The exact time of death is unknown, but it's official. Free Press is dead in America. Some date the death back to the late 80s / early 90s when the government allowed broadcasting corporations to become conglomerates, holding multiple TV stations, radio stations and print media companies at the same time. Other date it back to when broadcasting became more about profits than people.
My main concern is the death of real, informative, non-biased, fact-based news. Everything that is labeled as "news" now is either severely biased or almost entirely opinion based. What happened to reporting the facts? Where did all the hard-hitting journalists go? Where can the average person go to find news? And when did we re-define what the term "news" stands for?
This quote from Thomas Jefferson is sadly, no longer possible today.
"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure."
The government has allowed an oligopoly to happen through massive deregulation. If a news story doesn't fit the owner's agenda, it's refused, regardless of factual basis or not.
News is no longer about informing the masses, it's about controlling the masses, intentionally misinforming the masses and aquiring massive profits.
Follow me below the orange squiggle of freedom for more.
There are 5 major companies that own a vast majority of the media outlets in this country.
Comcast |
Time Warner |
Disney |
News Corp |
National Amusements |
All NBC |
All CNN |
All ABC |
All Fox |
All CBS |
History Channel |
Tru TV |
ESPN |
Nat Geo |
Comedy Central |
USA |
TBS |
Disney Channel |
FX |
MTV |
A&E |
TNT |
Lifetime |
TV Guide Channel |
VH1 |
* This is not a complete list, find more here, here and here *
Now, you may be asking yourself - that's great, we all knew that media is controlled by a select few, but what does it mean?
That's where I'm going next, so be patient. Over the past 30 years or so, the media has been concentrated down to 5 basic ownerships. Each conglomerate is either owned by a uber-rich old, white guy who is only interested in profits, or a group of stock-holders, who are only interested in profits. Notice the common thread there?
Providing accurate information and fact-based journalism used to be a public service. News programs used to be held to a different standard, in terms of profits and viewership, than say a primetime sitcom. So WTF happened? Mergers and acquisitions happened.
In 1983, there were 50 major players in the media world, who controlled a majority of the media outlets. In 1987, it shrank to 29. By 1990, it was down to 23. In 1997, it was only 10. And now, in 2012, we're down to 5.
Over the years, as the media players dwindled down, there have been multiple studies regarding the quality of journalism and the diversity of information. Things are not looking good, to say the least. Many political topics are now off-limits or heavily censored because they do not fit with with the parent/holding companies' views on the subject. This is massive media censorship, on a scale that this country has never seen. Having a free media, with quality journalism and diverse, factual information is absolutely crucial in maintaining a functioning and healthy democracy.
For far too long, the American people have been spoon-fed fluff garbage that the traditional television news media have been permitted to share with us. The local news anymore is only catering to the lowest common denominator. They constantly talk about Facebook, read Tweets on-air, have at least one cooking segment per hour and are constantly playing with their iPads while the cameras are rolling. This is no longer news. These are adults masquerading as teenage girls, just with less giggling.
The problem as I see it, is two pronged.
One is that, we as a nation, have gotten extremely lazy and detached from reality. We no longer seek out the truth, because it doesn't seem that important. Or we're just complacent, and don't care what the truth is. An average person has to actively seek out facts, consult multiple media outlets and mediums, compare facts and come to conclusion about what probably happened. This is a very time consuming process, but most of us, who value the truth and treasure reality, have become accustomed to it. It's almost second nature now, but it shouldn't be this hard to come by factual news.
The second problem is that the news corporations, their owners and stockholders know that if the masses knew all the facts, we probably wouldn't like them. We wouldn't like knowing that we've been intentionally misinformed and misled for decades. If the American people don't know the facts, how can we uprise or revolt against them?
The Free Press needs to be resuscitated. We've lived in an age of censorship and willful misformation for too long. We need to stop catering to the lowest common denominator. We need facts to make informed decisions and form valid opinions. How do we get fact-based news back, in the hands of the people, where it belongs?
Knowledge is power. Those that control the knowledge, the facts and the truth, control the power.
Side Note: the idea that the media has some liberal bias is utter non-sense. I want to scream everytime I hear this blatent piece of shit lie repeated. I wish the media did have a liberal bias. I wish I turned on the TV and heard Democratic talking points being regurgitated. But that will never happen as long as 5 ultra-wealth, profit-obsessed, censorship-crazy media conglomerates control our media.