netta's political thoughts of the day

so, because i'm a journalist and i work in the
media, i bristle whenever i hear a reference to the "liberal media."
my view on all of this is that the majority of the media, particularly
television news, has actually become a mouthpiece for propaganda -
propaganda that is far from liberal.

what you see on tv news is usually a 30 second soundbite that doesn't ever deliver the entire story.

i enjoyed reading this piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/opinion/09herbert.html

and i found this comment on the piece to be quite poignant, and i agree with the poster:


Not to blame the media in the calculated and cynical way the
Republicans did during their convention, but it is hard to stand up to
the lies and illusions of the Right when the media insists all
arguments are equally valid and is so afraid of losing access that it
refuses to call a spade and spade and call out the transparency of the
lies politicians (of all parties) spew in order to be elected.


You saw this after the McCain campaign abused CNN for serious
questioning of its spokesman. The next day CNN fawned over McCain's
speech saying at one point it was more substantive that Obama's. It
wasn't until the next day when more rational minds dissected the speech
did it get reported that the speech was in fact virtually devoid of any
substantive policy positions and many of the "facts" cited were
completely fabricated.

The press has to get back to the task
of impartially observing and investigating the issues of the day. This
24/7 cycle of Jerry Springer where the most obnoxious and chronic liars
come out on top is a big part of the current lack of substantive
discourse in this country. And while the media organization bear a lot
of responsibility for this dereliction of duty, they couldn't get away
with this "reality journalism" if large portions of the public didn't
eat it up.

— David Stewart, New York, NY

while
i'm not fully in line with either party these days because i'm
frustrated with democrats for not standing up for themselves and for
the people of this country, and i'm irate with republicans for allowing
things to go the way they have ... i'm even more frustrated with the
way the media has remained in a cycle that has presented the
investigative journalism of days gone by.

i would like to
encourage those reading this blog to please pay attention to the
newspapers of the world, please listen to npr and the bbc, and please
watch cspan. fox news, cnn, and even msnbc are not giving you a
balanced or truthful idea of what is really going on because that can't
be delivered in 30 seconds.

it's much cooler to pay attention.

thank you for tuning in to netta's political thoughts for the day.

:)

/np