Goddamn it.. The U.S. media SUCKS ASS!

[walldude]

Greetings from Norway. I'm on my last day here, flying back home tomorrow. First let me say what a great place this is. The country is beautiful, the people are wonderful, and the only complaint I can file is the damn sun never goes down and it's messing with my sleep.

But that's not why I am posting. On my last day here I am stuck in a hotel near the airport, waiting to fly out. For the last 3 hours I have been surfing the net while the BBC World News plays in the background. The BBC World News. Ok, they are a little heavy on the soccer coverage, but that may just be me because I'm not much of a sports fan. Besides the soccer stuff I have seen detailed reports on Afghanistan, on protests in Thailand for signing a trade agreement with China(talk about people with BALLS!), I have seen reports about people in North Korea, and about the G8 Summit in Canada. I have seen ACTUAL NEWS! Lots of it. Detailed reports on stories without a single opinion thrown in, I have seen actual REPORTERS! The last time I can remember getting this much information from a news broadcast was... the last time I was overseas.

Our news media is a fucking cesspool of useless news. They grab a story and beat it till it's dead, they don't report the NEWS they give opinions on what pathetic shreds of stories they are willing to dump on us. Sure there are some minor exceptions but in general, we are beaten with opinions on the "story of the day" and then regaled with tales of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kate Gosselin's new TV show.

Frankly... it's fucking embarrassing.

[LiberalLoner]

1. Embarassing and scary. I wish I could move away from the US, just get out of here...but I can't. nt

[RKP5637]

10. I often think the same. I'm stuck here for a lot of reasons. True, there are

far worse places, but in my lifetime the US has sunk so very low, it's quite saddening.

[Golden Raisin]

13. And it's deliberate policy.

They want an under-educated, disinterested, numbed electorate, at least as long as they still go through the motions of actually holding elections. What passes for news coverage here is a horrifying and tragic joke and for maximum effect, it's constantly repeated 24/7. There are also reasons (beyond the simple profit motive) why there are now so many "InfoTainment" and "Reality" shows.

[blaze]

47. This is it!!!!

It's corporations vs Americans.

And, sadly, the corporations are winning.

[MinM]

49. Extraordinary riches require extraordinary efforts to divert public attention...

Here's the best description of, and explanation for, the American Media...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18217.htm

It’s no coincidence that the American corporate media is the wealthiest communication systems in the world, yet also one of the worst in terms of educating its citizens. Extraordinary riches require extraordinary efforts to divert public attention from extreme inequality and the democratic deficit under which Americans suffer...

George Carlin, Who Controls America.
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x137514

[blaze]

51. Comment in the link you posted

I think I'll make it my sig

"Corporate news was NEVER intended to inform you, the general public, of realities. Simply and solely, their 'mission' is to FORM PUBLIC OPINION, NOT INFORM IT!"

[dotymed]

85. THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE

made a huge difference. It is truly sickening that President Obama will not tell his FCC chairman to reinstate what Reagan had dismantled...

[Grinchie]

65. Just turn them off

It's easy to wean yourself from them by having a fast internet connection.

[annabanana]

76. The point isn't what it's doing to you personally..

The point is what it's doing to our Country.

[KurtNYC]

48. policy or delivery? UK media was until recently, mostly ad free.

Our media is a private business which makes money by selling eyeballs to advertisers. UK media is more like PBS -- government and corporate sponsors underwrite shows and channels. That ALONE gets you a more high minded and thorough approach to news.

[ThatsMyBarack]

95. That's prolly why....

Game Show Network, TV Land, and other cable channels have gone to shit....:eyes:

[DeSwiss]

84. Exactly. And Norway in the top five places I'd go.

K&R

[crazyjoe]

98. can't ? Is the government not allowing you to leave?

[spanone]

2. beyond embarrassing.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

44. TREASONOUS OPINION MONGERS

[babylonsister]

3. Rec'd. Thanks for sharing. People in the US don't know what

we're missing, which is just about everything. Why doesn't anyone else matter in this culture? It's sad.

[a kennedy]

5. and a lot of us think the world revolves around US.......

:eyes: such little minds we have.....

[annabanana]

77. Our media encourages that perspective. There's NEVER context,

or even the briefest history of the story being mentioned (can't say "covered")

[Orrex]

4. I like the BBC's news because they always play Yakkity Sax in the background.

And because, as you correctly note, the US media does suck ass.

