Everyone, stop complaining about corporate media and turn it off!

[Downtown Hound]

I'm sorry, really I am. I love the fact that all of you are savvy enough to know that you are being lied to unlike millions of brain dead Americans. But it seems like every time I come to DU, there's at least half a dozen threads lamenting the latest corporate media atrocity, and I just want to say to them, are you surprised? After everything we've seen over the past four years are we really surprised that the media is behaving this way? Folks, our media is hopeless. Think of a crack addicted, aids infested prostitute that goes around infecting her clients with disease to make $20 for a line of blow. That prostitute has more integrity than our current media.

Do you think they don't know exactly what they are doing? Do you think that somehow they're just unaware of the bias they're showing? It is planned, I assure you. It is intentional, I assure you. They love George Bush and they love his wars. Do you really think that emailing them is going to help? Photographs of children covered in their dead parent's blood doesn't change them, why do you think emails will?

All we have left is to simply turn it off. Shut it down. Don't give them the time of day. Support progressive media. Listen to Air America, Pacifica, or whatever else you can find. Organize. Let's build our own Fox News. Only ours won't pretend to be unbiased like theirs. Let's get our own network of liberal newspapers, publishing houses, radio, and TV.

We have to stop playing by their rules and start MAKING THE RULES. That's what the right did, and look at where it's gotten them. 59,000,000 people officially voted for John Kerry. If just one tenth of those people formed their own liberal TV station and tuned into it on a regular basis, it would have more ratings than all the cable news channels combined. That is what will make them change. But as long as we keep tuning in and giving them ratings while allowing them to dictate the terms, then we're going to continue to have the same media we do, and the same brain dead public that follows Bush like zombies to the grave.

[burythehatchet]

1. there's more at play here, I gave up cable news

the same way I gave up McDonald's, but what's funny is that about once a month I have to have a taste of McD and a taste of CNN. Even stranger, after I eat McD or watch CNN I have the same sick to my stomach reaction and don't have to go back for several weeks. Is there something addictive about cable news?...hmmmm....

(think subliminal)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Don't watch CNN

the only news channel I get (and I can't change it as I'm on a special ten channel package with Dish that is no longer offered-can only keep the channels I selected in the last century). I come here to find out what's really going on.

[Longgrain]

3. I barely watch any cable since election night...

and hardly watch T.V. at all anymore.

DU is much more educational and entertaining.

[illflem]

4. I like both the mainsteam and internet news

It's up to you to believe what you want to believe, sticking your head in the sand isn't the answer. It's good to understand where mainstream mass of people are coming from.

[Downtown Hound]

6. Not sticking my head in the sand

I used to work for ABC. Ratings are what they answer to. Right now the conventional wisdom in the media is that waving the flag and jingoism is what makes money. As long as they believe that, they'll continue to lie.

[gordianot]

12. I've suspected that.

I think there is more to it than market share. It appears to me they are actually afraid of Bush. Look at the number of investigative journalist who have committed suicide.

There is a market out there for honest news. I trust very little in print from major sources in US and almost nothing on television certainly not FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN.

[yella_dawg]

5. Said goodbye to TV back in the Eighties

Tuned out radio when ClearChannel took over.

Don't miss it.

[FlemingsGhost]

7. Half-correct, really ...

Turn it off, indeed. Then, assemble a few hundred thousand at the front doors of every major T.V. propaganda factory.


If we want our government back, we're going to have to take it back.
Chop the head off the snake...

[Downtown Hound]

8. That sounds like a great idea!

I'm all for it!

[OutsourceBush]

9. No cable TV for 8 years here

You really don't need cable. There is better news on the Internet. You can rent movies if you want, etc.

[Bonobo]

10. Turning it off may solve it for you, but does little to weaken its power

of others. Better to be aware of what they are saying. Like it or not, THAT is the message that is being picked up by the masses. The world we live in is at is is, not as we wish it would be.
Also, this "Liberal Media" that you say you want to exist would be owned by the same type of people that own Fox and CNN. They still want you to buy their soap so they will sell it to you in a Green package, that's all. They will say things you want to hear and you will be happy and pacified. It will happen. And it will be just like the Diet Product manufacturers owning the Ice Cream companies. Sell you one and prescribe you the other. Set right against left.
The real game should be rich vs. poor and redistribution of wealth, but like a shell game at a carnival, they get us to follow every shell EXCEPT for the real one. Religion, blah, Abortion, blah, Gay people, blah, Liberals, Neo-Cons, blah, blah. Meanwhile rich get richer, poor get poorer and the "alternative" party, the Dems, are represented by Kerry, a multi-billionaire white guy. I feel nothing but disgust anymore. Sorry about the rant, feeling so grossed out lately by our culture...(I think it was cause I went to a Pizza Hut today)

[Downtown Hound]

14. You're right, it would do little to weaken it's power over others

in the short run. But as I stated in my post below, if those people that owned Fox and CNN and the like saw that there is actual profitability in liberal media, then they would adjust their programming to accommodate it. Those people are just business men, they will do whatever makes money. Right now they're following a business model that states there is money in waving the flag. If a true liberal alternative showed up that showed them otherwise, then they would take notice.

[Redleg]

16. Excellent point.

[Az]

11. Only the people that get it will turn it off

It will continue to pump its poison into the bulk of the population. Its not just a question of turning it off. We have to take it back.

[Downtown Hound]

13. But here's how you take it back

by forming successful liberal media. By slaughtering them in the ratings. As it stands now, all real liberal voices are silenced in the corporate media with the occasional exception that is trotted out to show that they really do get both sides and yadda yadda ya. Believe me I know, I've seen it, and I'm sure you know it as well. I used to have journalism professors tell me that what we need to do is get in there and give it progressive voices. That's virtually impossible in today's media. They simply don't allow it to happen.

A lot of Fox's audience is liberals that tune in to see "what the enemy is doing." This is exactly what Fox wants us to do. We're playing their game. However, say Air America became the number one radio voice in America. And it could actually happen, AAR has made enormous advances in under one year. Then all those business heads will take a look at their numbers and say, "Wow, there's a lot of money to be made here. Let's get some liberals on our station." That's the only way that it's ever going to happen.

[Redleg]

15. Even though we may turn it off, other Americans won't.

And they will continue to be mis-informed. And as they are open to mis-information, they will tend to vote for Rethuglicans and will support the further corporatization of this nation. That is my gripe about the bullshit media.

[BillZBubb]

17. You are exactly correct.

As usual though, liberals, not willing to fight for what is at stake, will cry, "boo hoo we can't do that. boo hoo we need to know what the others are seeing. boo hoo it won't work. boo hoo, boo hoo." And nothing will change.

Only by a total boycott of all corporate media by progressives can we effect change. It has to be massive and unified. That's why it won't ever happen. Liberals just aren't that committed.

I will not watch cable news under any circumstances. I haven't watched any network news since Nov. 2. I feel a lot better and my knowledge of what is going on in the world hasn't suffered a bit.

[Downtown Hound]

18. Thank you.

Yeah, I knew that there would be a lot of that when I posted this thread. Too bad, but oh well. This is why the left always ends up losing to the right, they simply don't want to believe that they in fact have the power to do what the right does and do it better. But it has to start somewhere. So I thought I'd at least put the idea out there.

[SmokingJacket]

19. Hey: I complain AND I shut it off!

I haven't had TV in my house since I've been an adult, but I know Fox is out there wreaking havoc. Somehow, it gets along without me.

Seems like half the stories I read/hear on non-mainstream media are ABOUT mainstream media.