American Media The Real Enemy?

I was thinking about how everyday I wake up and turn on the news to watch what crazyness that is going on all over the world. With so much fighting and war going on everywhere it seams like the media is sometimes more like gas on the fire. Why does our own media constantly try to discredit and put us down.Im not saying suppress the news but damn! Why so much analyzing and analyzing the analizations. CBS,NBC,CNN and all the others just seam to dig and dig until they find some dirt and they over inflate whatever they find and twist it to make the USA that they live in look so bad?? How about some good news? Contrary to popular belief Americans do great things all over the world everyday.
Makes me wonder if the only news nowadays is bad news.

I wound not say it was just the American Media that was the problem.
Every media source has it's own agenda no matter where it is from, the US, Britain, Iran etc.
All media sources will take one tact and chase it to the ground and in many cases, underground, tho prove their version of any story.
Media today follows a quote that I love (although the quote was in reference to History) it is well suited for today's media.

History: gossip well told. Elbert Hubbard

Media is largely owned by large coporations and or goverments. A reported working for the media will slant the story as they see it and as their owners see it.

One would still assume that the American media would strive to defend the integrity of their country at every chance. But they do just the opposite.

Unfortunately that would not be the case.
Many of the media outlets owned by such as Rupert Murdoch are anti bush / anti present goverment so they will raise the banner on any story that would put the present administration in a bad light. Stories that make them look incompetant, stupid, uncaring etc.
Let me give you an example from personal experience.
About 10-15 years ago, I was interviewed by some reporters because I worked at a store that sold T-shirts that said "Legalize today Get High Tonight". What the reporters were after was to condemn the sale of these and other shirts as they "promoted illegal drug use" Unfortunately, they did not seem to be able to read what the shirts said which was legalize it then use it.
The reason that the news reporters were doing the story..... they and their network were supporting a counselwoman who was against the shirts. The reporters did the interview with me (without letting me know what was going on). I watched the report on the tv. and promptly called them up. They had edited the interview and made it seem that I was supporting disobeying the law. I called the reporters to task on this and informed them that they could have had a better story if they had been upfront with me. I would have debated the counselwoman and would have given them a real news story. Due to their editing of the interview, they did an apology on air every news cast for three days. They did this to avoid the law suit.
By the way, we sold out of all of these types of shirts the very next day. It was great for business!

Originally posted by Unreal Reality
One would still assume that the American media would strive to defend the integrity of their country at every chance. But they do just the opposite.

It all depends on your point of view.
I feel the media is a tool of the current administration and feeds the public nothing but pablum and feel good stories unless it is about some beautiful little white girl being abducted or murdered. These stories are distraction to keep the citizens from seeing how rotten things really are.

As ken said, the media is owned by massive corporations and they report what the current powers want reported.

You seem to think that the Media is some independent organization that is in opposition to the powers that be. This is just right wing scapegoating trying to look for blame where it really doesnt belong.

Nows your chance Unreal Reality!! Start a news organization that focuses on the Good News. I'll bet all the advertising moguls will be pounding on your door wanting to advertise all their burgers, cars, condoms and pet food. Maybe you are destined to be another Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner.

Do you at least have a blog telling us of the good news? I'd read it!!!

I'm also tired of all the negativity. That's why I don't watch the news that much. I like all the warm and fuzzy news we get here on ATS.

The 24 hour news networks like fox cnn and msnbc all have techniques on how to make up your mind for you. Fox is almost always making the president look like hes doing the right thing by dumbing down his mistakes. They will acknowledge what he has said, take for instance the iraq's weapons of mass destruction and they'll go into a little discussion amongst each other and slowly influence you by using specific sentences and words to make it look like hes doing a good job or that hes on the right track. Its like no weapons of mass destruction? thats ok because now we set the people of Iraq free from that monster Saddam. Yet theres more violence in Iraq since the war started then there has ever been before. Its a psychological war.

Edit: Spelling and Grammatical errors

[edit on 23-2-2006 by unconscious_war]

Funny.

It was the same media considered to be a potential enemy in this thread that helped the current executive administration make its case for war with little to no questioning until after the war was well underway.

Perhaps a central agency for the control of news output is required?

USTASS?

That's a little simplistic(no insult intended) imo. It's part of the problem. It is a tool that the gov. uses to instill fear(terrorism?) in the populous. It is also used to divide the people so that a lot of people are bickering about small things(sources) while they continue with their agenda. To see what I mean:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The us media is not the only enemy=True (whoever said that, sorta) but if you want to see the problem as it is you need to look at the whole picture, let me simplify that:
You can look at the water around your feet and think your only in a puddle, but when you look around you, your in an ocean.
If you think the US media harbors to one side, your wrong. They like to jump back and forth and keep ALL sides listening to them and will glady take after anyone to do so. Altough they do own the govt in their own way (but not exclusively) they have a good handle on what happens because they control how people hear about it on a national scale. Even if you did take out the US media and turn it into a 100% free press where all sides get represented equaly (1x10^-99 chance of happening) the corporations would still stand in your way, such as textile corporations and weapons corporations. Any problem in the US cannot be tackled one at a time, you have you work on the whole or else its like trying to pull out a peg thats connected to 10,000 other pegs that are deeply embeded.

