Discussion»Questions»Communication» I remember the days when news broadcasts had to have a source or some kind of proof before reporting the news. What happened?
Those days are long gone. I remember when news anchors on major networks would chastise their colleagues on live television for getting the story wrong. Frank Reynolds of ABC comes to mind during the attempt on Reagan's life. News can now be described in two ways. As entertainment, or as promotion of the company's agenda.
Prior to reading your posts, I was reminded of the 1966 movie titled The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (and I was scared they might already be right here.)
What happened is that TV news became big business as more and more people tuned in so to attract more and more advertising dollars they made it more like entertainment and the content became tailored to compete with non-news programming for thrills and chills and drama and emotion. Then what happened is the network news departments became so well-funded and underwritten by advertising that they became very powerful and the networks realized they could use that power not just to report the news but to make the news. So the news became a means of affecting and shaping public opinion.
"Alternate facts" exist to demonstrate to us that not everything reported on the news is in fact true or a "fact" at all but often merely a "spin" on a partial fact. Which is a lesson we should have learned a long time ago. But politicians were too fearful of the news media to speak out about it until President Trump - who of course is able to be much more candid and personal about his beliefs since his election owed nothing to the news media or either major political party. Quite extraordinary really.
They've muzzled investigative journalism. Much easier to regurgitate what the establishment spoon feeds them.
This post was edited by Malizz at August 14, 2018 3:29 PM MDT
And there are others who digest the opposing propaganda to the point where they cannot comprehend or see that some of what they are calling propaganda is actually the truth...
Well Fox, Breitbart and several others sure don't fact check.. they just spout out and the more ridiculous and unbelievable it is the more people who watch that believe it..
A credentialed news outlet can now function solely as a source of political propaganda. Journalism 101 included a whole section on bias; "I think" has NO PLACE in a news report. The mainstream American media could disappear today and no one would be the worse for it. I hope that something big changes. I realize that a big part of the problem is that all the news Americans get come from only a couple of sources.........big corporations own multiple news outlets. That may be a good place to start change.
Benedict Arnold 