How Do We Fix the Media?

Discussion in 'Media & Commentators' started by MDG045, Dec 23, 2016.

  1. MDG045

    MDG045 Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2016
    Messages:
    471
    Likes Received:
    149
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Gender:
    Male
    I'm sure like a lot of people, the recent American presidential election truly proved the American mainstream medias bias and down right unethical journalistic practices to me. So the question that we have to face now is, how do we fix the mainstream American media? Now the most logical thing that came into my mind is to pass stricter ethical journalism laws. But then I thought, 'Well I guess that technically goes against the first amendment of free speech and press, so that can't work'. I've thought and thought about it but I can't seem to come to a conclusion that doesn't take away peoples freedoms and doesn't destroy free speech, which as a libertarian I am all for. So what do your all think, what should we do about the cancer that is our mainstream media?
     
  2. War is Peace

    War is Peace Banned

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2016
    Messages:
    549
    Likes Received:
    12
    Trophy Points:
    0
    We have choices:
    1. create a government agency with the power to decide what is, and is not news, what is fake news and which networks should be curtailed or shut down. We could call this new agency The Ministry of Truth.
    2. stop watching nonsense channels filled with lies and political spin. AND................ this is what we are already doing........AND it's working. CNN, MSNBC and the like are seeing yuuuge declines in viewership.

    If we don't want the media to be policed by a corrupt government, we must police it ourselves. I'd rather put up with O'Reilly and Madow than wonder if the nightly news was government manipulation of our opinions.
     
  3. Gatewood

    Gatewood Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2013
    Messages:
    47,624
    Likes Received:
    48,666
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I agree. Let market realities continue gutting the heart of leftist Mainstream Media while they progressively (ha!) continue to make themselves redundant among people interested in learning what's really happening in the world on a daily basis. With the Internet one can get precisely the same AP feeds that the big news organizations receive and thus one can make up one's own mind.
     
  4. dairyair

    dairyair Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2010
    Messages:
    78,717
    Likes Received:
    19,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    The above. I agree.
    Also, the media, like all other businesses, needs to sell stories to sell ads to make money.
    So, IMO, they will write and tell stories that get people to click and read or watch.
     
  5. kilsus

    kilsus Newly Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2017
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    I think the old school Woodward and Bernstein style of Journalism needs to be at the core of every Journalist. Most now are told to report what the Network says to report putting true Journalism at risk....
     
  6. hoosier88

    hoosier88 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2013
    Messages:
    1,025
    Likes Received:
    143
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Markets need someone to pay the freight. The Internet doesn't typically pay for content, & so if AP's paying customers fold, or otherwise stop paying for services, there won't be any feeds. Someone has to pay.

    All the news amalgamators have the same problem - they may trumpet their independence from & difference from the MSM - but it's the MSM (especially print, but also ENG, radio) that pays the freight for AP, UPI, Reuters, & all the other news-gathering bureaus. Note the importance of these services especially for foreign news (the big US nets scrapped most of their foreign bureaus decades ago - they weren't paying the rent, in terms of the outlays) & for science & technology stories - CNN, for example, deleted their science & tech division 20 years or so ago. Note also how many of these foreign correspondents have British accents - BBC maintains reporters & offices throughout the World - & very often their people are also seconding into the US markets. BBC is usually reliable, but do we really want to put all our eggs in a single basket that answers to a foreign (if allied) government?

    If the bloggers & so on ever actually put the MSM media out of business, the new media will have to work out some way to pay for the wire services - or do without. Then we'll see how often the new media get scooped by foreign news bureaus that actually have people out on the ground, covering the stories on a day-to-day basis.

    I expect that they'll be scooped time & again, until they either learn to pay for AP & the like, or invent some analog to the existing nets.
     
  7. Gatewood

    Gatewood Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2013
    Messages:
    47,624
    Likes Received:
    48,666
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Sorry that I didn't see your reply when you issued it. By market realities I mean that things are going to change to follow the money flow and eventually the MSM dinosaurs are either going to adapt to these changes or officially become nothing more than leftist echo chambers. Effectively they already are, but they have not made that official. I am not picking nit here. The official admission is important.

