Our media does not allow us to have heros and provides cover for villains

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

They are the most negative power in the country. Leaders like Al Gore are called "stiff" "Liar", etc. while they deliver us into the hands of the supposedly likable, "plain talking" George W. Bush. They call Edwards a "phony" or ignore him altogether and drain the viability from him as a candidate who cannot run in a vacuum where he does not exist, even if he comes in second.

They did not cover the oceans of humanity who protested at the last Republican National Convention. They provide no real coverage of the rampantly illegal and unconstitutional activities of myriads of officials in multiple branches of government.

I do not believe that a country can maintain freedom and liberty in a world of such a constrained and corrupt press. We have some sunlight because of the Internet, but the average American does not have the time or energy to find, research , read, absorb and spread the true state of affairs.

I have made jokes in the past, but I really think we need a Radio Free America beamed to us from other countries, so that we can realize how our standard of living and standing in the world have disintegrated so far and so fast under this regime.

Americans live in a bubble,wearing and waving giant styrofoam index fingers while shouting "We're number 1 ! We're number 1!" And we are. We are number 1 in being duped, placated, and misled by a press and media that has become a giant force for ignorance, xenophobia, misinformation, no information, and the dismantlement of the Constitution.

[ixion]

1. yep, they don't allow real heros, only prefabricated (hence fake) heros

every now and then they'll slip a 'real guy' hero into a fluffy interest piece, but the next minute it's back to business. As a former journalism student and newspaper writer, I'm deeply saddened by what's become of a once decent profession.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Heroes Are Boring...

In school who cared about the kid who got all As? Most of us hated him or her. We were more interested in hearing of the exploits of the "wild kids"...the ones who seeemed to have the most fun. They open the doors to the taboos of our society and the forbidden fruit is always the most tempting.

Our corporate media sees News as an end to a means...and that's to make a profit. Most news divisions are now under the control of the entertainment division and must deliver the ratings just like a reality show or situation comedy. You can't do this with "heroes"...they don't rile the blood, get the tongues wagging and grab the eyeballs like a good dead blonde or sleezy blow job. It's a lot easier to feign moral outrage than to take on a complicated issue that requires critical thinking and steady emotions. That just won't fly on the corporate media.

For the past decade, the corporate media feasted off the right wing hate machine. It offered them all they needed...plenty of scandals, "moral outrage" and plenty of boogie men. The 24/7 news cycle created a pundit class of yakers and the right wing think tanks and astroturf organizations were quick to fill those shows...soon dominating what we were seeing and hearing. And it was an easy job for the media-types...it was a lot easier to pass along a talking point or rumor from an "undisclosed source" than it was to do actual reporting.

The saving grace is the large number of people who have come out to vote in Democratic primaries this year. This is as much a rejection of the corporate media as it is the Repugnican.

Cheers...

[Echo In Light]

4. I perceive it as more of a backlash against Bushites, not the media which they consume in huge doses

[KharmaTrain]

6. Iowa & New Hampshire Were As Much Anti-Media

I give people a lot more credit than most around here. I see a lot of very informed people and the more informed they are, the less they rely on the corporate media. It was great to see Olbermann last night with John Amato and Josh Marshall...the NEW media that has been both our saviors and salvation over the past couple years. Don't underestimate how they have changed the dynamic.

'06 was a backlash against boooosh...'08 is against the status quo. booooosh isn't on the ballot and many people I canvass are more interested in forgetting him than "getting even". The GOOPs problems aren't the Democrats...it's their own arrogance and largess that is now tearing that corrupt party apart. The corporate media sure didn't do this...the greed did...one that people are also rejecting.

News ratings have been on the decline for years. I remember the days when you only had 3 networks and your morning newspaper as the only sources of information. Fortunately we have far more resources now...and those who choose to stay uninformed or are easily swayed by the corporate media are farer and fewer between. If the corporate media was a king maker, we would have had McCain in 2000...not boooosh.

