Eight Years Ago Today, The Main Stream Media Died. 8AM

[Stuart G]

It was a Friday after the 2006 midterm elections. Democrats had won a huge victory in the midterms, lots of positive talk everywhere on the news. Yet, if I recall, that talk did not last very long. On the Thursday after the election, there was other news, Bush had fired Rumsfeld, but that was big news that day, I knew it would be one day, and then, back to our victory. So, I was listening to CBS Radio network news, I recall it was 8AM. Perhaps, I thought, some good news on the huge victory. Some changes would be in order to stop the Bush nightmare. It was the CBS News Radio network, honest, reliable. Walter Cronkite.

The lead story that lasted close to a minute at 8am that day, (the whole radio network news was no more than 4 minutes of news) was John Mc Cain setting up an exploratory committee to run for president in 2008. That was the lead story two days after we won the so called victory of a lifetime. Someone decided that mentioning Mc Cain's committee being set up for a presidential run two years away, was more important than the midterm elections. What the hell??? The story explained why the committee needed to be set up early and that Mc Cain needed time to consider all possibilities. That was the "news" on a respected national radio network eight years ago today. Something was wrong. Someone wanted to pitch Mc Cain tentative campaign more than discuss the huge election victory of a few days ago. . I thought about it, and all respect for the national radio news on CBS flew away forever. (for me) The network was pitching a republican candidate's election two years into the future, when there was other more important "news. " It had morphed into national "tell all" for republican hacks and their point of view. That news source was gone for me, and I soon realized most of them were the same. Not unbiased, but very biased. Their goal is to legitimize a particular point of view, (the republican view) not present news. It had been that way for years.

It happened 8 years ago, on the Friday after the midterm elections, and that is the way it was...and still is... .

[sendero]

1. The MSM...

... was dead long before that happened. We could all quibble over the actual date but it was certainly well before 2000.

[SharonAnn]

27. I really became aware of that when it was "All Chandra, All the Time." Especially CNN shows.

[sendero]

28. For me it was when I finally noticed...

... all the bias and slant on NPR, about 2002. It was an "et to brute" moment for me.

Of course the major news orgs such as ABC, NBC, CNN, etc had gone south long before.

[Takket]

2. The MSM died on whatever day Faux News went on the air.

They turned journalism into a comedy of hyperbole and now everyone else has followed suit.

[joshdawg]

13. ^^^This^^^

[still_one]

14. That was the final nail for sure

[Bryce Butler]

15. October 7, 1996

According to Wikipedia.

[mehrrh]

23. the day the news died

Someone could re-write Don McClean's lyrics to "The
Day the Music Died" and entitle it, the day the news died.
I believe it happened when the Fairness Doctrine was repealed under Reagan.
It gave rise to the consolidation of media, conservative bias, rightwing pundits masquerading as newsmen, and
legitimate news sources becoming conduits to spread the conservative message of bigotry, racism, misogyny, nativism, and greed.

[SamKnause]

3. In February 2003,

a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.

[MANative]

4. This ^^^ n/t

[BlueCaliDem]

5. ^^^This x 2^^^ eom

[Dustlawyer]

7. +1!!! Yup, that is when they stopped having to to tell the truth because Fox News was,

"Entertainment!"

[ProfessorGAC]

25. Count Me In This Group

GAC

[GeorgeGist]

6. Chicago O'Hare UFO sighting. Nov 7, 2006.

Chicago. Obama. Aliens.

[zeemike]

8. Of course it started long before then

And if I had to pick a time it would be when CNN was gobbled up in a hostile takeover.
CNN actually before that covered all kinds of news...now they are entertainment and propaganda arm of the right wing.

[Myrina]

9. I blame OJ Simpson ...

His trial was the start of the Geraldo Rivera, celebu-attorney, talking head bs "news" shows, and also spawned the E! channel with it's laughably animated 'play by play' of the trial. And his personal attorney was Robert Kardashian, patriarch of the future fame-whores. So, in essence, he's to blame for both Rush Limbaugh AND the Kim Kardashian-ization of the US Media.

[SHRED]

10. The passage of the a Telecom Act

That was a huge nail in the coffin.

[Martin Eden]

11. Then when Pelosi became Speaker of the House ...

... she took impeachment "off the table."

[Autumn]

12. Wrong. Were you alive during the Bush years? You can go back to the

day Fox news can on the radio and your guess would be closer.

[Rex]

16. The GOP started buying up news stations decades ago.

They knew that if you control the market for information, you can control millions of registered voters or at least heavily influence their behavior.