    That aside canny business people are capable of correctly analyzing market trends and adapting. Clearly this nation hungers for RELIABLE news that is politically neutral in presentation. Not the CLAIM of neutrality, but the reality. Any organization actually doing that as a matter of course is going to clean up and then dominate. Until that happens, however, Internet adventurers can take advantages of available feeds to come as close to that reality as possible.
     
  8. hoosier88

    hoosier88 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2013
    Messages:
    1,025
    Likes Received:
    143
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Yah. Except that the consolidation of media in the US means that fewer & fewer drivers are steering the entire media World. As size favors economies of scale, I think that trend will continue, as long as the FCC permits it. That's where the money flows are going - continuing consolidation of ownership, & possibly of control, of the mass media outlets.

    On the second point, I think the emphasis should be on accurate news that is politically neutral - period, full stop. Not merely in presentation - in actuality (a goal, I know, & possibly unattainable this side of the heat death of the universe. Nonetheless, I think it's a worthwhile goal, even if we can only come close to it on occasion.)

    Unfortunately, VP Pence while gov. of IN attempted to install a state information bureau. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence#Media_and_the_press

    "On January 26, 2015 it was widely reported that Pence had planned to launch a state-run, taxpayer-funded news service for Indiana.[125] The service, called "JustIN", was to be overseen by a former reporter for The Indianapolis Star, and would feature breaking news, stories written by press secretaries, and light features.[125] At the time, it was reported that the two employees who would run the news service would be paid a combined $100,000 yearly salary.[125] The target audience was small newspapers that had limited staff, but the site would also serve to communicate directly with the public. The publisher of the Commercial Review of Portland, Indiana, said, "I think it's a ludicrous idea ... the notion of elected officials presenting material that will inevitably have a pro-administration point of view is antithetical to the idea of an independent press."[125] There was speculation that the news service would publish pro-administration stories that would make Pence look good in the event of a presidential run.[126]

    "According to the Associated Press, the idea "of stories prewritten for the media set off a wave of criticism from journalists around the country, who likened the Indiana endeavor to state-run media in Russia and China. Headlines like 'Pravda in the Plains' accompanied calls for Pence to scrap the idea."[127] David A. Graham of The Atlantic regarded the announcement of JustIN as evidence of a disturbing changing trend in how the public gets news.[128] After a week or so of controversy about the idea, Pence scrapped the idea saying, "However well-intentioned, after thorough review of the preliminary planning and careful consideration of the concerns expressed, I am writing you to inform you that I have made a decision to terminate development of the JustIN website immediately."[129]"

    (My emphasis - more @ the URL)

    So - VP Pence is tempted to manage the news. That's a bad trend, & given the admin's apparent ongoing war with the US media, & the admin's apparent affection & admiration for KGB Lt. Col. & CIS Pres. V. Putin (16 years in the organs, a lifer) - I expect some kind of federal news bureau will shortly be in the works. Perhaps the subject of the next Executive Order?
     
  9. Gatewood

    Gatewood Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2013
    Messages:
    47,624
    Likes Received:
    48,666
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Excellent points, and I do not have the answer. But then it is not my job to have answers for major national issues. I say trust for a bit longer in economics factors and in capitalism and see what happens. Things might correct themselves for the better, and if they don't then corrective steps probably will come about. They in turn could be good or goofy. It's a wait and see situation.
     
  10. BillRM

    BillRM Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 8, 2016
    Messages:
    6,792
    Likes Received:
    1,704
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    The more I read threads like this one the firmer my opinion had become that we had reach the point where the US need to break up into at least two nations.
     
  11. Mr_Truth

    Mr_Truth Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2012
    Messages:
    33,372
    Likes Received:
    36,882
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    How Do We Fix the Media?



    we can start via a ban on the Fox network liars
     

Share This Page