Originally posted by kenshiro2012
Unfortunately that would not be the case.
Many of the media outlets owned by such as Rupert Murdoch are anti bush / anti present goverment

I know you were speaking in broad terms, but you do realize Rupert Murdoch loves George W. Bush, right?

Unfortunatly, IMO the media is the most powerfull faction for influencing the beliefs, thoughts and attitudes of the entire human race.

Due to the sheep mentality of the populous, people tend to believe what their told to believe and unfortunatly the powers that be, have figured out that this, in fact is a great way to controll the people..

Hence we have people supporting whatever spin is being fed to them, often based upon what t.v chanel or newspaper they decide to watch or read.

Unfortunatly in the age of the sound bite people, seem to have lost their ability for rational thinking and the ability to form an objective opinion rather than thinking the popular thought.

Thank goodness there are small comunities like this where people can still come together and question the norm...

...and deny ignorance.

In a Dictatorship the Dictator rules.

In Communism the Party rules.

In a Republic the Senate rules.

In a Democracy the Media rules for the simple reason that more than 50% of the people are stupid and easily led.

www.fromthewilderness.com...

Accepting a defense rejected by three other Florida state judges on at least six separate motions, a Florida appeals court has reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information.

In a six-page written decision released February 14, the court essentially ruled the journalist never stated a valid whistle- blower claim because, they ruled, it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

In the lawsuit filed in 1998, Akre claimed she was wrongfully terminated for threatening to blow the whistle to the FCC. After a five-week trial that ended August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that she was indeed fired for threatening report the station's pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was "a false, distorted, or slanted" story about the widespread use of growth hormone in dairy cows.

Continued....

Snip from ruling:

We agree with WTVT that
the FCC’s policy against the intentional falsification of the news – which the FCC has
called its “news distortion policy” – does not qualify as the required “law, rule, or
regulation” under section 448.102.
The FCC has never published its news distortion policy as a regulation
with definitive elements and defenses. Instead, the FCC has developed the policy
through the adjudicatory process in decisions resolving challenges to broadcasters’
licenses.

Continued....
www.2dca.org...

Legal precedant has been established.

The media can lie to you all they want because the FCC News Distortion Policy is not a legally binding law, rule, or regulation.

Half of propaganda is what they do not tell you, and the other half is being able to lie with a straight face.

The phrase 'The Elephant In The Living Room' was invented for the US media.

Yes; you are being lied to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

It's even perfectly legal for your media to lie to you in the states now.

Pretty much every other western country found this out long, long ago and trusts their media slightly less than they'd trust a paid tramp to piss on them whilst on fire.

But hey, we live and learn..

Like intrepid said, it is only part of the problem. The funny thing about this thread is that it is done by someone that thinks our media is biased against America. Anyway the American media has formed who most Americans are. Americans can no longer take care of our own problems or even trust each other. The only message we get from media is fear, fear everyone, trust no one. We look at each other as strangers that cant be trusted. All the while accepting this image of ourselves that the media projects, its not who we are, but it is who we will become.

Materialistic, brain-dead little mall-rats watching MTV. That is our future, these children that dont care about anything except how they look. We will be the ultimate consumers evenually wont we, with the help of the little boob-tube, we become soft little materialistic posers that question nothing, except who should make it on American Idle.

The US Media is acting as a "cheerleader" for war

Unreal Reality, as others have said, the media is just part of the problem. I believe they are the mouthpiece for those with the agenda.
Coupled with the fact that they need to have news that keeps you tuned to their channel: it's also about ratings and the almighty dollar.

Good topic

And as this is about more than the war on terror and involves how we are deceived with the information presented to us in the MSM, I am moving this to the Disinfo forum.

The US Media is acting as a "cheerleader" for war

It seems to me that the US media has been ardently slamming the war in Iraq... only showing the bad side of the conflict, no good news from that region.

The US media has a constant pattern to watch out for, they will allways take the popular stance.

If the popular stance is that we need revenge... then the media will make any country the US is attacking to look evil. As is what happened at the start of the war in Iraq. (And dont forget Afghanistan).

Today, the popular stance is to dissolve the nationalism that has brought some of the freedoms of the country crashing down around your knees... hence, the news now takes a stance against the right wing, and nationalism.

Unfortunately the only way they know to not look nationalistic, is to completley bash everything partaining to their country.

This is why I love living in Canada. I could compare living in Canada to using ATS Forums. In other forums, your oppinions are harshly scrutinized, and flamed. Here at ATS, people take the time to hear your oppinions, and expect you to take the time to listen to theirs. The media in Canada has little use other than, here are the facts, and now the weather.

The American media is no longer interested in informing people ( if that ever was the goal of any media). Politics have taken over the air waves. For years most the news you got was with a liberal bias, but then a few years ago a conservative news network came onto the scene challenging the staus quo. It's just plain open warfare now between FOX and talk radio versus pretty much all the rest of the media, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, PBS, NY Times... Our media now spends more time attacking or defending persons and policys and each other more than actually reporting anything. It can be pretty humorous at times watching these little jabs being launched at each other, but still a little alarming when you realize again why they have these conflicts. They want to shape your opinion. If there was no left or right bias in the media you wouldn't see so many of these attacks on each other.

Be glad you don't have to rely on European News media. Now there's a liberal bias.