The Decline of The American Media
Frank A. Jones
The American media is only a shadow of its former self that once was trusted, feared, and would provocatively question the high and mighty in power about the use of that power and the veracity of their words in the face of conflicting evidence or flat uncertainty. That media in its strength exposed McCarthyism and the lies of Richard Nixon as he arrogantly said that he was not a crook.
That media has long since died, but it has been born again as mass media-lite and mass-media polemic. As lite it is too polite and timid to ask adequate and thoughtful questions of the high and mighty; since its embeddedness with the government in Iraq it has succumbed to a total government makeover away from hard news to printing press releases and accepting spin as if it has no political agenda. Mass media-lite is much like a young shamefaced girl coming out to proper society for the first time and she is too uncertain of herself and too shy to pose questions that would breach an agreed to civility.
Mass media-polemics, on the other hand, is a type of Fox News broadcast that has little to do with news and much to do with supporting a right wing political agenda for the nation that sings the songs of the White House and preaches all the songs' lyrics as though they were the gospel of Christ. These bombastic men are unconcerned about balanced news or news at all, so they rail at society with polemics as if their off key notes were harmony.
These two modes of American news make the truth seem out of place and out of date nowadays, if objective and skeptically reported news can be found. The major news media has been bought up by rich polemicists and corporations who see the same blueprint for profit--go along and get along with those in power; don't rock the boat.
In America, much of what we see as news is what the government now states news items to be, and those items becomes news. Not news of the government's credibility but a direction for the news media's hound dogs to write lengthy talking-head expert pieces. Incessantly, the media interviews former and present governmental officials or those enamored of the government; that becomes much like a dog chasing its tale. The government announces it and the media goes to the government to verify its own story. The media has allowed itself to become a pone in the government's game of spin and counter spin.
News is not set by the events that occur in society but what the government says is news. The media, even in the midst of clear distortions and self-servicing reports, tinged with all types of political Machiavellianism, will not vigorously inquire of a governmental official or counter him/her with conflicting facts, lest that reporter not be allowed back to another press conference, not get another press release, or for whatever the fear is. This government-mastered media has become a lapdog to high government and Republican Party officials just like the Communist Party officials once mastered and controlled and used their media.
Now, if there is any media organization that probes for serious news and ask the hard questions media should ask, especially of their governmental officials, it is the BBC and a few other smaller news media that has a less than broad readership or viewership. The major American media is still in bed with the government, cowed down under by the government's pronounced war on terror--the great coverall phrase! And at the few press conferences that are given, those who report ask few substantive questions so that no real news is ever evinced from the government's press affairs. The event is just one press release being issued from US Government leaders, and, of course, if they say their press releases are news, the media merely says, "Amen" in some cult of religious acceptance. That is how low the American media has sunk.
Also, the American media seems to love government news and war, especially war, which is also a factor of government. Most of the news reported is what the government says and does. Why is there such an obsession with the government?
We may not be able to figure out why the American mass media is so favorably obsessed with the government, but we can clearly see that the obsession has bred a media bias for the government. And that bias is bad for objective news reporting. For now, the way the US government goes, so goes the US media behind it or directed by it because the American media is still embedded with the government. And that means they see only through the government's eyes--a government that has lied and continues to lie to its own people on things crucial to the safety and well being of its people and on things that will bankrupt this nation--a needless trillion dollar war in Iraq, governmental corruption, violations of the law, etc.
Where is the skeptical and questioning media of Richard M. Nixon day that did the nation a service by not accepting fluff answers to serious questions? By and large, they have gone to sleep while being embedded and never woke up.
