What the h*e*l*l* has happened to media in our lifetime?

Question

We still have responsible journalists; people who can think and write clearly, but look at the other end of the spectrum: FOX News, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity.........Aughhhhhhhhhh........(picture John Belushi freaking out and spinning onto the floor).

Darn Yahoo...there's supposed to be a ( before John Belushi.

WOW, "SLA!" I'd click on "best answer" right now but I have to wait according to Yahoo. A most excellent posting! I really respect what you wrote. I'll tell you more soon.......

Answer 1

When I enrolled in college journalism, I went in with the lofty goal of giving the reader the information so they could make an informed choice. It wasn't up to me to tell them what to think, or sway them one way or the other. I was supposed to give them FACTS. Or at least that's what my High School journalism teacher taught me.

On the first day of college, the professor stood up and said, "The first thing you need to do is form an opinion and find a publication who supports it. All news is slanted to the view of the publisher."

That was a huge blow. The next one came a few minutes later when I found out that there were less than 7 percent of dailies and 15 percent of weeklies that were not corporate owned (read Knight-Ridder and fellows). Most of those papers were little podunk one pagers in tiny rural communities too small to be of interest to the bigger fish.

I walked out of class and took up horse training.

Fifteen years later, I'm back in journalism as a freelancer, but I sometimes have a challenge finding publications I can write for. I still try to present the "other" view and stick to facts which can be very hard to find in some of these issues. Usually I end up going back to the people who are directly involved - the ranchers and rural people living in wolf reintroduction areas rather than the activists living in cities, teachers in the classrooms instead of speakers from an office, the neighbors who found the dehydrated to death buffalo on the nature preserve, researchers not funded by special interest groups, policemen on beat - to find the information for an article. I include numbers and facts, and comparisons. I give information and sources' opinions, not my own.

Readers appreciate my stuff - unless, of course, they're trying to promote the agenda I just addressed. Editors may appreciate my efforts, but can't print them because the article doesn't match the publication's "slant."

You want to fix the problem, kill the sacred cow. Make the media liable for the lies they print. Make them defend their facts and pay for the people damaged by false information and situations blown out of proportion. The press is the last sacred cow in America. It's time we held her responsible.

Answer 2

It used to be that the entertainment division was the revenue center and the news division was run at a loss because networks considered it a public service. Then corporations started taking over, and they wanted every division to be a revenue center, so the news shows had to include more "infotainment" to get high ratings (blame American viewers for this). Then the Telecommunications Act came along (blame Bill Clinton for this) and deregulated the broadcast industries so that one corporation could own many more stations than they previously could. Now there are about six corporations that own all the broadcast media in the country, so competition is pretty much gone. The corporate owners have a point of view and/or they don't want to offend advertisers, so reporters get the unspoken message that they have to toe the line. No more Walter Cronkites or Edward R. Murrows; no more Woodwards and Bernsteins. Just cookie cutters now, making tons of money and keeping their corporate bosses happy.

Answer 3

The line between journalism and entertainment has always been a thin one. Usually journalism takes a backseat. For a precious few decades there, a few decades back, that line grew thick. We had a glut of talented professionals at all levels - reporters, editors, media owners, etc. all doing the right thing.

But the line has grown invisibly thin again, as it always must. Sure, some true journalistic tallent still remains. But it's drowned out and lost for so many reasons. Apathy. Lack of the public's time to digest it. Lack of effort at the editiorial / owner level. The acceptance of filler - any filler - by the insatiably hungry "now" media. And so on.

Keep the faith brother. It'll get better again.

Answer 4

Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity aren't journalists. They don't claim to be journalists. Pretty dumb to compare them to journalists.

Sorry about conservatives getting the freedom to speak out so loudly. Better get used to it. LOL

Answer 5

bill oreilly, rush limbaugh, sean hannity are commentators not journalists.
i dont believe they have ever said they are journalists.
they are more or less talking heads as the term goes, they are not reporting news in a broadcast (evening or local news for example) they are commenting on whats makin "headlines".

Answer 6

Clowns to the left of us, jokers to the right...and in the "middle", the corporate press working tirelessly to destroy the country.

Answer 7

I don't know.