MSM the Role of the Media

Discussion in 'Latest US & World News' started by drluggit, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 17, 2016
    Messages:
    30,990
    Likes Received:
    28,455
    Trophy Points:
    113
    MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski articulated something pretty concerning today. In a conversation on Morning Joe, Mika said:

    Controlling "exactly what people think" is the job of the media.

    https://news.grabien.com/story-brzezinski-our-job-control-exactly-what-people-think

    Wow. Who knew. That doesn't seem to be the purview of the media. Obviously, Mika doesn't understand the distinction between informing and "controlling". Likely, then, that is why so many Americans are so worried about the use of the MSM to accomplish Mika's stated goal.

    Perhaps this will form the basis of media review in the law, and become the distinction used to adjudicate a free and open press with those who would bastardize it for propaganda use by liberal hate groups.
     
  2. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2015
    Messages:
    31,455
    Likes Received:
    34,888
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I listen to the whole clip - yours is a pretty thin argument given the context of what she was saying.

    I think the main problem is that Entertainment shows, such as Fox News and MSNBC are regarded as "News" when in fact they are mainly Op Ed entertainment.
    Americans need to learn the difference.
     
  3. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 17, 2016
    Messages:
    30,990
    Likes Received:
    28,455
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Ah. I see. So when Morning Joe goes on, it's just "entertainment tonight" rebranded. Got it. I'm not sure that Mika et al, or Scarborough would agree with your assessment, but it's valuable to know just the same.:roflol:
     
  4. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2008
    Messages:
    46,674
    Likes Received:
    26,230
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I love these unexpected fits of "progressive" candor.

    When you consider that the only things progs care about are power and control, it's natural that they would see and use the media as a tool for controlling what people think. Of course, they do this in a variety of ways, by selecting what information and opinion/propaganda they provide the public, manipulating language to shape debates, creating narratives, etc..

    The good news is that the Internet has shattered the Legacy MSM's monopoly on information, commentary and opinion, and I think this has contributed to the declining political fortunes of "progressives" over the past 10 years. The LW MSM's post-election meltdown hasn't helped the"progressive" cause, either. The public sees through their lack of objectivity, fake news and manufactured narratives, and they're not impressed:

     
  5. glloydd95

    glloydd95 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2010
    Messages:
    1,919
    Likes Received:
    424
    Trophy Points:
    83
    After reading this post it might be helpful for you to learn the difference as well.
     
  6. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2008
    Messages:
    46,674
    Likes Received:
    26,230
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Her words are crystal clear:

    She didn't leave a lot of room for interpretation there.

    ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and CNN are no different than FNC and MSNBC in that respect. Bias is baked into all the networks - there's no getting around it.
     
  7. Latherty

    Latherty Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2008
    Messages:
    5,989
    Likes Received:
    489
    Trophy Points:
    83
    We all do. You should see what passes for journalism in Nigeria, and I'm quite sure that poor quality journalism is permissive of corruption. Its too easy to deflect criticism by throwing a dead cat on the table.
    What we need is a verifying agent. Not to say whether something is right or not, but a "truthiness" scale. Like 100% is 1+1 = 2, because it can be empirically tested. The existence of Henry VIII is 95% because we have so many independent documented sources. The existence of Jesus Christ is 60% etc etc.
    A venue for many arguments, I'm sure, but something we could refer to in short-hand.
     
  8. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 17, 2016
    Messages:
    30,990
    Likes Received:
    28,455
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Are you really sure that this would help? I mean even using the absolute values in mathematics, folks are still unable to derive their actual meaning. Let's use the case of the 97%. Folks trot out that number like it means something that it does not. For example. That 97% represented an imperfect sampling of some studies, but wasn't representative of all studies, and worse, was only reflective of the number of studies that "agreed" to a standard, even though the majority of studies did not, in this case 62% of all studies. But, what we remember is the "truthiness" of the 97% number. The fact that that 97% only represented at best 35% of the pool gets lost.

    The insane thing about what Mika said today is the veracity with which, and the ease with which it was both delivered, and accepted by the panel. Seriously, the expectation that folks like Mika expect that what she spoon feeds out is what must become the group think of the nation is beyond tyrannical. I expect that for liberals, this is a yawning moment, because long ago they lost the ability to critically think for themselves. I understand this is the gap that perpetuates their ilk. But for those of us who do utilize critical thought, the idea that someone like Mika could for any reason assert enough credibility to become the arbiter of truth is beyond acceptable. She plays the part of the inquisitor in medieval Spain. Torturing us with her logic, and oppressing us with her tyranny.
     
  9. Sampson Simpon

    Sampson Simpon Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2017
    Messages:
    455
    Likes Received:
    206
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Gender:
    Male
    The reality, all media is owned by the super rich, and giant corporations. So they are all involved in distracting people and selling them BS while the rich rob this country. Sadly some stations even brainwash the people into openly supporting and defending the robbing of this country. The facts don't like, the wealth has been redistributed over the past 40 years to the top, and the rest of the middle and lower class in this country suffer.

