What the Corporate News Industry Won't Ever Tell Its Audience
By Thom Hartmann A...
We were watching the TV at the airline departure area.
"Is it a terrorist incident?" Wolf Blitzer asked. Nobody knows, was the apparent answer.
"Something's happened to the news," a woman around my age at the DC airport, said to Louise and me. "I don't know what it is, but we used to actually know a lot of detail about a lot of things going on, 30 years ago, and now it seems like all the media does is focus on one or two stories all day long and I feel like I'm uninformed."
"Like eating junk food?" I said.
"Yeah, exactly. Empty calories. Why doesn't the news give me the news?"
Louise and I were sitting in front of a TV watching CNN, which was doing hour-long (perhaps day-long?) coverage of a possible terrorist incident in London (turned out it was a traffic accident). Louise shook her head. "Now you've got him started," she said.
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Comments
#2
I have to disagree with Thom. Of course if you are on the left you will be disappointed because you used to own the news. Fox changed that, they give us the other side. I like to watch both MSNBC and Fox because the same event sounds completely different on the different channels. Watch them both a choose what you believe. FOX at least will always put a guest from the left and right together at least there is some debate. MSNBC never does. Hard to argue with yourself and loose i guess. But lets face it none of these are news channels. They are option magazines. The real news I get from sites like this where people debate each other.
#3
I never realized that the world stops when some idiot bit of "NEWS" is playing over and over. All they want is the ratings. Good thing there still are genuine sources like you Thom, Norman Goldman, Bill Press and others.
#4
Isn't it amazing, but not surprising, that conservatives think that the so called mainstream media is left wing and that Fox is the only place to get the view of the right. Doesn't it ever occur to them that maybe Fox is actually an extremist hard right, fascist, bunch of lying, greedy, sadistic, racist pigs? But apparently, anything even an iota to the left of that is a bunch of anti-American commies. Even though virtually all of the so called mainstream media belongs to or is controlled by the richest corporatists in the world.
Also, it never occurs to them that most of the current crop of Republicans won't go on Rachel Maddow and other left leaning shows on MSNBC because they can't standup to the scrutiny of being held accountable for their answers, that are never followed up on, on Fox. In other words, they can't risk being exposed for the lying, racist, fascists that they are. Therefore they will only go on Fox news like their dear leader, President "Fuckin' Moron," where the questions are more to their liking.
#5
Right-on stopgap!
#6
Yeah, thank god Thom's back. I've had to take my rage out on puppies and kittens and those dang puppies and kittens beat me up every time! Maybe I'll take karate lessons.
#7
You know the world is in deep trouble when it's so called leader is a Breitbart, Bannon, Alex Jones, Foxaganda devotee, one who constantly complains about all other news being fake..... that's pretty firm evidence that he's a totally delusional and credulous moron.
Truth is not a matter of opinion, nor is it for distortion and manipulation to benefit a few at the expense of the many. It's not a matter of hearing from "both sides" either....Our civil war had two sides, and guess what, one side was just plain wrong. It's no different now.
There are many Kends out there, and they all refuse to admit they're drinking the foxaganda Kool aid and thus easily mislead, even after the most obvious in your face example of being lied to, repeal and replacement of the ACA. My god what will it take to admit who is for and who is against your best interests?
Manipulation of the corpse media has long been the primary weapon the Fascists have used to subvert our democracy. Money is power and that power is about to lead us to a hell never before known.....I'm certain. Sorry!
#8
Right on!! 10K. Foxaganda is the the best I've heard yet. The difference between propaganda and Foxaganda is; propaganda at least pretends to be the truth and usually relies on a bit of truth. Foxaganda, doesn't even pretend to be true but relies on the obsequiousness of racist, greedy paranoids to validate their insecurities and their medieval obsession to be ruled by someone they want to believe is a descendant of god.
