[Mind-numbed Robot]

Leadership, the philosophical tone that is set, comes from the top in all organizations. The underlings, in accordance with their own desire for self-preservation/advancement, generally fall in line with that tone.

In print journalism that would be the publisher, then the various editors, and then the actual "journalists", those who have the most to gain by pleasing the hierarchy.

The publisher should be motivated by profit, or at least be cognizant of it as a necessary byproduct, and in the beginning I am sure all were. As success gets passed from generation to generation, each existing on the financial success provided for them by their predecessors, the profit motive often gets lost, especially in today's environment of a move to the left that has been steadily building over the last 80+ years.

From there we get into the psychology of those who support lefist causes despite its history of suppression and failure and the phenomenal success of the system they are trying to replace, a constitutional republic practicing free enterprise.

It is easy to understand the selfish desires of the hardcore left whose ambition is power at any cost but they are the minority. Harder to understand are the useful idiots, a term that describes those who actually believe the lies of the hardcore and are the majority, the cannon fodder of the hardcore. That includes all who call themselves liberals, whether in or out of politics, and it certainly includes all Democrats (other than the few Zell Millers).

Also, rest assured that the hardcore left in other countries, and some like George Soros in this country, willingly provide the money to replace the profit needed to survive by some organizations.

Ted Turner is a good example of a useful idiot who inherited a fortune and, though he increased it, uses it to further his own downfall. The Sulzbergers are another example and there are many others.

Fortunately, the same thing, human nature, that makes free enterprise superior to other economic systems, is also what eventually brings down those other systems which try to suppress and replace it. That is what we are talking about here, human nature, and it is always the underlying constant.

As a result, the internet and talk radio are replacing the old media who have become so afflicted with the above.

However, we must be in constant combat with the left and their lies and tricks (election fraud). It is truly a battle between good and evil, lies and truth, freedom and slavery. That is true whether we are talking about the Democrats, the Communists, or the Muslim terrorists.

Your focus, cic, on the broadcast media is appropriate but that is is only one of their tools, although the most powerful tool available at the moment for influencing the masses.

In addition, they are turning our public education system into madrassas which produce non-thinking and ill informed adults who are predesposed to hate America and embrace socialism, the intermediary step toward tyranny. Trial lawyers and leftist politicians combine to cripple our industries, all for their own selfish reasons. The unions are a Communist structure by nature and exist for the benefit of the union leaders and to further cripple our industrial base and increase the costs of government. They and the trial lawyers a re also a rich source of funds for the leftist politicians.

If the Democrats regain power, you can rest assured they will come after the internet and talk radio under some guise of fairness. Their true purpose will be to regain control of the flow of information in order to silence dissent. It will be just a milder form of Saddam's cutting off tongues but it will have the same effect.

The Campaign Finance (so called) Reform was another step in that direction. Feingold pushed it because he is a leftist. McCain did it because he is selfish and is trying to triangulate himself into the presidency with the free help of the media. The final effect of the CFR is to empower the media as the power broker you describe.

[ForGod'sSake]

Wow! Mind-numbed you're not. Just an excellent rant that coincidentally connects many of the dots. Our faux press were socialist cheerleaders for most of the 20th century, becoming more emboldened during the second half once their "creds" were established. THAT has to be a story in and of itself -- how that happened. That is, how the liberal/leftist/socialist media came to dominance? Care to take a stab at it???

Excellent observations as usual cIc; thanks for the ping.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Your focus, cic, on the broadcast media is appropriate but that is is only one of their tools, although the most powerful tool available at the moment for influencing the masses.

Certainly the big newspapers are doing their worst, along with the other institutions you mention. But IMHO broadcast journalism is a unique case, in that

1. broadcast journalism is unquestionably the most powerful propaganda arm of the left, and
2. broadcast journalism, as the Clintonistas pointed out in the context of the ABC documentary on the lead in to 9-11, does not have First Amendment protection because broadcasting in general exists only because of censorship of those who do not have FCC licenses.

In principle, given a strict constructionist SCOTUS, it would only take a civil suit against the FCC and its licensees to drastically reduce the pernicious influence of broadcast journalism. Certainly there are ample examples which demonstrate that broadcast journalism is tendentious. The key is to convince SCoTUS that the example of the biased print journalism is irrelevant because print journalism, being unlicensed and indubiably protected by the First Amendment, sets no precedent at all for what broadcast journalism may or may not do.

Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate

Take a look - it's a thread I started shortly after 911, and have continued to update since then.