    Yet amazingly, what do many people want to do? Double down on the same policies that let the rich rob us. Let's cut benefits to people struggling, give tax breaks to the people that have most of the wealth, deregulate everything so not only can these people make more money, they can destroy the environment and screw people over at will.

    So this "oh the media/science/universities are liberal" is just a bunch of garbage. Facts are liberal. The media, owned by billionaires and corporations, are not liberals
     
  10. Greystone

    Greystone Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2014
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    37
    Trophy Points:
    18
    The Media Crisis in this country is in large part fueled by a complete breakdown of what the definition of "news" is.

    Bill O'Reilly giving his opinion on an issue is NOT news.
    Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski framing a story with their biases is NOT news.
    Rachel Maddow delivering a monologue after showing a headline is NOT news.

    All of this is commentary, and commentary has been mixed with reporting and entertainment to create a mutated definition of news that everyone seems to rage over.

    The job of the reporter is to report what has actually happened. It might not seem that exciting to 21st century Hollywood sensibilities, but in societies where the powers that be actively try to prevent people from knowing the truth, it is a revolutionary profession just to report what happened. It's one thing to report that a police commissioner covered up cases of brutality, it is another thing to say that the police commissioner covered up cases of brutality and then add on the opinion that this is reflective of police culture being steeped in racism. This is conflating facts with opinions but together they are often passed on as "news" and depending on your political views you will love one set of sources and hate others for the different ways in which they conflate facts and opinions.

    What many people hate about the media nowadays is that there seems to be no effort to avoid conflating facts and opinions while at the same time the media tries to perpetuate this facade that they are objective, impartial, and unbiased. No network is unbiased; biases even come across in the simple headlines networks use. Take the case of immigration. One network uses the term "illegal immigrant" another uses "undocumented immigrant", just from the way they phrase things you can tell what kind of biases the reporting contains. Bias also comes across in what stories networks choose to cover and ones they refuse to cover, in many ways this can be the most influential form of bias, and this can upset people the most and remains one of the reasons the media is so despised.
     
  11. Latherty

    Latherty Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2008
    Messages:
    5,989
    Likes Received:
    489
    Trophy Points:
    83
    Well it can't SOLVE the problem. We desperately need independent fact checking, but I wouldn't like to see anyone declaring that something is absolutely true or not true.

    I cant think of any better system. What we currently have is a free-for-all and its ineffective
     
  12. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2008
    Messages:
    46,674
    Likes Received:
    26,230
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    LOL - How delightfully Orwellian.

    Facts are facts, they're not liberal.

    As for the Leftist MSM, it may not be liberal in the classical sense of the word but it is Leftist. So are a lot of rich people and corporate heads. Not only do they promote "progressive" causes, they sink enormous amounts of money into them and the parties that promote them. Some of them, like the faaaaaabulous Clooneys, host fundraisers where rich people can rub elbows with one another and donate to the campaigns of rich "liberal" Democrats.
     
  13. Zorro

    Zorro Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2015
    Messages:
    76,435
    Likes Received:
    51,251
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Don Lemon Is a Trainwreck Swallowed by a Black Hole

    [video=youtube;4kFpdcPWfO8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kFpdcPWfO8&feature=youtu.be[/video]
     
  14. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 17, 2016
    Messages:
    30,990
    Likes Received:
    28,455
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Poor Don. He has a tough job. He has to apologize and dissemble for his plantation. Disgusting, really.
     
    Zorro likes this.
  15. Homer J Thompson

    Homer J Thompson Banned

    Joined:
    Dec 6, 2016
    Messages:
    2,583
    Likes Received:
    1,901
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Rules 20 and 21 from the communist playbook:
    20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
    21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures.
     
  16. Mircea

    Mircea Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2015
    Messages:
    4,075
    Likes Received:
    1,212
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I would like to see exactly that happen.

    It's fraudulent misrepresentation for news media to claim they are presenting facts, when it's really grotesque bigotry. .
     
  17. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2008
    Messages:
    46,674
    Likes Received:
    26,230
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I'm rather amused at how some of the talent that works for those networks actually try to mislead the public about their bias. I should be offended that they would insult people's intelligence like that, but they don't come out looking rather bright or honest when they propagate that lie.

    By the way, I noticed that you're flying a Romanian flag and your nickname/handle is "Mircea". Would that name happen to be in reference to one of Vlad Țepeș' family members, such as Mircea cel Bătrân?
     
  18. Mircea

    Mircea Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2015
    Messages:
    4,075
    Likes Received:
    1,212
    Trophy Points:
    113
    If it would be up to me, there'd be some kind of Truth in Media Law. Set special high standards for the right to claim to be "news" media.

    My grandmother called me that as a nickname, which I use on different forums. My grand-parents immigrated from Romania in 1935.
     
  19. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2008
    Messages:
    46,674
    Likes Received:
    26,230
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    When you consider how any other private business that misrepresents a product they're selling can be sued or prosecuted for false advertising, that proposal isn't as unreasonable as some people might think.

    Thanks - I was wondering if it was your name/nickname or a reference to a historical figure. I've been reading books about Eastern European History lately and I've run across quite a few Mirceas, which is why I asked.
     

Share This Page