Oh Give Me A Break. . .

Mainstream Media Doesn't Know Why. . . ?

They're Confused As To Why The Left, And Right Don't Trust Them?
by William River Pitt's FYI Blog at Truthout.org, and This Old Hippie

Geoduck at William Rivers Pitt's FYI site said it best. . .

"Self Inflicted

It really pains me to say this but I don't have much sympathy for the NYT and other mainstream journalists.  There are some that are trying to do a good job but the American Press/Media/Enter-
tainment/Business has lost, no, strike that, has thrown away it's credibility with both hands.

Printing government and corporate publicity as "news" should never have happened.  Using the news to publicize the other shows on your network and products of your parent company should never have happened.  Pushing the Bush Air Guard story out last fall without checking the sources should never have happened.  Allowing themselves to be "embedded" during the war should never have happened.  Good journalists said so at the time but the corporate suits that run the news overruled them.

For the Executive Editor of the NYT to bemoan the fact that the mainstream press is under attack from all sides sounds a lot like how GM and Chrysler complained about Japanese cars in the 1970s.  If the American press had done a better job in the last 10-15 years then they would be trusted now.  As it is when I want to find out what is going on in the world I check the BBC, CBC, Haaratz and a few trusted blogs like this one and WarBlogging.com.  I even go to the web for weather forecasts now."

by geoduck on Tue Feb 22nd, 2005 at 11:20:54 AM EST (Link)

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Hunter S. Thompson. . .  Nothing I can say can convey my feelings.  Gonzo came from my part of town back in Louisville, KY.  Same basic "crowd," but I never met him, as he was a decade ahead of me in years, but eons ahead of most of us in conceptualization.

But, again - William Rivers Pitt says what I can't, so well. . .



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Back to the media. . .

I long ago, like so many other Americans, not to mention the rest of the world, came to under- stand that our mainstream media lost its credibility long ago.  Through corporate take-overs, and consolidation down to 5 corporations owning almost all of the American mainstream media, and their turning it from "news" to entertainment/profitable business/bottom line over the public's interest/advancing their own corporate political propaganda needs. . .  Americans, all of us, the liberals, the conservatives, and those in between, lost trust and faith in this now fully corrupted source of the truth.

I long ago, like many others, now turn to the internet, the BBC, the CBC, independent (what remains of it) media, online access to non-corporate broadcasts, both video and radio, of the "news," the truth.  And more recently a small list of trusted blogs.

I have been "on the internet" since 1972, and have watched our mainstream media deteriorate, consolidate, deteriorate, consolidate, etc., until it has reached this final "Orwellian" state of corruption, of itself and the truth.

This destruction of our free and unfettered media is the single reason we find ourselves in this insane Empire of constant war, destruction, and corruption.  Because if "our" mainstream media had reported even 1/2 of the truth over the last 25 years or so, none of this would be the case now.  We had trusted them, for they had earned our trust.  But with slow corporate take over, which accelerated within the past decade, the continued growing corruption of the truth of what they reported, and the truth of what they didn't report to us, and the realization by more and more people of the "why" of it. . .  They lost their credibility, and our trust.  And I, for one, blame no one but them.

Many of us online tried to warn, tried to "spread the word," tried to write unendingly to editors, owners, fellow citizens, media watch organizations, etc., to no avail.  But most Americans were not online during the transition, even today most Americans are not online, and of those that are, most are on for entertainment, not the "news," and most Americans still get their "truth" from the 5 corporations that now control almost all of our media.

The American plutocratic corporatist theocratic government, with its corporately controlled media, is the very definition of Fascist now.  But try to say that to most Americans, even today, and you will be sneered at, looked as a "conspiracy nut," like we who have followed the history, as it developed, have seen the history being repeated again, are the ones "out of touch with reality," in their eyes-of-denial.

Watching this happen in plain sight, knowing it is continuing to worsen, seeing the coming of even more irrational destruction. . .  I can understand the "why" of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's decision. Not that I approved, or disapproved, of his decision to leave this mortal plain - - -

I just understand it.