☀ Media Madness ☀ Open Thread

 

 

One of the things that our founding fathers provided for us in the First Amendment to the Constitution was a free media.  There would be no abridging the freedom of speech or infringing on the freedom of the press. That was so that we would always have a watchdog for us against the government. A watchdog that told us the truth when the government and politicians did not.

The job of “news” people is to be the bright sunshine illuminating the shadowy actions those in power would try to hide from the public. How’s that working lately? Are they shining light into dark corners? Or are they repeating lies, rumors, half-truths that benefit their agenda and leave the things they don’t agree with or that hurts their cause hiding in the dark? This is not the action of a “free” press. This is the actions of advocacy journalism.

Every poll shows a public with less trust in what the media tells us.

Most major newspapers are in decline and yet still they continue to betray the trust that was once prevalent in this society. The NYT was once “the paper of record”. Now it’s a well-known shill for the Democrats. If it weren’t for the want ads and coupons only dedicated libs willing to have swill sold as news would buy it. Even so fewer buy the paper every year.

There is even a Newspaper Death Watch website which chronicles newspapers that have gone under since 2007.

There is also a list of Major metro dailies that have cut frequency or adopted hybrid online/print or online-only models.

These include: Ann Arbor News, Capital Times, Catskill Daily Mail & Hudson Register-Star, Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Detroit News/Free Press, East Valley Tribune, Flint Journal; Bay City Times; Saginaw News, Harrisburg Patriot-News, Syracuse Post-Standard, New Orleans Times-Picayune; Birmingham News; Huntsville Times; Mobile Press-Register, The Portland Oregonian and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

There are some very well known names on that list. And still they continue to abuse the trust that people once had in them. Do they believe that they may survive as more and more people are less and less informed? Do they believe that they will win the war while losing the battles for the minds of the public?

Most of the television “news” outlets are known to be biased. Only FOX is biased to the right and now only if the person on the right is Donald Trump or someone that supports him. Many conservatives who once watched FOX “News” religiously now shun it as if it was as virulently liberal as MSNBC.

Young people are deserting the living room television in droves and the industry is worried. Could it face similar decline to that suffered by printed newspapers?

That leaves a lot of people with nowhere on television to go for news. You can’t even trust the weather segments as more and more of them add “global warming” propaganda and present it as fact. Politics are an epidemic that has infected every aspect of our life and certainly every aspect of television.

Do you just want to sit down, relax and get away from politics? Do you just want to watch a football game? Out of luck there too. ESPN is among the worst of the biased media. They inject liberal bias into sports with a religious fervor seldom seen among the secular. But then liberalism is their religion and their God.  And all showcased at stadiums named for the big business that the left claims to disdain. Ain’t’ it a hoot?

Putting Brand Names On Stadiums Can Be Extremely Valuable  

FedEx agreed to pay the Washington Redskins $205 million over 27 years for the rights to name the stadium where the Redskins play.

MetLife signed a $400 million deal over 25 years to name the Medowlands stadium where the New York Giants play.

Reliant Energy signed a $320 million 32-year deal to name the stadium where the Houston Texans play.

CitiGroup signed a $400 million deal to put its name on the stadium where the New York Mets play.

You’re watching a commercial every time you drive by those stadiums, and the many others that have now joined them, and every time the stadium is mentioned. Actually considering what it costs to advertise it’s really quite a bargain for the corporations. And sports becomes more corrupted from what it meant to be.

When we have millionaire athletes like Colin Kaepernick insult the flag of our country the “sportscasters”, aka liberal activists, cheer them on. Because anyone can see that poor little Kaepernick is an oppressed minority. An oppressed minority that lives a far more fabulous lifestyle than his oppressors. What’s wrong with that picture? An oppressed minority with rooms full of shoes. What’s with these victims and footwear? Didn’t we used to think the poor as lacking shoes instead of wearing expensive shoes touted by shoe companies using rich athletes to sell them to poor kids that hero worship the rich athletes? Are you confused? Join the Confusion Club.

 

Sports media, like the “news” media is shooting itself in the foot. They don’t seem to care because they believe that enough sports fanatics will continue to tune in to ESPN no matter what. No matter how many rabid liberals spouting liberal crap are now just a part of watching the game. Or is it? NFL Ratings Tanking in Wake of Leftist Moral Exhibitionism

Only time will tell how much this will hurt sports. I suspect that the sports fanatic, hidden deep in his man-cave will continue to support things he doesn’t believe or agree with, in fact things he may very well loathe just to get his game fix.

What the end result will be is yet to be seen but the fact is that media bias is killing media outlets. Having watched the machinations of the media for many years I don’t believe that they don’t have a long range plan.  I would bet it is not one that benefits the public they are supposed to serve. Not even on the Weather Channel.