The media........Does it go too far?

[Sunshine]

I recall as a girl how my mother never missed the noonday and evening news. We were isolated, and she wanted to know what was going on down the block, and across the waters. News was usually one 4 or 5 hours a day unless there was something big like a presidential assassination. There would be 'editorials' and everyone knew they were 'opinion.'

Now, it seems that every word that proceeds out of the mouths of the talking heads is designed to tell the American public what to think. I do realize how critical a truly 'free press' is now and has been in the growth of this country. But it is beginning to feel like the press is more oppressive than the government our ancestors came here to get away from ever thought of being. I believe the new bully on the block is the press. I have worked in places where I could have walked out of the building at the end of the day to find the press there writhing and undulating, calumniating and besmirching everyone who walked out of the door. Not a comfortable feeling.

This Zimmerman trial has been over the top. The press has made it a racist media circus, now they see that they were completely wrong so they are trying to make it into a 'political' trial. That is the mainstream media. The alternative media is so able to twist even harder in the other direction simply because of how ridiculous the mainstream media has been.

WTF has happened in this country in the last 50 years? If anyone needs to be impeached, it is the PRESS! I have never seen such abominable coverage as the coverage on the Zimmerman trial. That is an American citizen, presumed innocent until proven guilty. Has the PRESS acknowledged that? Not once that I can recall. Everything they have done has been to promote a race war and/or a white lynching. Whatever happened to 'just the facts?' Where will this end. The press is destroying any chance of there EVER being peace on American soil. I hope everyone who lives here has an alternative place to go.

 

[asaratis]

I recall as a girl how my mother never missed the noonday and evening news. We were isolated, and she wanted to know what was going on down the block, and across the waters. News was usually one 4 or 5 hours a day unless there was something big like a presidential assassination. There would be 'editorials' and everyone knew they were 'opinion.'

Now, it seems that every word that proceeds out of the mouths of the talking heads is designed to tell the American public what to think. I do realize how critical a truly 'free press' is now and has been in the growth of this country. But it is beginning to feel like the press is more oppressive than the government our ancestors came here to get away from ever thought of being. I believe the new bully on the block is the press. I have worked in places where I could have walked out of the building at the end of the day to find the press there writhing and undulating, calumniating and besmirching everyone who walked out of the door. Not a comfortable feeling.

This Zimmerman trial has been over the top. The press has made it a racist media circus, now they see that they were completely wrong so they are trying to make it into a 'political' trial. That is the mainstream media. The alternative media is so able to twist even harder in the other direction simply because of how ridiculous the mainstream media has been.

WTF has happened in this country in the last 50 years? If anyone needs to be impeached, it is the PRESS! I have never seen such abominable coverage as the coverage on the Zimmerman trial. That is an American citizen, presumed innocent until proven guilty. Has the PRESS acknowledged that? Not once that I can recall. Everything they have done has been to promote a race war and/or a white lynching. Whatever happened to 'just the facts?' Where will this end. The press is destroying any chance of there EVER being peace on American soil. I hope everyone who lives here has an alternative place to go.

I agree. The media is too powerful, too biased, too uneducated, too vain, too eager and too unrelenting in their quest for higher ratings to broadcast the news and nothing but the news. Broadcasts at all levels have become nothing short of "celebrity" talk shows with star "journalists" and foreign reporters in front of cameras seeking shocking pictures of catastrophes and mayhem to show on the six o'clock news headlines.

Their bias shows up in such things as NBC's editing of the Zimmerman conversation to make it sound like Zimmerman was racist. They cut out the part where the dispatcher asked Zimmerman the race of the suspicious person. CBS is no better with their editing of the 911 call for their broadcast.

Bias in this trial coverage has been exposed.


Namely:

NBC producers doctored the recording to portray Zimmerman as a bigot. In the unedited 911 call, the dispatcher asks Zimmerman to describe Martin's skin color. Yet NBC made it seem as if Zimmerman targeted him because he was black and edited the exchange to look like he believed blacks in general are up to no good.

Other examples of biased media coverage included:

• ABC News originally claiming Zimmerman had no visible signs of injury based on a fuzzy video that later, when enhanced, clearly showed wounds to his head.

• CNN isolating part of a 911 call and speculating Zimmerman could be heard in the background calling Martin a racial slur, when in fact he did no such thing.

There are some welcome exceptions such as CSPAN coverage of Congress. They simply leave the cameras running so we can witness for ourselves what the clowns in Washington are doing as we pay them high salaries for representing our interests.

CSPAN is also more fair when they run their call in shows. They take a call from a liberal, a call from a conservative and a call from an independent. When the caller is done talking, they go the next caller. Seldom, but occasionally they will point out a fallacy in the caller's venting, but overall they are fair and unbiased.

All the rest that I have listened cannot make that claim.

News broadcasting is a business supported by advertisers. To create more business, the media creates the news that they think people want to hear.

 

[Mr. H.]

Tabloid journalism. Kinda pathetic.

 

[Sunshine]

Asaratis, it's not just about Zimmerman. But it has certainly gotten worse most recently. They have been telling us who to elect for years, nothing new there. But taking sides in a legal dispute involving an American citizen, vilifying him, nullifying the innocent until proven guilty foundation of our criminal justice system is, while not new, more blatantly overt now than it has ever been. Think about it. That could be ANY of us. Get in an automobile accident and get charged with a crime. Then nothing you say being heard by the hostile and hell bent on crucifying you press.

One time a long time ago, a very wise person told me to never seek out the press for anything because if you do, there is a better than average chance they will screw you. Now, they don't wait to be sought out. The American press is nothing more than an angry lynch mob. I wish everyone would complain and some of their crowned heads would roll, but I know that will not happen.

I had rotator cuff surgery the summer that Michael Jackson was tried on the child abuse charges. Meaning, that I sat in a chair in front of my TV for the better part of 3 months. I got tired of it, but honestly the press wasn't trying to butt fuck him like they did Zimmerman.

If there are race riots, they should be laid squarely at the door of the press.

 

[Sunshine]

Tabloid journalism. Kinda pathetic.

I remember a time when tabloid journalism was restricted to tabloids.

 

[whitehall]

People need to keep in mind that the old days of "who,what,where,how and when" are long gone. Every media story whether it's print on paper or a screen or tape or live video today is opinion based. Everything you read is an op-ed. Every news show is a slanted viewpoint about what happened based mostly on political affiliation and loyalty or hatred for an administration. Once you get past that realization you can consider yourself educated.

 

[Mr. H.]

Tabloid journalism. Kinda pathetic.

I remember a time when tabloid journalism was restricted to tabloids.

Is that the paper stuff with ink on it?

 

[hoosier88]

Yah, I'll skim CNN & Fox to watch/hear the headline news. I've given up on the on-air networks - their national news coverage leaves a lot to be desired. Outside of PBS & a handful of other TV, the TV news is simply searching for eyeballs, by imitating as best they can People magazine & USA Today newspaper.

I still prefer print media - it's easier to sort through who's saying what, & you can always go back & reread if you're not sure about what was said. I think that was why print media used to be more restrained than the electronic boys 'n' girls - libel was much easier to prove in the '50s than going back & trying to get footage from TV.

The trial of the moment - now Zimmerman/Martin, then Jodi Whatsis (the murder trial was being held in AZ) - I tend not to pay much attention to them. Yah, I think the Zimmerman/Martin trial has had far too much baggage loaded onto it - the pundits & all the chatting classes seem to see whatever they want to see in the case. I say - wait for the judge & jury to render a verdict. That's what they're there for, that's the way the justice system in the US runs. The media can huff & puff, but their verdict doesn't mean a thing.

The real power is in the hands of the judiciary, which is the way the founding fathers designed the justice system, & I haven't seen any serious attempt to replace it with something better. Until we do replace the current justice system, the media talking heads are kidding themselves. They have precisely as much effect upon the judicial outcome as a beef cow's preference on whether it wants to be a quarter-pounder or a Whatta-burger or a Jack-in-the-Box or a Wendy's has on the ultimate dispositon of its meat.

My criticism of the media - if they want to shill like sideshow barkers, Why should we extend any kind of privileged position in the national political process to them? Either they have a function & they fulfill it, or they lose the privilege by failing to exercise it altogether.

 

[Sunshine]

Yah, I'll skim CNN & Fox to watch/hear the headline news. I've given up on the on-air networks - their national news coverage leaves a lot to be desired. Outside of PBS & a handful of other TV, the TV news is simply searching for eyeballs, by imitating as best they can People magazine & USA Today newspaper.

I still prefer print media - it's easier to sort through who's saying what, & you can always go back & reread if you're not sure about what was said. I think that was why print media used to be more restrained than the electronic boys 'n' girls - libel was much easier to prove in the '50s than going back & trying to get footage from TV.

The trial of the moment - now Zimmerman/Martin, then Jodi Whatsis (the murder trial was being held in AZ) - I tend not to pay much attention to them. Yah, I think the Zimmerman/Martin trial has had far too much baggage loaded onto it - the pundits & all the chatting classes seem to see whatever they want to see in the case. I say - wait for the judge & jury to render a verdict. That's what they're there for, that's the way the justice system in the US runs. The media can huff & puff, but their verdict doesn't mean a thing.

The real power is in the hands of the judiciary, which is the way the founding fathers designed the justice system, & I haven't seen any serious attempt to replace it with something better. Until we do replace the current justice system, the media talking heads are kidding themselves. They have precisely as much effect upon the judicial outcome as a beef cow's preference on whether it wants to be a quarter-pounder or a Whatta-burger or a Jack-in-the-Box or a Wendy's has on the ultimate dispositon of its meat.

My criticism of the media - if they want to shill like sideshow barkers, Why should we extend any kind of privileged position in the national political process to them? Either they have a function & they fulfill it, or they lose the privilege by failing to exercise it altogether.

There are people out there who are trying to replace certain aspects of our system of jurisprudence. I worked with a black woman who said there is an organization of blacks who want to do away with the jury system altogether. I can't recall the group that is doing it. Maybe the black radical congress or perhaps the NAACP.

Black Organisations

Anyway this is an interesting link:

Two-thirds of jurors do not understand judges' directions | Mail Online

When I was in law school there were MDs in every class, usually more than one. Our neighbor to the north SIU has an MD/JD program. Doctors are going to law school in record numbers so they will be poised to take over all the med mal trials.

People are out there who are already trying to change our current system of jurisprudence. Don't think for a minute that they are not.

 

[testarosa]

Good thread Sunshine.

Editing a non emergency call to bring race into it for ratings (NBC) should be criminally prosecuted for contributing to the ensuing violence and feeding the hate. Editing video to get rid of injuries (ABC) should also be prosecuted. Broadcasting someone's ss number (CNN) is an even worse offense than the one Spike Lee committed. Hollyweirds are ignorant bs spouters by nature, CNN has an obligation.

I hope they get slapped with some fat ass civil judgments so they can rethink their ethics

Someone needs to hold them accountable and if Z hits the jackpot off of their irresponsible negligance, so be it.

 

[testarosa]

Tabloid journalism. Kinda pathetic.

I remember a time when tabloid journalism was restricted to tabloids.

True dat baby

 

[rightwinger]

I recall as a girl how my mother never missed the noonday and evening news. We were isolated, and she wanted to know what was going on down the block, and across the waters. News was usually one 4 or 5 hours a day unless there was something big like a presidential assassination. There would be 'editorials' and everyone knew they were 'opinion.'

Now, it seems that every word that proceeds out of the mouths of the talking heads is designed to tell the American public what to think. I do realize how critical a truly 'free press' is now and has been in the growth of this country. But it is beginning to feel like the press is more oppressive than the government our ancestors came here to get away from ever thought of being. I believe the new bully on the block is the press. I have worked in places where I could have walked out of the building at the end of the day to find the press there writhing and undulating, calumniating and besmirching everyone who walked out of the door. Not a comfortable feeling.

This Zimmerman trial has been over the top. The press has made it a racist media circus, now they see that they were completely wrong so they are trying to make it into a 'political' trial. That is the mainstream media. The alternative media is so able to twist even harder in the other direction simply because of how ridiculous the mainstream media has been.

WTF has happened in this country in the last 50 years? If anyone needs to be impeached, it is the PRESS! I have never seen such abominable coverage as the coverage on the Zimmerman trial. That is an American citizen, presumed innocent until proven guilty. Has the PRESS acknowledged that? Not once that I can recall. Everything they have done has been to promote a race war and/or a white lynching. Whatever happened to 'just the facts?' Where will this end. The press is destroying any chance of there EVER being peace on American soil. I hope everyone who lives here has an alternative place to go.

The Media feeds the beast.....

We are the beast

 

[Ava]

Tabloid journalism. Kinda pathetic.

I remember a time when tabloid journalism was restricted to tabloids.

Yes, and until the Enquirer and others started breaking real news stories, the rest of the media had to keep up by lowering their standards.

 

[blastoff]

Last Saturday I was thinking about the media's possible influence on public opinion of this trial's goings on. I DVRd Friday's broadcast and watched it early Sat. morning. A while after that I picked up our local newspaper and read an AP story of the previous day's proceedings. It was heavy on the way, manner, etc. that Martin's mother testified that shouts from a 911 recording had to be her son yelling for help shortly before being shot. As stories go, a real tearjerker.