[Jkid]

7. BBC's news and Yakkity Sax?

Dude, BBC news has never played Yakkity Sax in it's entire history.

[Orrex]

8. They play it when they run the video at double-speed

And everybody runs around in tight formation. It's a riot!

[rucky]

14. And someone always ends up in their bloomers.

How they manage to get it on camera so often is beyond me.

[sce56]

52. Sounds like you got the Benny Hill show and the BBC News mixed up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpc5_3B5xdk

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. K&R

:applause:

[RKP5637]

9. Just a few minutes ago I shut off the MSM here (US) thinking what a waste, it is

an endless dribble about nothing much, and when some important topics are touched you get a few sound bites. It's a constant stream of dribble across all US MSM outlets. And all mostly US concentric. No wonder US citizens are generally clueless about what is occurring... The MSM here eats out ones brain.

[keep_it_real]

11. I down graded my cable service and don't have CNN nor MSNBC

And I don't miss them at all.

[walldude]

12. It would take a year of watching either of those networks to get as much info

as I have in the last few hours. And forget Fox. You know you almost become used to that propaganda outlet being referred to as a "news station". 1 hour overseas and you see it for what it is. Nothing but blathering patriotic idiots who think that America is the center of the known universe.

[Mojorabbit]

30. I was in Germany two or three years ago

and noted the same thing. It has gotten worse since then, something I did not think was possible.

[Grinchie]

67. Thats a good start -- you'll never miss them NT

I look at them once in a while just to see what the propaganda is for the week. It's the only what to see the patterns emerging, but it does not take prolonged viewing to see where they are leading public opinion each week.

[City Lights]

15. I wish I could recommend this post more than once.

I despise most of our dumbed-down, corporate nooze readers with every fiber of my being. :nuke:

[Smarmie Doofus]

17. Did it for ya'; relax. nt

[niyad]

16. thank you--the waste of air time that passes for "news" in the US is appalling.

I am thankful for being back online and being able to get news from around the world. I don't ever waste my time on american "news"

[Scuba]

18. But to their credit, the US media did report that Micheal Jackson is still dead. n/t

[GoCubsGo]

19. You're just now figuring that out?

But, seriously... Check out the PBS News Hour. They have actual news. Most PBS stations also carry BBC World News, and many show Deutsche Welle Television, as well. Here in South Carolina, the digital PBS (the one you get with an antenna, rather than cable) has three channels, one of which carries DWT throughout the day on weekdays, except when they are streaming from the State House.

If all else fails, go to TVPC.com. You can stream news from all around the World.

[walldude]

21. You know, you kind of get numb to the fact when you see it daily...

especially when things like FoxNews are taken seriously as a news organization. Then you get hit in the face with the real thing and it's... shocking.

Thanks for the TVPC link, I'll check it out..

[Laelth]

20. Our news is terrible. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Balbus]

22. I haven't noticed Brad Pitt in the news lately...

I feel like I might be missing something.

[rucky]

23. sucking ass would be an improvement

the US media is in "2 Girls & a Cup" territory.

[Taitertots]

35. When you are watching US media, you are one of the girls n/t

[nxylas]

24. BBC World News is available in the US too

Some PBS stations carry it, and if yours isn't one of them, there's always BBC America.

[Lorien]

25. Yep, which is one of the reasons I haven't watched it in 15 years

try cutting the cable. You'll be so glad that you did! (Plus, PBS carries the BBC).

[Grinchie]

70. No wonder you are so well informed.

Without fail, people that cut the cable are very well read and well informed. It must be the ability to spend time with a subject and actually get the real message with some tainted subliminal message thrown in.

I have been without Cable TV for almost 10 years now, and it's the most enlightening thing I've ever experienced.

When I go to friends and watch their Cable, there is a distinct illness that comes about when I see all the stupidity that is passed off as entertainment, or faux news. There is just a wasteland of mind numbing rot.

Once in a while, Nature or a movie can be found, but overall it's 1 in 400.

My friends pay 139 bucks a month for crap, and they depend on me to keep them updated with goings on in the world, and I don't disappoint.

[Greyhound]

26. K&R. Your subject line is far too generous. n/t

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[walldude]

28. LMFO.. I'm here working. Jackass.

You are getting into it with the wrong motherfucker here pal. I'm a touring roadie. I work harder in a fucking week than you do in a month. Your pathetic little attempts at superiority do nothing but show your sad little small minded ignorant existence. All your talk about the working man, you don't know fuck all about work. Try 18-20 hours a day 6 days a week. Sleeping on the bus ride to another town. Every day in another city or maybe another country, away from your family and friends for weeks or months at a time... Try climbing the fuck out of mommy's basement once in awhile and earning your money like a fucking man before you come here talking shit to me you pathetic little troll.

