I agree with WebShaman on this one. The ratings determine the news rather than the informtion. Troubling it has come to that.
Back during the election I was an avid watcher of FOXnews and at the time it semed perfectly normal. I liked the shows. Then, a week of so after the election unfortunately, I came around, my views began to change. I probably would have voted Badnarik if anyone, but that is beside the point.
First I came to this realization that O'Reilly is a total ass that has no idea what he is talking about. He is nothing but a pompous statist. And soon thereafter I came to the realization that Hannity is a whining baboon who has no idea what he is talking about and IMO is definately shilling for the Republicrats. I cannot stand watching either of them now. I do tune in to Brit Hume now and again, but just to get an idea of what they deem important news for the day. I also get a kick out of his little roundtable with Krauthammer, Kristol and the other neo-cons.
Having been one of their victims of manipulation I can say with experience that they play on emotion rather than intellect, hence a major lack of true engagment.
I tried CNN, but they seemed to have taken on the same tone, albeit for the other side of the false divide, and again, lacks the detail I need. I don't like having more questions after watching the news than before and that is usually what I walk away with.
Since then I have taken to gathering all my news from the Internet. I watch the AP/reuter wires, where some really good news comes through, and if I find a story that really peaks my interest I go to Yahoo and/or Google news to search for more depth and detail. Usually you find the little hometown papers where the stories originate to be a lot more informative and in-depth, so gathering from them is the best place to start IMO, at least for domestic news. If I can't find more sources, I kind of discard the information until I can gather more. I try, note the emphasis, to not form my opinions quite so quickly, hard being that my emotion can sometimes get in the way. As far as TV, the C-Span channels are the only thing I tune into anymore. I have caught some really informative stuff on there, debates in congress, seminars by various indiviuals. I still think they are lax to touch on some issues, but they are for the most part straight feeds which is good.
International news is a bit more tricky, but I would say that I have a pretty good trust of the beeb, although I am also apprehensive on them as well when it comes to a lot of things. I have read some articles on there about national ID cards, RFID technology, and all the other things I think are leading us to a worldwide database of cattle, and they routinely speak of how good it is. Al-Jazeera, let's just say I think they have their own agenda as many other places do. I don't really trust them, no more than any American outlet anyway.
So, to answer your original question Jestah, has FOXnews killed the media? Yes and no. I think it is a systemic problem that WS described above, the commercialism taking over the delivery of journalism. FOXnews and Citizen Murdoch just took advantage of that and took it to the next level, which kind of forced competitors to do the same.
quote:
Do you think I'm mistaken in thinking the WSJ is a Republican propaganda rag, as is the NY Times a Democrat propaganda rag?
No, I believe the same thing. While they can both be informative, and both have some really good journalism, I do think they have their bias either way, just as do most major papers like the Washington Post and Times. Again, the best thing to do is to look deeper, look for more information before accepting any conclusion they may be drawing for you. The big media in my opinion likes to form your opinions for you, and the trick is not letting them but doing some legwork for yourself. In doing so I have cultivated some views that some might consider extreme, but I have never felt better informed about the going ons in the world. I could be wrong on some issues but at least I am using my own brain instead of letting someone else do the thinking for me.
As an afterthought, perhaps the change in the big media is also in part because of the threat they feel from alternative media sources, althought they will rarely acknowledge it. Newspaper circulation is down in a big way over the past decade, and viewership of cable and even network nightly news is in the same dire straights. Back in the 70's and 80's CBS/NBC/ABC all averaged between 35 and 45 million viewers on any given night and IIRC they are all down to 20-25 million. You see the media constantly demonizing the blogs and other alternative media. They are worried, and they should be.
The problem of distortion still exists on the Internet, perhaps with some new risks as well. Take Talon News for instance, clearly government run. There is a new one that appeared after Talon shut down called CNS news service, another one I believe is straight from the intel community. Lot of disinformation out there and sometimes when you simply want to find the truth it can be very frustrating.
As far as Drudge is concerned, I still visit there everyday, he is simply a news aggregator, like a primitive blog if you will. The example you mentioned is common with him, but if you click through and read the articles for yourself you'll be ok I guess. Those who look at the headlines and nothing more are those who are mislead. I try to vary my sources as much as possible, so as to et the most rounded view I can. Drudge, Infowars, Huffington, LGF, Daily KOS, and a few Libertarian blogs for good measure. I don't identify with any of them totally, as they all have their quirks and most are caught up in the left/right paradigm which I think is a control factor, but if you are going for opinions that is about as diverse a collection source as you can get. I listen to the various arguments and form my own opinion based on the merits thereof. Funny thing is there are much better points to be uncovered in the alternative media than on any of the corporate news.
Seems like a lot of work just to get the news, but I think it is really the only way to get a balanced view of what is really going on in the world. If you are interested in it like I am, almost to the point of an obsessive hobby, the two to three hours I put in everyday doing that and writing my blog is well worth it. Call it a feeling of enlightenment, if only to a small extent.
Ramasax
(Edited by Ramasax on 06-17-2005 01:18)
posted 06-16-2005 10:07
