Wow, hatrack! That is some serious heavy dosage of paranoia. Just what the doctor ordered, although I wouldn't feel that way if America only had a free media.
You're in the information business, if memory serves, so you know the GI-GO Law. Here's a nice overview on the Unofficial Stupefication of America, courtesy of Intervention Mag:
Democracy Dumbed Down!With the news media abandoning its duel function of being a watchdog of government and informing the public, while embracing news as entertainment for the highest ratings, citizens are uninformed and democracy is crippled.By Danny Schechter
Millions of Americans accept what they are told and think they understand what they see. And what they are told and what they see is most often news as a manipulated commodity. But the facts that really count rarely reach a significant number of the public's ears or eyes.
Also, most reporters know governments lie, mislead and deceive.They also know that the press is ostensibly there to keep an eye on governments, to dissect errors and omissions by offering more truthful counter-narratives. That was the role an adversarial media played during Watergate, during the Vietnam War, and even, if distastefully, during the Clinton administration.
Today, our media has abandoned this historic role. That part of the public that remembers the great journalists of the past knows it. Even journalistic greats admit it. Just before his death on June 11, newscaster David Brinkley said of the medium that was his life. "Television news has become so trivial and devoid of content as to be little different from entertainment programming."
But many in the public don't even expect the media to be honest in its reporting. The Jason Blair affair at The New York Times was the tip of an iceberg. Major newspapers such as The Boston Globe and The Washington Post have, in the past, been humiliated by revelations that reporters falsified stories. Beyond simple credibility, today's media system has fused news biz and show biz.
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http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=436