Waking up this morning, I thought about this portion of the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer interview:
JS: But there are literally shows called "Fast Money."
JC: I think that people...There’s a market for it and you give it to them.
JS: There’s a market for cocaine and hookers. What is the responsibility of the people who cover Wall Street? Who are you responsible to?
Isn't there a market for honest journalism as well?
What if people put their money behind a 24 hour news network which had actual reporters working for them. Investigative reporters that would go out and uncover the truth. Reporters that wouldn't be afraid to ask the powerful tough questions.
From Huffington Post here is a portion of the John King interview with Dick Cheney:
And even when King did bring out data to refute Cheney's spin, he repeatedly undercut the impact by distancing himself from the hard, cold facts that he was quoting. Check out this master's class in how an "objective" journalist can act as if there is no objective reality (mealy-mouthed qualifiers in bold):
KING: There are people I assume watching this interview right now, and people in this town who would say, why should we listen to you? And they would say that because of the context of the Bush administration numbers.
They would say, you know, what did you do when you were in charge? And they have some numbers to back up their case. And I want to show some to our viewers. When you came to office, the unemployment rate in the country was 4.2 percent, when you left it was 7.6 percent. The number of Americans in poverty when you arrived: just under 33 million, over 37 million when you left. The number without health insurance: a little over 41 million when you came, over 45 million approaching 46 million when you left. And you came with a budget surplus of $128 billion and in the final year, the budget deficit was a record $1.3 trillion.
So what would you say to someone out there watching this who is saying, why should they listen to you?
"There are people..." "They would say..." "And they have some numbers to back up their case."
These are not some numbers that belong to some people being trotted to make their case. These numbers are actual data -- empirical evidence. It would be as if King were interviewing a flat-earther and asked him: "There are people on this planet, watching this interview right now, who would say that the earth is round. And they have some pictures taken from outer space to back up their case. So what would you say to someone out there who is saying that?"
What has been happening in the MSM is exactly why blogs are doing so well. From the internet we are allowed some semblance or "truth" and "reality". Perhaps "truth" can never be obtained but we can damned well do better than what we've been getting from CNN, FOX, and MSNBC.
I include MSNBC because they suffer from the same sickness as the rest of the journalistic world. Note how the Stewart-Cramer interview was mentioned a handful (2-3?) times the next day. Notice how the ICRC Torture Leak wasn't mentioned at all yesterday (though perhaps today??).
If a network employed journalists to compete with the hacks currently employed by these networks could they not outcompete them? There is a market for the truth the likes of which have rarely been seen in America. We know we've been lied to and those lies have nearly destroyed our country. How can we, in the Republic of ours, have freedom without information. The News networks have lost all credibility so where do we get information?
As someone aptly said, blogs are no replacement for real journalism. They mostly accumulate knowledge from news sources and comment on them. We desperately need a counter to the current MSM one that does not deceive and mislead the people. I'm certian that when faced with such a network CNN will be shown to be no better than FOX news and people will wonder how they ever consumed so much garbage.
We can easily see FOX for what it is because CNN and MSNBC exist. We can remember that the news doesn't have to be so biased and misleading. What we don't see is how terrible CNN really is because there exists nothing better. We can do so so much better and there is a market for it.
I am just a poor young man without the means to finance such a news network. I am certain that either indivudually or collectively someone can mount a challenge to these guys because A) there is money to be made and B) our country desperately needs it.