#9
Good topic. Let's hear more from Kend, Diane and OU812 and any other right wing trolls out there. My previous studies of Fox is that right wingers do not care if it lies. It says what they want to hear and that is comforting to them. Comfort is more important than truth.
#10
A riddle:
Trump is a moron. Is that news or fake news?
Neither, it's common knowledge.
#11
Maybe the corporate news won't tell us why all the pigeons seem to have left the area. There have been no pigeon sighting reports on the show lately, have they all left for good? Oddly enough, Thom relocates almost simultaneously along with them. Hmmm.... what's going on here? All this while odd noises patterns coming from Cuba. Could this be some type of calling?
#12
Tell us what Networks are currently on cable or over the airwaves are pushing the conservative agenda?
#13
I am 60 and I remember the competitive news that brought down president Nixon. After the single term of Carter (our last human president), following Ford, there seemed to be a conscious coordinated corporate effort to stop the type of competitive journalism that could bring down government itself - the tool of the Corporatocracy.
It was the people's interest in what they would normally not know about government which drove the news to bring out the truth about the Nixon presidency.
That interest seems to be, for the most part, gone.
#14
Off topic:
If, as you say, voting rolls are public, obtain last year's roll and note those no longer on the latest roll. The missing names were dropped for one reason or another.
#15
I would like to Thank Stopgap for his fantastic comments . Those were just about right out of my mouth.
#16
Which one doesn't belong?
Legend, Stopgap, 2950-10K or a box of worn out door knobs.
Answer:
While all are washed up and of equal intelligence. The box of worn out door knobs clearly doesn't belong. Unlike the other morons, a box of worn out door knobs doesn't post stupid comments. :)
#17
So is this site avoiding the current news...like Hillary drooling all over Harvey Weinstein as so many pic's show? Anyone who hasn't seen the Pic's must be deaf,dumb & blind!
snip from another article......
These were the most popular films in the nation when Stephen Paddock when on his killing spree firing down on a concert crowd with what police say were automatic weapons.So just four movies -- Kingsman: Golden Circle, American Assassin, It and Mother! -- featured 589 incidents of violence, including 212 incidents of gun violence. The total body count of the four was at least 192. At least 108 times, some kind of automatic weapon was used. Those guns fired so many rounds, so rapidly, an accurate tally of shots or even shooters was impossible. To underscore that point, the Kingsman trailer was so filled with violence it is difficult to tally. This 1 minute 56 second clip shows four scenes of characters deploying several different automatic weapons, as well as pistols, a lasso and rockets. These were the most popular films in the nation when Stephen Paddock when on his killing spree firing down on a concert crowd with what police say were automatic weapons. Four days later, when Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein still thought he could bluster through a deluge of sexual abuse allegations, he declared he would “need a place to channel my anger. So I’ve decided I’m going to give the NRA my full attention.”It was the perfect Hollywood ploy -- target the guns, not the media companies that feed them to Americans in endless streams of bloodshed.These latest numbers from American movies give the lie to Weinstein’s faux outrage and the entertainment media’s scapegoating tactic: complain about lax gun laws, demonize the National Rifle Association and never accept the possibility that Hollywood’s glamorization of guns and violence has anything to do with the latest mass-shooting.What happened did some truth sneak out?
#18
Kend , you think the Left "used to own the news" , until Fox came along. Two things, first is that before the birth of Progressive radio around 2000, talk radio was monopolized exclusively by the Right. Second, you contradict your first point, by later adding that "none of these are news channels". Sure, Fox stages debates, but their craftfully slanted, usually outnumbered by aggresive Fox commentators. Fox supported the most radical (Trump), MSNBC did not (Clinton over Sanders), showing that the media center to the Right of the people.
#19
Apparently the malcontent leftie/socialists are flummoxed.
"Tell us what Networks are currently on cable or over the airwaves are pushing the conservative agenda?"
Hint: the only one has three letters in its name and ends with an X.
Please tell us all how everyone in America is forced to watch **X and nothing else.
