...

"who knows how many months or years it will be before some sick kid, maybe who's just had his antidepressant dosage upped, which makes him crazy, will go out into a busy campus with a fully automatic weapon he picked up, courtesy of the NRA?"


Someone needs to let this tool know that fully automatic weapons are tightly regulated by the national firearms act of 1934. Background check that may as well include a body cavity search, 200 dollar tax stamp, and $4,000 and up pricetag for the gun itself IF you pass the background check.

So tired of people ignorant of the subject that fire full automatic from thier mouths about machine guns in spite of the fact.

[Wednesdays]

13. One word makes the entire article bogus?

nt

[autorank]

10. K&R Strongly. MediaWhoresOnline.Com come home. Thanks Rob Kall!!!!

Rob runs a great service www.OpEdNews.com. He also did a poll on impeachment when nobody was. He's a mench!

[KharmaTrain]

12. Double-Edge Sword...Careful What You Wish For

The longtime mantra of corporate media is "if it bleeds, it leads"...cause that's what gets people to watch. Last week, viewer levels on CNN and MSNBC spiked as people who usually don't watch cable news tuned in to follow the VT story. This is what these networks live for. In the good sense, the network coverage was more measured and restrained than their Columbine coverage where they all but took over Littleton and didn't leave for the next month...almost constant wall-to-wall coverage. While some will say there's been too much this time, I submit that the networks are treading a bit lighter this time.

On the bad side is the "dumbing down" of news...and the need for these news divisions to do one thing above anything...make money. The FCC rules have all but eliminated a broadcaster's responsibility for public service and they have virtuall no jurisdiction over cable...long ago handing the keys to the large broadcast corporates who now control our airwaves like an entitlement. The FCC is a joke as it, like other boooosh agencies, is loaded with patronage toadies who have made the broadcast industry a private plantation and has locked out local ownership and voices.

Congressional hearings will do little as they government has all but given away any regulation authority on the content of television. I'm not for the government getting into the broadcast business...just like bloggers don't want regulation on the internet...as far as content...but I do strongly believe we need a more level playing field where more voices, more perspective and a greater marketplace of ideas and competition can flourish. When only a half dozen owners control virtually all you see and hear, that's where we need to start.

[KoKo]

15. They are "Media Elite" and married to each other and embedded with the power

they report on. I think we Progressives should take over the usage of "Media Elite" which was coined by RWingers and make it our own.

I posted an article from the "Washingtonian" on the "60 Sizzlingist Washington Couples" and many of them were MSNBC/CNN or Network reporters.

Zbig Brezinski's daughter reporting for CNN and Andrea Koppel, too. David Gregory and Nora O'Donnell ...just a few.

[KharmaTrain]

16. I Saw That...And Duly Noted

The Media Elite revolve through the corporate media. That shouldn't be confused with those who live below the radar that don't want us to see them. On the corporate level it's the Steve Capus or Les Moonvez who pull the levers but do so from the shadows. And moreso are operatives like Morton Blackwell and Barbara Comstocks who have infiltrated the Media Elite so that the spins and distortions always get their play. This is byzantine and incestuous.

Ya gotta wonder about these "power couples" and how much their relationships relies on their contacts as opposed to their real affection for one another. Gotta be some interesting pillow talk at least. :crazy:

Cheers, KoKo...

:hi:

[illinoisprogressive]

14. I wish the resst of the media would take a page from Olbermann,

He shows you can do some real hard hitting news and indepth coverage but, also a good balance of the trivial.
He covers stuff like Anna Nicole but, also does some real news and can get to the heart without pandering.
This is how news should be and it would be great if the others could do the same kind of balance.
I mean, keith beat Fox last week and is now number 1. That is not accidental.