State-run media bailout
Welcome to Obamastan, where unethical media grandees willingly tossed journalistic integrity into the nearest trash bin in exchange for favoritism, unfettered access to the statist regime, and now -- economic subsidies.
Is this happening in a banana republic or Putin's Russia, you ask? Mais non, mes chers amis!
Welcome to America.
The 2008 presidential campaign shall forever be remembered as the tipping point when mainstream media finally and overtly aligned itself with the Left and embraced ideology over ethics.
In 2009, this statement is now generally acknowledged as true by all but the most radically socialist of Americans. It has gotten so bad that you will soon be hearing of Obama's manipulation of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) -- leftist propaganda paid for with your tax dollars.
And as with the NEA, the same tax-assisted propaganda holds true at the once-trustworthy Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS).
Mainstream media is now truly State-run Media.
Failing state-run media
In currying favor by dutifully carrying Obama's water, the state-run media that was supposed to keep the public informed instead keeps the public ignorant."Which is why, paradoxically, they can't recognize their flaws -- State-run Media is out of touch with Mainstream America." This non-stop propagandizing has not gone unnoticed by a vast majority of Americans.
Thus every one of the print and electronic media sources currently boot-licking the Democrat Congress and Obama are suffering massive hemorrhages in lost circulation and advertisement revenues.
Once-ethical newspapers such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe are floundering. Electronic network outlets ABC, CBS, NBC, plus cable outlets CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC are routinely trounced in ratings by the Fox News Channel and the Fox Network.
Arrogant managers, editors, and scribblers at the failing state-run media outlets blame a bad economy and alternative news sources such as the Internet and AM Talk Radio. And while the economy and alternatives certainly play a role, they serve as nothing more than symptoms of the disease -- unabashed political bias -- than as the cause.
The winds of change are palpable. In the entertainment world, radically leftist Hollywood and Broadway have become culturally irrelevant outside their own self-inflated spheres of eminence.
Any new domestic releases that denigrate America or American values now routinely bomb. Conservative books rule all of the best-seller lists despite absolutely no coverage by state-run media. Michael Moore and his ilk have been reduced to nothing more than historical footnotes.
They just don't get it
Mind you, the liberals who comprise state-run media live in an artificial bubble. Whatever depth of thinking and reasoned analysis left to them is so shallowly based as to be insignificant. Their educational and professional backgrounds are no longer relevant, ethics and objectivity no longer paramount.
Which is why, paradoxically, they can't recognize their flaws -- State-run Media is out of touch with Mainstream America.
In earlier posts, the B2J warned of a coming state-run media bombardment of racism -- all those opposed to the"There is now little traction for biased, unprofessional state-run media in America today" socialization of America at the hands of Obama and the Democrat Congress would be labeled as racist. Watch TV, read a newspaper (if you can stomach it) -- it has come to pass.
This is what state-run media perceives as ethical journalism.
Integrity and intellectual honesty have been thrown out the window, now replaced with slinging mindless invectives such as "racist" at those with ideological differences.
However, the problem state-run media faces is that such sordid sensationalism no longer works outside their protective bubble. There is now little traction for biased, unprofessional state-run media in America today, where words still have real meaning that translate into real consequences.
Government money will buy obedience
If it was possible for state-run media to be even more biased than it already is, taking bailout payola from Obama and the Democrat Congress will guarantee it. State-run media will, without doubt, be the Mouth of Obama.
Many journalists foolishly continue to deny the liberal bias that taints their profession. They imperiously subscribe to the edict that the American public is too stupid to figure things out for themselves.
The press (now construed to mean all forms of journalistic media) is the only private-sector entity specifically referenced in the Constitution, and whose freedom of expression is guaranteed. As such, the journalistic ethics of objectivity and fairness must be strong influences on the profession, else the very real power derived from such mandated protection can be corrupted to do grave harm.
It has become obvious to Mainstream America that state-run media -- every hour of every day -- does the bidding of its political masters. And as far as the tens of millions of concerned Americans critical of Obama being labeled by state-run media as "racists," here's what President Theodore Roosevelt had to say:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
Journalism without credibility or ethics -- and soon to be bought and paid for -- is no longer journalism . . . it is propaganda.
Hype and Chains.