Posted on 11/23/2007 6:07:22 PM PST by Kaslin
Thomas Jefferson once said, "The only security of all is in a free press." As a former newspaper reporter, I believe in a news media free from censorship. At their best, the news media help promote our democracy.
Like many Americans, though, I am increasingly concerned about a bias in the mainstream news media. To me, there is a significant liberal slant in news reporting that prevents the American people from getting facts about critical issues facing our country. Without facts, Americans cannot make informed decisions about issues, and our democracy is threatened.
Evidence of unfair reporting is abundant. In 2004, a UCLA study found that 18 of 20 major news outlets scored to the left of the average American voter, while just two scored to the right of the average voter. Since the combined viewership and circulation of these liberal-leaning news outlets far exceeds that of conservative-leaning media, Americans get the vast majority of their news from left-of-center sources.
The results of the UCLA study are troubling but not surprising, especially since there is also evidence that journalists tend to sympathize with liberal points of view in their personal lives.
A recent MSNBC investigation examined campaign contributions made by journalists from 2004 through the start of the 2008 election cycle. Out of 144 journalists from around the country, 125 gave to Democrats and liberal groups, just 17 gave to Republicans and conservative groups, and two gave to both parties.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
IMO we don’t have a free press. What would happen if a reporter presented a positive story that put conservatives in a good light?
What we have is the making of a Revolution or becoming a Communist country.
His/her editor would kindly reject the story, after a few attempts to 'correct' the reporter's thinking .. make a mental note about said reporter, and ultimately fire him or her for 'poor performance' or 'failure to maintain the standards of XYZ corporation'.
Just because they’re Rat activists doesn’t mean they can’t be objective.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Either way, the internet must be protected.
Bingo! I was going to post a question: What can we do about it? But you already answered it.
What can be done? Little if anything. Those who buy the advertising only desire their product to be sold. There is nothing wrong with this attitude during a time of peace, but during a time of war, as America finds herself in, those who pay for the advertising would prefer Americans not be told pointed information. The desire is to keep the American public, fat, dumb, and buying the product of the advertiser. Again, there would be nothing wrong with this attitude during a time of peace.
America is being assailed on multiple fronts. Yet the media ignores, most of the time, those fronts. There is the threat created, and the very real loss of lives, which when ignored grant the advertisers a means to say, "All is well, buy our products to make each one of you happy."
I am not against commerce, but I am for truth in advertising. If slave labor created the garment, tell the People. If people are being brought into America to drive down the wages at factories, tell the People. If people are infiltrating our government to steal, tell the People. If corporations are lying, and profits come first before the harm done by a corporation, tell the People. But I am dreaming, for to tell the People the truth would mean the advertisers of many products would pull their advertising and go to someone else who would tell the People lies.
Our political leaders operate in much the same manner, in our time. Lies are as plentiful as the sands of an hour glass. Lies are more profitable than the truth, and if one is murdered, why not make that story the lead story, so more profits can be attained. America is at a crossroad. Many times in our History, America has been at a similar crossroad. Each time that crossroad brought death and destruction, no matter the path taken. I pray this time the truth will shine and the death and destruction part will only be an illusion and not a part of our future History...mho
Out of curiosity, which two and how was this determined?
Come on, people. When you spout idiocies like “There is no free press in America,” you are part of the problem! Stop being ignorant and learn something.
“Free press” refers to the government — the GOVERNMENT — passing laws that prohibit publishing whatever the hell you want to publish. Got it?
Now, if you take Civics 101 and learn to spell, perhaps there’s hope yet for you.
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.
Would you mind if I laugh...or would that get me fired?
Swinton was a smart guy.
The reporter goes down and checks it out, and reports back to the editor, "bogus". The editor runs the story any way.
The photos turned out to be from a rape-fantasy porn site in Eastern Europe, and some were actually published in the early editions of the Glob.
Hey that’s a good writeup of how a doorknob works, Technical Writer...However we are not talking about doorknobs, but the MSM trying to indoctrinate Americans with their left leaning views..We reject their leftist viewpoints and we want a more objective media, a free press that wil report viewpoints from both sides of the political spectrum..If they do not wake up, the MSM will slowly die off and that will leave the Internet as the only avenue of communication with forums, news outlets and blogs from left to write, since even the TV networks are heavily biased left. You see, one small group of people cannot control the internet- it is free and open now and will continue to be...don’t even let the Congress or anyone try and restrict freedom of speech on the Internet !...Now—how do you assemble a bicycle if 3 or 4 key parts are missing ?...ahh...drill new holes..Of course !
Where did you find this info?
oops...write = right...must be a righter at heart
Ignorance is not funny. When people complain there is no free press in America, they are showing their utter lack of awareness of what a free press is.
Again, ignorance is not funny.
If you want to argue that existing publishers do not publish objective stories, fine, but don’t whine “There’s no free press.” You want to publish something — go a-fricken-head and publish. Nobody will stop you. THAT’s what a free press is.
“The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes....”
So Swinton is saying that paid journalists are slaves to their press editors and owners eh ?...That’s why the Internet works as a better forum for the Truth- we are not paid...um, but some of us do our best work at night...:-)
You do not have the right to tell someone else what to publish. A newspaper is a business, and the business owner, as long as she or he doesn’t violate the law, isn’t told what to publish or not publish.
You want objective news? Don’t read the papers that don’t give it to you and do read the ones that do — or start your own newspaper? You really have no right whatsoever to demand that others be a certain way. They have a right to be idiotic and wrong. You have no right to demand that they smarten up. You can try to educate them, but you cannot claim there’s no free press. YOU have the freedom to open your own press. Nobody will stop you. That’s what freedom of the press means. It just means nobody is going to throttle you. Odd, though, that you want to throttle others in the name of “freedom.”
Freedom means the right to be obnoxious, wrong, idiotic, annoying, stupid, and smarmy. But I don’t want US to be that, which is why I scream at you. I hope you realize that I scream in love....
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