[rurallib]

17. Death spiral started with the Powell Memo of 1971

aided by the killing of the Fairness Doctrine by Saint Ronald and the signing of the Telecommunications act of 1996. The emergence of Fox News was the final fatal blow.

[Rex]

19. That's it right there.

The end results? Chuck Todd. He is the poster boy for the mainstream media.

[rurallib]

20. don't forget Luke Russert and Bushie's daughter

Jenna something or other.

[Rex]

24. I try to forget Luke every chance I get. Getting a job, because of daddy is the GOP way.

Bush's daughter is now in media? Didn't know that one...barf...

[Scootaloo]

26. Beat me to it

[Android3.14]

18. Meh

MSM has been doing its song and dance long before that and will continue it for the foreseeable future.

[turbinetree]

21. Right Wing Consolidation

It began in 1992 when the Fairness Doctrine was eviscerated and we now have the right wing oligarchy of news on both cable and non cable and this country let a foreign national (Rupert Murdoch) start a right wing propaganda show based on his lie to get the license.
Then we had Mort Downy and Rush Limburger and there shows which were picked up by Clear Channel and West Wood One on the radio side and it has now become a joke about news transparency, which is causing the demise of this democracy with the help of the U.S. Supreme court

[thesquanderer]

22. "news" only lasts 24 hours.

Whoever wins big on Tuesday is the story on Wednesday. Why would it be the story again on Thursday? There would have to be something new. A disputed result, a reaction from the other party, some source of conflict, because otherwise there's no more "news" to be had. I'm not talking about opinion/personality shows, or sunday roundups... but daily traditional news broadcasts? 24 hours later, everything is always gone, there's nothing nefarious there.

[MatthewStLouis]

29. Media imbalance is a timely subject. I think things started to head south around 1988.

The fairness doctrine was eliminated in 1987. In 1988, Rush Hudson Limbaugh III first went national. During the next few years after, I remember even my own mother listening to him. At a time when more people were waking to the issues of social justice and racial inequality, he became the inflamed and outraged voice of the prejudiced status quo. And he really hit his stride when Bill Clinton became president.

The sad thing is, I can't remember any alternatives radio listeners had, even back then. We had no one on the air. No one with the backing like Limbaugh had. Was NPR even on the air in Southwest Missouri back then? No Air America then.

And now here we are today. Our media is market driven. And the highest bidders are the ones with all the voices.

[dfgrbac]

30. No! Actually this happened after the election of 1980

Ronald Reagan repealed The Fairness Doctrine. Hello Rush Limbaugh!

[Stuart G]

31. I recall "The Fairness Doctrine"

It meant basically the news had to be fairly balanced (all sides considered) With the court ruling about telling the truth, the two ideas 1. the news did not need to be balanced, and 2. the truth did not need to be told..completely destroyed any integrity that the Main Stream Media had/will ever have. Old timers know that it used to be something that could be counted on to at least present "news".

.Now with the so called news, there is so much opinion and slanting that the unschooled viewer can be swayed easily. To see the slanting someone needs to understand the techniques and that too requires effort. I used to teach that years ago in contemporary history, but I really don't know if it is still being taught in high schools. I tried ..

[2banon]

32. Actually, it was Nov. 2000

[True Blue Door]

33. Actually it was in 2000.

The MSM was more or less an arm of the Bush campaign, printing unhinged propaganda that occasionally went so far it didn't even pretend to be news. Front-page articles in major national newspapers including the LA Times and New York Times - and not labeled as editorials - called Al Gore names like they were written by a five-year-old and gushed sycophantically about the inevitable victory of Glorious Leader Bush. It was like listening to medieval courtiers gushing about their Master and denouncing his enemies. And 2008 was no less egregious - remember that every possible set of events was "good news for John McCain"? - it just didn't work for them.

[Sparkly]

34. 2000 election was when I first noticed it had died.

2004 election was the last time I had real hope for this country.

[L0oniX]

35. It's still dying....

[Corruption Inc]

36. I guess you missed 9/11, WMD lies, constant fake terror alerts and polls on torture

"Tell us what you think about torture" was a thing commonly heard on TV about 11 years ago.

[LeftInTX]

37. I remember Linda Tripp was the ugliest thing in the history of news

Bill's affairs had been with cuties and really didn't command too much attention.

However as soon as they started parading that ugly Linda Tripp as the "whistleblower" or whatever she was supposed to be you just had to stare at her.....like a train wreck or something. (I know that Bill had the affair with Monica, but it seemed like Linda Tripp was the center of the thing)