[blm]

38. *salute*

some of the most grueling and backbreaking work there is...and completely invisible to the ignorant.

[Stargazer09]

46. I don't know what that troll said

But I love the way you smacked him down!

:patriot:

[theFrankFactor]

55. + A Million! From a Guitar player and audio engineer that toured.

[Grinchie]

68. I didn't see it either, but more power to you.

Don't mess with a man that has just finished traveling...

[amborin]

29. tv in general is bilge; but US has lots of excellent print news media

as for Norway.....whaling, etc......

[KonaKane]

31. You're just figuring this out?

[Bluenorthwest]

32. Commercial media sucks ass. Publically funded media

sucks ass less. The BBC. CBC. We have nothing at all to compare. Because we are strictly from commercial. Real poncho vs Sear's poncho.

[Whisp]

33. this is the place I would like to move to one day.

but I'd need a lottery win to do that.

Number one on my list. screw the palm trees and coconuts.

[NYC_SKP]

34. Nothing reveals "American Exceptionalism" like some time abroad...

Our gigantic cars, our over-consumptive ways, our media, there's a long list of things that make America "exceptional".

But we can't give up...

:patriot:

[depakid]

39. The differences in the nature of the media are particularly glaring

Nowhere that I have been in the 1st world would people tolerate the extent and degree of outright lying (passing off false statements of fact as legitimate "views").

This in addition to the often vacuous content, lack of analysis and studious avoidance of important issues.

America really does stand apart in this regard- something that people overseas don't "appreciate" until they've seen and heard it for themselves.

[Grinchie]

71. Don't forget the heavenly Mass Transit systems and cities that function

London and Paris are wonderful cities that you don't have to have a car to enjoy. So is Tokyo.

San Francisco is 4th rate when it comes to mass transit, but it has the highest marks in my book for the west coast.

Don't know Chicago or New York, and I doubt I will ever get to see those..

[Taitertots]

36. That is because our "news" is really entertainment

It isn't about informing the public, it is about keeping you sitting long enough to watch the next commercial. Our "news" is only there to propagandize the population into the corporatist way of thinking.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

89. commercials are our #1 priority. n/t

[AnArmyVeteran]

37. I've listened to REAL news from the BBC for 20 years.

You hear stories on BBC you never hear in the US media. And if you do hear a story in the US, the BBC has already covered it a weeks or months before. They are one of the few real news organizations in the world. The US media is 100% inept. They all like tabloids airing the most sensational stories they can find, while ignoring everything of substance.

[butterfly77]

40. Kicked&Recommended!

[liberation]

41. Don't think of it as "U.S. media," think of it as "propaganda" and then it makes all sorts of sense

It may be embarrassing from a pure human decency standpoint, but from a psychological control of masses vantage... it is genius and brutally effective.

[LaStrega]

42. Yup. Sucks ass. And not in a good way. k/r n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. Well Football is big outside the US,

after that... here is the deal, if you had news instead of NOOZE..

But also you are running into another problem... and it has just gotten really bad. The US is so damn fucking provincial in it's attitude to the rest of the world. Why the World Cup don't matter, the Olympics don't matter, and there is no news outside our borders.

And to tell you the truth, you and I are in a minority as to why this is a serious problem. Well, you and I and a fair number of DU.

[Stargazer09]

45. My husband was overseas last year

In the desert. He said that the only thing he misses about where he was stationed was the fact that he was able to watch BBC World News in his dorm room.

I completely agree that our media is awful. I've tried watching the news lately, and it's all a bunch of fluff.

I grew up with Walter Cronkite. I miss having people of his character on the nightly news.

[KurtNYC]

50. unfortunately WE are not the customer for US media

we aren't the ones buying ads on US media therefore we are not their customer. US media answers to its customers, eg companies with ad budgets like Geico, Budweiser and -- WE are being sold to the media's customers. The US media's business is a simple one: they sell audiences to advertisers.

We aren't paying CNN or Fox to provide us with news. It's that simple.

If we want decent news coverage we may have to buy it. (one way would be to pay for BBC news in a premium package) Or at least go to sources which are not advertiser focused.

[Goldstein1984]

53. The media's job isn't to deliver news to people

it's to deliver people to their advertisers.

