What ended investigative reporting in the mainstream media?

[kuozzman]

When tid it get as pathetic as it is now? They haven't always just stuck a mike in a politician's face and called it an investigation. Wait, I guess now it's normally stuck in a politician's "spokeman's" face, sorry. But they used to actually try to dig up dirt on people! Now, they won't even take evidence if you were to hand it to them! They really only do "scandals" that are politically backed.
I know it didn't use to be like this, anybody remember when/why it stopped. Article (excerpts) below would never happen today, obviously.

The New York Times
September 24, 1991, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
Primary Tallies Show Voters Don't Match Votes
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

Hundreds of voters who entered the polls in the New York City Council primaries never recorded their votes, either because they could not operate the voting machines or because they decided not to vote for anyone, Board of Elections officials said yesterday.

The missing votes came to light yesterday as election officials broke the seals on hundreds of voting machines used in the primaries on Sept. 12 and began an official canvass of the results that will take two days to complete.
--SNIP--
In a spot check of more than a dozen machines yesterday from polling sites in upper Manhattan, a New York Times reporter found disparities in all of them. In one election district in District 8, for instance, 105 people entered the booth but only 43 votes were cast. Only the Council race was on the ballot there.

State Senator Martin Connor of Brooklyn, an election law expert, said yesterday that such disparities were not evidence of fraud, but rather occurred because voters discovered that the candidates they supported were not on the ballot in their district.

[New Earth]

1. Bush happened.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

2. No

This started with the Telecommunications Act of 1987.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Corporate ownership.

Until a few years ago, the networks were independenly owned.
Now the "big three" are owned by General Electric, Viacom, and Disney.

GE profits from Pentagon contracts. Viacom's CEO has publicly stated he thinks Bush is best for big media companies. Disney represents the family values crowd. So they all have vested interests in keeping the GOP in power. CNN has also changed owners and is now controlled by Time-Warner. Fox News, the newest of the bunch, has always been right-wing, but its vocal supporters are now organized and put pressure on the other broadcasters not to "offend" with anti-Bush stories. Hence the purge of reporters perceived as liberal or moderate, such as Dan Rather.

The only solution is to break up the big media companies by using anti-monopoly laws, something that is highly unlikely to occur as long as Bush and the GOP remain in power.

[autorank]

4. Welcome to the "Corporate Media"

When we lost Congress, corporate America no longer had any use for the Democratic Party. They don't need to bribe our reps with 'legal contributions' to achieve their legislative and regulatory goals. Therefore, we cease to exist. Their blow-dried mouth pieces on the corporate media (CM) propaganda events (nightly news, other news programs) are told to avoid us or anything that rocks the boat of an anesthetized public.

[saddemocrat]

5. the last 10 years or so...

...ownership of the corporate media by big business and slow formation of large media conglomerates. The FCC has only helped this by allowing big corporations to buy out multiple media sources. At the end of the day, even though you can watch many different news shows they end up being owned by the same corporations.

[juslikagrzly]

6. Money Money Money

Greed Greed Greed

Investigative reporting takes time. Time = Money.

Ratings = Money. Increase ratings with sensationalist pap

[soothsayer]

8. bingo! when news folks became high paid celebs they went

over to the other side.

Plus corporate ownership has sealed the deal.

[displacedtexan]

7. CNN

In its infancy, CNN was able to get breaking news from affiliate stations, which meant that evening network news was, for the most part, old.

In their zeal to complete, networks began to focus on getting scoops--- even if they just ended up taking dictation from politicians.

Republicans ramped up their megalomedia ownership quest and pretty much controlled the flow of info to the networks. Not long after, they also controlled the flow of info to the cable networks, too.

Just my observation.