Now, should we list the leftie leaners?
#20
I watched CNN for years until things like this started happening....
CNN Reporter Quits After Network Denies Him Time Off To Deal With Post-Traumatic Stress From Iraq War
http://www.businessinsider.com/cnns-guy-in-iraq-michael-ware-has-left-th...
That's back when they had reporters instead of Don the Lemon.
notice no news stations report on war any more.
#21
Hollywood Should Never Lecture America Again
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and producer Harvey Weinstein attend the TIME 100 Gala,
http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/12/hollywood-should-never-lecture-america...
don't they look happy together?
#22
HotCoffee,
Hillary should look comfortable hanging with a sex offender. He has lived with one for 42 years.
#23
It sure got quiet here when we showed up.
This doesn't even count Anthony Weiner....sure is a lot of scandels for a nothingburger.
Impossible to believe Hillary knows nothing....also her laughing about defending the rapist of a young girl.
I won't even go there with the Podesta thing.
At some point even the Libs have to admit it one coincidence too many.
It's really really sad.
#24
Aunt Clara with her door knobs. Maybe you two can be friends?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6c/c3/7b/6cc37bc8deee73cf595dc908737c7e5a.jpg
#25
Bachmann,, is that all you got? Really?
#26
Dianereynolds: We already know that around 95% of political radio shows are extreme right-wing, so no sense in going there. However, turn off your Foxaganda and check out CBS, NBC, and ABC News along with their political talk shows....you would never know the Democratic party even exists. Sure they might talk about Crooked Donny being crooked, but never a word about what the progressive Dems want to do for, "We the People," things the vast majority already want such as single-payer, raise the cap, green energy, assault weapons control, tax the extremely rich, labor union support, bankster regulations, environmental regulations, you name it. .....basically Bernie and the progressive Dems want to legislate agianst the greed that is concentrating wealth and ripping this country apart. ...a well kept secret the Fascists will suppress at all expense.
#27
Your point is well taken The top political talk shows are conservative, in fact there appears to be little demand for leftie radio. If there was and it was profitable it would have been sponsored by a billionaire leftie or certainly a major left leaning network years ago. Fact is, no one wants to listen the the constant whining and repetitiveness that is leftie/socialist talk shows. Listenership is tiny and leftie sponsors show no interest in paying for ads.
Now on the major television networks. Again you are correct. Your agenda is not spoken of on the national news. Instead, they spend most of their time bashing Trump or the Republicans and your agenda "We the People," things the vast majority already want such as single-payer, raise the cap, green energy, assault weapons control, tax the extremely rich, labor union support, bankster regulations, environmental regulations, you name it. ... gets shoved under the rug.
Who is at fault? It is your own people. Your bitch is not with Fox, it is with everyone else but Fox. Take your case to them and if you get a negative response, you have your answer. The average Joe and Mary don't have time for your tripe, they just want to live their lives. At that point perhaps it is best to consider other options where the population has no use for a Republic.
#28
The corporate media probably won't tell us that any increase in 2018 health insurance marketplace rates would point to the current administration being at fault and it may have been an "orchestrated" plan.
If there were such great demand for the radical right agenda, Gallant Old Party types wouldn't have to force it on to everyone at little or no cost to the consumer, the consumer would be eager to pay for it ding! With progressive media, consumers get bombarded with extreme right minded paid advertising to twist the issue.
Establishing and maintain freedom is not profitable. Doing the right thing does not include a profitably factor. Not everything and uniquely 'the news' and or being a politician should or have to be profitable. Peace, progression, and prosperity for all will usher the entire planet into new paradigm of wealth and success and we all know that.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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Recently at the Asheville NC airport a bomb with nails etc was placed in the terminal with the intent to maim and murder. It hardly got any publicity because the culprit was a white American not a Muslim terrorist.
http://www.wtol.com/story/36580355/suspect-wanted-to-fight-a-war-on-us-s...