G Routine

The media, with its scandals, oversized personalities and power, has become an institution that people both revere and despise, often at the same time. I can barely stand to watch the local news, as it starts out with the crime report stating how many deaths occurred during a particular day. I tend to find the only tolerable part of the local news is the weather and sports. The only news show that seems worthy to view is the NBC nightly news with Brian Williams.

No longer is the news media a source for factual or intellectual information. Too often it's filled with conjecture, assumptions, accusations, and half truths. What happened to intellectual stories that inspire or challenge us to seek what's fundamentally right?

I have formed the opinion that aspects of our political system are broken, and mass media is partly to blame. The root problem, I fear, cannot be fixed in both mass media or politics, which is the necessity for generating revenue. There will never be enough money to get by and report or represent an unbiased opinion that can operate independently of the financial bottom line. Somehow, someway, they need to run as a non-profit organization.

Today, the most electable candidate for President is measured by how much money they've raised and not the position they hold on electoral issues. Upon the completion of the last Democratic debate the newscasters were trying to decide who 'won' like it was a Monday night football game. If any panel members tried to talk about differences in stance or on something of circumstance, the moderator would bring it back to a high school social status gossip level. Where is the correspondent that will dissect the education plans of Clinton and Obama? Who's plan is better and why? Not who slung the most mud and who kept their composure.

The media makes it seem like a race between the three candidates of Clinton, Obama and Edwards and hardly mention the likes of Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Christopher Dodd, or Bill Richardson. Why? Is it because the polls and media have them behind in the race? Why do the 'categorized' lessor nominees receive fewer questions during the debates?

Why are the Democratic Presidential Nominees being covered in the media more than the Republicans? Is it because the Republicans aren't holding as many debates? Or is it true, the media is run by a bunch of leftist liberals? I must not be watching enough FOX news.

It is a bitter marriage between politics and mass media. Each party hurts and help one another. The current administration uses the media to feed us misinformation while the media is too caught up in ratings promoting exciting drama and being first than taking the time to report accurate findings. It's become a wicked self serving cycle that somehow needs to be broken.

All of American broadcast media and most of the print media as well, are owned primarily by wealthy individuals. Direct ties to the biggest of big businesses are almost unbelievably extensive and these ties cannot help but seriously bias and compromise news coverage. Moreover, the media empires are, first and foremost, profit-making corporations that conduct themselves like other corporations when it comes to corrupting American politics. That is, the parent corporations of many make so-called "campaign contributions" and also act against the public interest in other ways. As big winners in the corruption game, they show no signs of serious interest in political reform.

Allegations of political bias in the media are common, although there is considerable controversy concerning the nature of this bias: neither liberals or conservatives are pleased. Conservatives allege that the media exhibit a liberal bias. On the other hand, liberals allege that the media exhibit a pro-corporate bias. The truth is that the apparent liberalism of some of the mass media is primarily cultural, and rarely economic. Like most other American institutions, the mass media advance the economic interests of the wealthy few at the cost of the interests, and values, of the majority; and the self-indulgent, empire-building interests of the wealthy few are not those of either liberals or cultural conservatives.

There is much change to be desired in American politics and mass media. How can it change? Hmm, we live in a democratic society right? Doesn't it come down to the will of the people? There within lies the problem. The will of the people to make more and more money has continually won over the will to change what is going wrong in American politics and mass media.

So I think it's safe to say this has been one of my more serious blogs in some time. Don't know exactly where it came from, but figure I gotta write something more interesting from time to time than being just self involved. Just to keep things light, check out the speech Stephen Colbert gave at the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 2006. It is so harsh of President Bush it hardly got any press except for the hundreds of thousands of people who saw it on Youtube. Youtube, who would have thought this internet site could truly be an unregulated source of free press.