08-31-2018, 08:25 PM
Quote: @JimmyinSD said:
Good point. I also think a big part of the problem is corporate ownership and monopolization of the overall media vs years ago.@VikingOracle said:
Just to summarize my thoughts, I am simply advocating critical analysis and respect of other's views. I am also advocating consistency in how we apply the processes. For instance, I think it is problematic for Republicans who supported all the Bengazi investigations to call for the Russian investigation to be stopped before it is completed. Likewise, I struggle with my own opposition to Cavanaugh as Supreme Court Justice when I think a president should receive a certain amount (not absolute) deference in his court selections. I do think Trump is the result of the polarization of this country but I am hopefully that this may lead us to re-evaluate this polarization and the people and institutions who are responsible for promoting such polarization. Again, talking about inconsistency, I look at a person such as Jerry Falwell Jr. and how he has acted so differently towards democrats and republicans and I think it has exposed his mendacity and made young people look more critically at him and his movement. My hope is the result of these four years is that people will look at things more critically and engage in more respectful and meaningful dialogue about the problems we face. I think demonizing a person, whether it be Obama, Trump, Clinton or Gore (in the case of climate change) does not lend itself to meaningful debate.
For instance, let's take Trump's attack on the press. Is the press the enemy of the people? Clearly, our founding fathers did not think that -- rather the press is an important aspect of America. In fact, I would say attacking the press is un-American and you can see plenty of example of totalitarian regimes who suppress a free press. Now, I know many conservatives will point out that press outlets have political bias. I agree and it always has had political bias. But, I say to my conservative friends, if Obama had said Fox is the enemy of the people, what would you have said? If Obama had refused openly and by name to answer questions by Fox, what would you have said about Obama? Again, it goes back to consistency and critical thought. I believe that the overwhelming evidence in our history is that a free press is essential to our democracy. These are the types of discussions that should be going on. i used to think the same on the press... I cant find a "news" agency that I can stomach anymore.... honestly I have about 15 news networks on my TV and not one of them will just give me the news. and in this day and age of people going a million directions, who has time to fact check their news sources? I am not advocating any network or news source, i am saying that they all should be under scrutiny in how they are conducting their business and if they cant give the facts in an unbiased manner then they are of no use to the publics interest and shouldnt have free unhindered access. they are no longer a tool for the people to monitor our elected officials, they are tools for the elected officials to control the voters. when integrity comes back to journalism... then I think I would get behind your call for laying off the media.
Here is an article and a quote about this problem and impartiality:
The six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Together, the “big six” absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States. But even those areas of the media that the “big six” do not completely control are becoming increasingly concentrated. For example, Clear Channel now owns over 1000 radio stations across the United States. Companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are increasingly dominating the Internet.But it is the “big six” that are the biggest concerns. When you control what Americans watch, hear and read you gain a great deal of control over what they think. They don’t call it “programming” for nothing.
Back in 1983 it was bad enough that about 50 corporations dominated U.S. media. But since that time, power over the media has rapidly become concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people…
Here is the full article:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archi...r-and-read
Lastly, IMO the recent citizens united decision to allow corporations through super pacs to give unlimited funds to politicians has resulted in these dominant news media corporations to no longer offer free and independent media.
B) 