[Echo In Light]

7. Well, I struck up a conversation the other day in a doctor's waiting room

...and yes, people have their views on these things, and the discussion quickly grew from two to four. An old farmer guy and I {very much the hippie/very long hair, tatts, out of date, etc} hit it off immediately and talked for an hour. He was very liberal minded, but to guess by first impression you'd be way off the mark.

A forty-ish woman sitting beside him was the typical right winger: chastised Clinton over NAFTA, but when I commented on how his admin gutted welfare, she was salivating over how great that was. But when I mentioned the Telecommunications Act of 96: deer in the headlights.

Another married coupled weighed in, being in favor of Hillary and her health care ideas, to which the right winger woman was staunchly opposed. She began citing personal examples of people she knows who live in Europe and Canada, and how HORRIBLE the health care is there because, in her approximation, national health care excludes health "specialists," leaving only general doctors available.{???} She's also in favor of erecting a WALL around the U.S. Nuff said there. Her family arrived {husband and overweight children all wearing clothes w/sports logos of course} looking very bitter, and she left in a huff, angry at her wait time.

So, overall, an interesting little talk, and the whole time MSNBC was on the boob tube. Only the old farmer guy understood that {pointed it out to me even before I waded into one of my pat anti-corporate media rants} the media strings the public along as part of a show in order to dupe them on many levels. So, yeah, I agree with you that there are informed people out there who understand the real problem is centralized power of the corporate/state nexus. More than not though, there are those who may espouse some of those views, yet still choose to get their {dis} info via mainline outlets.

[Echo In Light]

3. It speaks to the astounding efficacy of brainwashing/indoctrination in open society

Through a sense of familiarity, jingoism and entitlement, people internalize the most incredibly blatant untruths. Even as the open society continues to close.

And the staunch deniers and down players of these facts will also defend the mainline media as, at worst, only following the almighty dollar in order to disavow any real, provable ideological bias ... because that way, it's not "so bad," and they can continue safely living in a bubble of propaganda which, no doubt, a proportional amount of their overall mindset relies upon in order to keep their ducks in a row.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Reason #1 why Gore didn't run...

The Media would have cut him to ribbons and Diebold would have confirmed the effectiveness of their efforts.

Anybody would be programming genius if they could control the Nielsen Ratings. Well, the big money that owns the media controls both the content of the news and the counting of the votes.

[Karenina]

9. Bingo!

[raccoon]

8. K&R. nt

[blondeatlast]

10. Spot on, Phoebe, but for one thing--THEY are not "our" nedia.

They are not deserving of inclusion in a crucial part of a healthy democracy.

I want nothing to do with them.

for now, I get most of my American neews coverage from the BBC and AF_P (Agence France-Resse, in English here): http://www.afp.com/english/home/

[Uncle Joe]

12. That's why I don't refer to them as the MSM, that's way too misleading, to me corporate media

seems a better description. MSM or mainstream media sounds like they actually give a shit about the people as a whole. I've come to the conclusion that the people to them are nothing more than customers or consumers; akin to locusts, the corporations are their clients. Clients will get better representation than customers virtually every time, and while that can happen on occasion and the customer or consumer doesn't get burned, when it happens twenty four hours each and every day, the consumers or customer will be skinned.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. The indoctrination is almost complete.

The fascism is here folks. Yesterday I am an aisle over in the supermarket and two purveyors were restocking the shelves. Their conversation solely revolved around the country becoming a communist state and they were espousing the need for tighter restrictions on freedom of speech. These were 2 white males mid 30's- 40ish.

After listening from a row over, I strolled up to them and said that, "Your interpretation of freedom and liberty, as laid out in the Constitution, sorely needs to be re-evaluated. It is dialog like yours that gives control of this country away from the people and delivers it straight into the hands of the politicos. You want more of a police state to counter this supposed threat of communism, continue to elect people like Bush -- they will be handing out arm bands for you soon."

No response but a dumbfounded, glazed look of wonderment. I doubt they ever had to listen to someone refute their bullshit.

Arg. If this is the level of dialog in the electorate...
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: