DOOM: Death of Old Media
Electronic media brain surgeons at PBS, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and print media elites at the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Newsweek, etc. have been bombarding us with a daily blitz of how horrible it is that those rascally Republicans want to end the filibuster privilege in the Senate. They of course call it the 'nuclear option' (must portray the worst kind of evil) and each day feature stories depicting the sad plight of noble, injured Democrats who just want to look out for the 'people's welfare' by denying confirmation to all of the president's judicial nominees. What a crock.
Each day, wide-screen HD reports are presented to viewers and each day editorials disguised as news stories are strewn above the fold lines in the above-mentioned newspapers, all spewing poison against conservatives and lauding the virtues of the Senate minority. They still don't get it. They still don't understand their declining viewer and reader numbers and don't have a clue how to stem the losses in TV ratings and circulation.
You will never hear any report from those news sources about the fact that just ten years earlier, when the radical leftist party was in control of the Senate, the same poor, injured Democrats who are whining about losing the filibuster were screaming bloody murder that the tradition of filibuster would be abolished to keep the pesky Republican minority in line. The Republicans caved, used the filibuster less, and the Democrats, like the Cheshire Cat, were large and in charge.
Lost ethics, lost objectivity
Which brings us round to the aforementioned Old Media. This is a group who brought about the overwhelming success of The Drudge Report, Fox News, conservative talk radio, and a horde of Drudge blogger clones because established media refused to run all of the true but negative stories about the Clinton administration.
This is a group that has consistently run with untrue stories fitting their collective vision, stories that trashed the Bush administration so greatly that they were "too good to check" for truthfulness.
This is a group that had to start up its own far-left radio network, Air America, that is so distorted and out of touch with mainstream Americans that it can't even buy listeners.
This is a group that has now circled the wagons around Newsweek in an attempt to protect it after running a false story designed to discredit the administration but wound up causing the deaths and torture of hundreds of people around the globe.
This is a group that just recently awarded a discredited journalist, Dan Rather, with a Peabody Award for journalistic integrity and excellence. At least Rather's forged documents didn't get anybody killed.
Prediction? The Old Media downward spiral will continue. Old Media abused its monopoly in news reporting, has consistently lied to the public either overtly or by omission to further its own political ideology, and is now paying the price. There are many other news options now, and they are being used. I don't know what Old Media can do to stop the bleeding if they don't admit their wrong-doing first, somehow regain their ethics, then learn how to report objectively. They have betrayed a sacred trust.