And not to offend current or potential advertisers in the process.

Scan the variety of cable channels to get an idea of what interests the average American.

The media is only going for the lowest common denominator.

The U.S. media ceased to be a source of meaningful information a long time ago. Walter Cronkite was the last reporter I trusted.

But do check the mainstream media if you're curious about whether any celebrities have been spotted in public without their panties lately.

[theFrankFactor]

54. This is ~CORPORATE LIVESTOCK NATION~ Dumb and fat.

[lunasun]

56. our mainstream news sources in the US are almost as

tainted as our mainstream food sources in the US are nowadays!

[KurtNYC]

80. junk food and junk news n/t

[webDude]

57. Google "Operation Mockingbird", please, and you will see.

[CLANG]

58. But we have the newest news - because we make it up on the spot!

[Triana]

59. Youbetcha. Thus, lame$tream media. n/t

[orbitalman]

60. KICK & REC

[AzNick]

61. Spent 2 weeks in France and was amazed by the intelligence level of the debates

Yes, I am bilingual.

I had forgotten how intelligent the French are. Not because their brains differs from that of Americans. Because they allow themselves to be intelligent.

The Bush years made it cool to be dumb. Nukilar.

Palin is cool because she is dumb.

Intellectuals are to be made fun of and not to trust.

Gore? Laugh Out Loud. The man made millions with a Powerpoint presentation, scamming people with his pseudo-scientific theory of global warming. Guess what, dumb ass? It snowed in the winter!

Why are you trying to be so smart... Are you... French?!?

Well, I am, partly.

[krabigirl]

73. Many Americans also allow themselves to be intelligent. They just aren't noticed.

[political_Dem]

62. Broadcast news has suffered immensely since the day Lee Atwater and his ilk took over.

When the political operatives and the corporations got ahold of the news the entire industry went down the crapper. The repeal of the equal time laws signalled the death knell of real news.

Add to that the inflated salaries of political shills disguising themselves as anchors, US broadcast news has turned into the foulest smelling manure pile.

The only thing one could truly do is to turn toward international sources to keep abreast of what's happening. :(

[political_Dem]

63. Dupe. Sorry about that. :(

[Grinchie]

64. You think the Intelligence Services watch NBC Nightly News?

No, they watch all the foreign channels.

The American News System has been filtered since the 70's so drastically, that it has turned into just a rehash of the same story approve for public distribution.

The only difference is the time it appears in a broadcast.

For many years, I watched Mexican TV New's, and it was a real eye opener in the scope and breadth of coverage. For example, a refinery fire that destroys a city and kills 2500 people in South America is shown, and nothing is said on American News, you know that something is up..

It was an American refinery too.. Don't want to bother the shareholders with that info, do we.

But then again, many Americans have never traveled outside their home state, and have no idea about how the rest of the world lives.

[Unvanguard]

66. Turn off US cable news. It is effectively never worth watching.

The New York Times is okay, and there's always the Internet.

[krabigirl]

72. PBS is ok sometimes too.

[bobburgster]

69. Is ot possible? A class action suit against the MSM.....

It sure seems to me we are getting no unbiased reporting. Maybe it is time for a huge lawsuit....with Fox at the top of the list.

[napi21]

74. I don't know who funds the european media, but the downfall here in the US was

when the networks decided that the news had to be a profit center and not a cost center like it was om the days of the real reporters. Apparently they don't believe they can mmake $$ reporting just the real news.

[KharmaTrain]

75. BBC Radio Has Always Been The Radio News Gold Standard...

Unlike American networks that consolidated...or in the case of radio, ceased to be, the BBC, being government subsidized has retained a very large news operation. The World Service truly is that...the BBC has had a global radio presence for decades and their news and programming on that service is specifically tailored for international listening; especially Brits, Americans and other English speakers in non-English speaking countries. It truly became a lifeline.

The only domestic American network to compare with BBC is NPR that still offers some exceptional international coverage, but they rely on stringers...free lance reporters for most of their international coverage...or they turn to the BBC. The VOA had good news coverage...especially during the Cold War, but over the past decade has deteriorated over the years cutting back on its own English language coverage with its focus on the languages of the target countries their signals are aimed at and then much of the reporting is by using wire services and its own stringers or reports from other domestic networks.

In many parts of the country, Public radio and CBC stations in Canada feature BBC World Service News overnight...always interesting and informative.

[rhett o rick]

78. We the people should tell our "representatives" that we want "change". Get the media out

of the hands of the corporatists.