What the story neglected to mention at all though was that three defense witnesses testified that the same voice yelling for help was that of George Zimmerman.

So now fast forward to the possibility of the jury coming back with a not guilty verdict. Can't you just see low information folks who figured Zim was guilty all along scratching their heads, bitching, or worse, about the terrible miscarriage of justice! Gee whiz, they'd think, even the guy's poor mother identified him as yelling for help, but those heartless (racist?) jurors didn't believe her. Yeah, well, that or a little something called reasonable doubt the media forgot to tell you about.

 

[Sunshine]

I recall as a girl how my mother never missed the noonday and evening news. We were isolated, and she wanted to know what was going on down the block, and across the waters. News was usually one 4 or 5 hours a day unless there was something big like a presidential assassination. There would be 'editorials' and everyone knew they were 'opinion.'

Now, it seems that every word that proceeds out of the mouths of the talking heads is designed to tell the American public what to think. I do realize how critical a truly 'free press' is now and has been in the growth of this country. But it is beginning to feel like the press is more oppressive than the government our ancestors came here to get away from ever thought of being. I believe the new bully on the block is the press. I have worked in places where I could have walked out of the building at the end of the day to find the press there writhing and undulating, calumniating and besmirching everyone who walked out of the door. Not a comfortable feeling.

This Zimmerman trial has been over the top. The press has made it a racist media circus, now they see that they were completely wrong so they are trying to make it into a 'political' trial. That is the mainstream media. The alternative media is so able to twist even harder in the other direction simply because of how ridiculous the mainstream media has been.

WTF has happened in this country in the last 50 years? If anyone needs to be impeached, it is the PRESS! I have never seen such abominable coverage as the coverage on the Zimmerman trial. That is an American citizen, presumed innocent until proven guilty. Has the PRESS acknowledged that? Not once that I can recall. Everything they have done has been to promote a race war and/or a white lynching. Whatever happened to 'just the facts?' Where will this end. The press is destroying any chance of there EVER being peace on American soil. I hope everyone who lives here has an alternative place to go.

The Media feeds the beast.....

We are the beast

If the mainstream media would be less biased in general, I don't think so many people would be trying to dig stuff up in alternative sources. There was a time when we depended on the mainstream media to be neutral with the exception of an occasional editorial.

 

[Sunshine]

Last Saturday I was thinking about the media's possible influence on public opinion of this trial's goings on. I DVRd Friday's broadcast and watched it early Sat. morning. A while after that I picked up our local newspaper and read an AP story of the previous day's proceedings. It was heavy on the way, manner, etc. that Martin's mother testified that shouts from a 911 recording had to be her son yelling for help shortly before being shot. As stories go, a real tearjerker.

What the story neglected to mention at all though was that three defense witnesses testified that the same voice yelling for help was that of George Zimmerman.

So now fast forward to the possibility of the jury coming back with a not guilty verdict. Can't you just see low information folks who figured Zim was guilty all along scratching their heads, bitching, or worse, about the terrible miscarriage of justice! Gee whiz, they'd think, even the guy's poor mother identified him as yelling for help, but those heartless (racist?) jurors didn't believe her. Yeah, well, that or a little something called reasonable doubt the media forgot to tell you about.

Good points. How long will it be before the public starts demanding more veracity from the media? Will that ever happen.

 

[rightwinger]

Last Saturday I was thinking about the media's possible influence on public opinion of this trial's goings on. I DVRd Friday's broadcast and watched it early Sat. morning. A while after that I picked up our local newspaper and read an AP story of the previous day's proceedings. It was heavy on the way, manner, etc. that Martin's mother testified that shouts from a 911 recording had to be her son yelling for help shortly before being shot. As stories go, a real tearjerker.

What the story neglected to mention at all though was that three defense witnesses testified that the same voice yelling for help was that of George Zimmerman.

So now fast forward to the possibility of the jury coming back with a not guilty verdict. Can't you just see low information folks who figured Zim was guilty all along scratching their heads, bitching, or worse, about the terrible miscarriage of justice! Gee whiz, they'd think, even the guy's poor mother identified him as yelling for help, but those heartless (racist?) jurors didn't believe her. Yeah, well, that or a little something called reasonable doubt the media forgot to tell you about.

Good points. How long will it be before the public starts demanding more veracity from the media? Will that ever happen.

Which media?

Newspapers, radio, television or internet?