Useless Infotainment at 11:00

I think a lot about news these days.  Not "The News," but news: the way we consume it, the way it's presented, the way it's filtered and edited, the way much of it is actually ignored by the people who are supposed to report it and the public who is supposed to pay attention to it.  Mostly, I lament that news has become just another "product" to be consumed and that you can pick the news you wish to believe, as if you could pick and choose your own version of what's real.

The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”  When did we start to think that what we believe is more significant than what is really going on around us?

I believe it was Edward R. Murrow who once said that news is what rich and powerful people don't want you to know about.  How much of today's news passes that test?

      He also said, “If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour, there would be a considerable number of stations which would decline to carry it on the grounds that a Western or a quiz show would be more profitable.”


This gives you some insight into where I'm going with this post and why I fear for our democracy and nation.  I used to work in news, as an editor, that's why I feel the way I do.  Chris Lee still does and he has some opinions about what happened to get us to this sad state.  Read and weep.


http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/01/when-it-comes-to-news-why-wont.html