[BumRushDaShow]

79. K&R!!! +10000 ^1000

:applause:

[Vinca]

81. What? No coverage of missing blonde girls?

[Blue_Tires]

82. could not agree more

and i say that as a former reporter...corporate ownership has made everyone forget what hard news looks like...

Every morning getting ready for work my tv is on BBC...

[txlibdem]

88. my daughter was mad at me

for dissuading her from being a journalism major. I gladly took the heat for that. She would have been so disgusted had she entered that profession (idealistic).

[Blue_Tires]

92. welcome to the site!

[ThatsMyBarack]

96. Welcome to DU, txlibdem!

:hi:

[FarrenH]

83. A view from South Africa

We're not a media rich country in terms of TV, unless you've got cash to throw around. There are 5 state TV channels and 1 commercial TV station. For the more well-to-do there's satellite, with 100+ channels. We have a lot of quality papers and tons of good drive-time radio, though.

In the buildup to the Iraq war, the state broadcaster here was airing CNN and Fox on two channels after 10pm and I was simply gobsmacked at the crap that passed for journalism on both channels, which were covering all Iraq, all of the time. Apparently the state broadcaster agreed with me, because on the eve of the war they replaced both with BBC world and some other foreign sources. The difference could not be more stark. The American channels really came across as pure, jingoistic propaganda. Apart from the fact that BBC World actually covered news from around the world, it also carried a wide range of opinions on the looming clusterfuck in Iraq. Most, outside of Blair and Bush government sources were negative. Watching CNN and Fox, you'd think that westerners opposed to the invasion were a small minority. Watching BBC World, the impression was that the balance of developed-world opinion was opposed and the UK government was going against the wishes of its constituents. On CNN & Fox, pro-war retired generals dominated. On BBC world, political spokespeople were grilled mercilessly by journalists and often forced to admit inconventient truths or withhold comment.

And the chatter on message boards seemed to reflect this split in western consciousness. I recall at the time I was spending a lot of time on an atheist board, Internet Infidels (which later underwent a major meltdown, but that's another story), where a lot of the posters were left-leaning. It initially surprised me how many otherwise left-leaning Americans were pro-war. One poster in particular I remember clearly was a doctor, who argued bitterly with me about international law and the interpretation of preemptive defense, entirely on the grounds that Iraq did present a threat to the USA. I was astonished that this man I knew to be very learned and thoughtful was regurgitating what in my neck of the woods was already widely considered bald-faced lies from the Bush admin. It should be added he had no love for the Bush administration at all - it seemed like the media saturation of military propaganda and Labour complicity in the UK convinced him there was something to it. It took a year and a half before he posted a belated apology for his defence of the war on the same board and said he didn't realise the depth of deception by the govt and the unreliability of US news sources on the issue. I encountered several similar examples of Americans I'd expect to know better online being taken in, but not one Brit, Frenchman, Australian or German. And from this my view of American media began to take form. As an aside, my feelings on US media, ostensibly left-leaning Americans and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict follow a similar pattern.

It was during this period during which I started getting a lot more involved in message boards and watching a lot more clips on youtube, so even though they cut CNN and Fox, I was exposed to a lot of stuff in subsequent years by my American friends, many of whom I met IRL at the end of Apartheid when they came over here for a variety of reasons, and this impression that Americans are subjected to unrelenting corporate propaganda by most major outlets has only been reinforced over the last decade.

A few years after the US' and UK's illegal invasion of Iraq, Christina Amanpour said in an interview that the media failed in its duty on Iraq, that the perceived air of nationalistic fervour cowed ratings-hungry organisations into complete complicity with the government, including her own employer, CNN. This seemed like a belated and somewhat weasely admission from Amanpour, who on another occassion was called out for flat out lying during an audio only broadcast from Arafat's compound when the Israeli's had it under siege, by no less than two reporters from major European papers and a UN representative, all of whom were standing next to her while she was saying she "could not confirm" that what was happening in front of her eyes was, in fact happening. Almost a throwing out of one belated admission to mask a much larger and more long term pattern of deceit.

I cannot find the original PDF now but around about 2004 a friend who works in media policy sent me a report drafted by a researcher on corporate media that was partially funded by the UN. The conclusion of the report was that, in a survey of 20 or so wealthy nations, the USA had the most corporate, commercial and consolidated media today. It was pointed out that during the Vietnam war, the majority of talk radio stations in the USA were locally owned, whereas by the 90's the majority were owned by a small number of corporations, and vastly more material was syndicated. The report also said that this trend was accompanied by a radical drop in diversity of opinion and subject matter.

