Orson Scott Card: Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? (Devastating)

Meridian Magazine ^ | Orson Scott Card

[thesearethetimes...]

He is that most rare, and mythical of creatures, a rational Democrat.

[Artemis Webb]

OK...NOW I’ll buy his books !

[new cruelty]

B to the U to the M to the P

[Oatka]

These people went into journalism with an agenda.

About five years ago a newspaperman polled local (AZ) Journalism students as to whether they thought their job was to just report the facts or to shape public opinion. Over half said it was the latter. It's probably about 90% now (there are still a few good ones left but they are a dying breed).

[Steely Tom]

If freedom is to survive, and it isn’t clear to me that it will, I think that conservatives have to begin working together, buying media outlets, and giving opportunities for the small handful of objective,honest journalists out there to work.

Can't happen.

Media outlets owned by conservatives would be frozen out by all sources on the left, including every source connected to the Democrat party. They would quickly be attacked as "right-wing propaganda" sources, and would go out of business. They would be forced out of business by standard, traditional liberal MSM organizations.

This phenomenon is, I believe, a form of something called "the tragedy of the commons," which, according to Wikipedia, is defined as follows:

"...a dilemma in which multiple individuals acting independently in their own self-interest can ultimately destroy a shared resource even where it is clear that it is not in anyone's long term interest for this to happen."

The problem is with the business model under which the traditional media operates in our society. This model is under great stress, and will have to change radically in order to survive. Unless it can be rescued by the power of government, which is what Obama is going to try do do.

[Major Matt Mason]

The media is probably the biggest enemey to freedom that exists today. They hold themselves up as protectors of the American way of life, but they have absolutely nothing in common with most Americans. At this point, they are simply the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party, which was pointed out in the article. The good news is that the media is going the way of the dodo, hopefully to the point where they'll bcome powerless by the time of the next election. But this cycle is a lost cause because the GOP has no idea how to fight back, even after all these years of being dumped on by the media.

[yoe]

"...“Katie, you ignorant..."

Keep on dreaming, it's worth the chuckle.....then who knows, could happen.

[wastoute]

By “The One’s” 2nd term there will no longer BE anyone questioning his policies or priorities.

[KAUAIBOUND]

Wasn’t the true reason that the Watergate breakin occurred was that John Dean wanted to remove comprimising information about his wife’s activities as the Heidi Fleiss of Washington? I vaguely remember Gordon Liddy going ballistic about this when it was finally revealed in the early ‘90s.

[Carlucci]

OSC bump and bookmark for later reading.

[P-Marlowe]

BTTT

[Tolik]

I pinged the OSC list here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2102442/posts

But, it can’t be too much of Orson (IMHO, of course)

[Tax-chick]

Do you have any standards at all?

No.

Do you even know what honesty means?

No.

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

Yes. In fact, getting people to vote for Barack Obama is more important than *anything* else.

[Skooz]

bump

[Born Conservative]

bttt

[MakesYouGoHmm]

You probably didn’t realize he was a Democrat because he’s not. Orson Scoot Card is a conservative Mormon. Meridian (where the original article is posted) is a LDS / Mormon magazine.

Still some good points in the article though.

[af_vet_rr]

A free press left unchecked leads to all sorts of interesting outcomes. Much like unrestrained capitalism where greed and shortsightedness create bubbles and destruction.

The bigger problem is that they are 100% profit driven and our society now has a short attention span as a whole. You end up with CNN, Faux News, MSNBC, etc., all pushing sensationalism in the guise of journalism. They don't want to report about the real news, they'd rather drum up controversy (CNN) or try and scare you (Faux) or try and get you focused on some Hollywood airhead (all of them).

[Darnright]

Bump to read later

[madinmadtown]

I have heard the same thing. The explanation made a lot of sense regarding John Dean’s behavior during and after the Watergate trial. He was such a weak and compromised man. It makes me wonder if there wasn’t more to his story than just trying to protect his wife. I think that he probably had some other aspects of his own life that he didn’t want made public.

[NonLinear]

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