South Africa is a developing nation with the same kind of massive split in social and economic strata that India has, with 20%-30% of us accustomed to all the creature comforts of the developed world - malls, video shops, high-speed internet, laser eye-surgery, whatever - and most of the rest living in various states of poverty. So it would be wrong of me to pretend that South Africans are more informed that Americans. But there's a persistent sense that we fortunate few who live in the highly developed South African economy are wayyyyy more informed than the average middle class American. I have a number of SA friends who've moved over there. Two of them moved back (one subsequently moved back to SA) and testified that, at least in the middle-class neighbourhoods where they lived, they were bowled over by the insularity they encountered and ignorance of the world outside of America. They said even middle-class South Africans who are apathetic about world affairs appear to have far more world-knowledge simply from what they absorb from drive-time radio, the dailies and office talk.

I do think the Internet has a huge effect, but only on those who seek out knowledge. You encounter a lot of Americans in message boards who are very worldly, and a lot of the Americans I met over here weren't stereotypical tourists but the kind of people who would travel to SA and live in bohemian surroundings for a year or two just to experience the miraculous soft revolution that was taking placed here in the 90's. Political science students, hippies et al. And THEY bitched (and sometimes still bitch on Facebook) about the bubble mentality that prevails over there. On blogs like Crooked Timber and others I've seen the overflow of sarcastic humour that accompanies every new pronouncement by some major columnist in the New York Times, when they say some country that opposes American opinion on some new issue is "going against the flow of world opinion" as if the USA is the whole world.

I could go on and on, but suffice to say I have IRL friends all over the world and this seems to be a rather universal impression in the developed world outside of the USA. Some of it, in fairness, may be the fruit of America-envy. The USA has, after all, been a dominant cultural force for the last century or so. So many of us may harbour a subliminal desire to bring it down a notch. But that cuts both ways. I've met people who think William Golding is American because the producers of the last "Lord of the Flies" movie replaced all the British schoolchildren with American boys. People who really think that the Americans recovered an enigma machine from a U-boat and cracked the enigma code, again because of a movie. In fact, its extraordinary how many people think the USA played a far, far bigger role in defeating the Nazis than they actually did, purely on the basis of movies. If Hollywood's role alone has had such a dramatic impact on kids outside of the USA who slept through their history classes, its easy to see how the perspective of less scholarly Americans could be even more warped.

[droidamus2]

86. In my opinion

The death of TV journalism occurred somewhere around the time Reagan first took office (not his fault just happened to be around that time). Through the 1950's, 60's and most if not all of the 70's news journalists ran the news departments and these departments were seen as a service to the public as part of the responsibility of being allowed to use the airwaves. They were not expected to be part of the profit center of the TV networks. With the advent of Cable news and another brilliant idea of the capitalists they decided that the news departments should generate income just like the entertainment departments. The result of this was the control was taken from the 'journalists' and given to those who knew how to generate audience share and thus more income through advertising. Since scandal, rumor mongering and short attention span reporting sprinkled with liberal amounts of opinion, gotcha ya and us versus them 'reporting' is what sells that's what we end up with. These people believe if they actually give in depth reporting, meaning more the 30 seconds, on any given subject people will tune out so they don't even try. We the viewers are seen as being so provincial that what is happening in Thailand, Canada, etc. is less important than the current hit movie or the current political sex scandal. My solution, as naive as it may be, is to return TV journalism to the journalists (if there are any left I don't consider the current new readers journalists) so they can report real news. Make the opinion, rumor, scandal separate shows so the news readers of today can still make a living. There used to be a thing called 'journalistic integrity' I wonder where it went.

[barbtries]

87. well put

it is and it does. it's why i get all my news from the internet.

[BEZERKO]

90. Unfortunately, it's our responsibility

to ride their asses about it. May not be fair, but there it is.

[redqueen]

93. Many, many of us have been. Guess what - they don't care.

They are doing as they're told.

[GeorgeGist]

91. It must be quite amusing while also frightening ...

for the civilized World to hear US shouting "We're Number One (Assholes)".

[ThatsMyBarack]

94. USA! USA! USA!

WE'RE #1!! :sarcasm:

(K&R, by the by)

[Jennicut]

97. Our media is pitiful and most are people that just want to be on tv for no other reason.