All true, but the problem isn't just CNN or Fox. The MSM in

general reflects the perspective of the US ruling class. In many or most ways, ruling class interests conflict with the interests of the rest of the population.  Therefore all mass media outlets are going to be peddling propaganda & betraying most of the population, on a daily basis. That's their "job," so to speak -- their function in the system. They help make the population easy for the rulers to manage.

On the surface, Fox might seem different than CNN, because it's explicitly Republican. But it isn't really much different. This is partly because there isn't much difference between Republicans and Democrats.  Both parties and the media worship at the altar of "Americanism," our state religion. This religion is based on ideas like American Exceptionalism, corporate capitalism, militarism, & imperialism. Challenges to these fundamentalist beliefs are regarded as rank heresy & would be met (if they ever occurred) with the equivalent of crucifixion. 

The NY Times, Washington Post, and PBS & NPR, aren't really much different either. Very few local papers are any different. Their very limited differences are mostly questions of style. You can choose to get your daily Americanism propaganda in "highbrow intellectual" style, by consuming the NYT, PBS and NPR. Or you can get it "ignorant belligerent redneck" style, by consuming Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Fox. But it's all the same. In every case, the US is always portrayed as a great defender of "democracy," always a force for good in the world. Corporate capitalism is always portrayed as "freedom." In the Land of Americanism, the US has the unique & divine right to send troops into any country for any reason -- and it will always be deemed "justified," an attempt to "do good." In this Land, the notion that the US government is ever guilty of terrible crimes is treated as absolutely unthinkable. To even suggest otherwise is "blasphemy."

by Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1168 comments) on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 12:18:26 PM
 

TIME

1st off, TIME has not always chosen what others consider a popular choice for Person of the year....hell Hitler made it one year!

2ndly, we all need to take responsibility in scanning the news for ourselves and deciding what is being published as truthful or scandelous. Whether we like it or not, we will always be faced with the ridiculous task of deciphering the news for ourselves...

by lyric6a (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 1:06:24 PM
 

CIA Media is still in play

American fanatics are so worried about the democracy in other countries that we are losing our own. In the Nixon administration CIA Director GHW Bush Sr was in charge of the CIA cold war domestic media disinformation program called Operation Mocking Bird which employed thousands of American journalist and those in mass media to spy on Americans and to spread ther CIA dogma for local consumption in clear violation of the law. To this day the CIA has not released all the names of this nations top journalist who were on the pay role of the CIA. I feel that Anderson Cooper of CNN is on the CIA pay role because he belongs to a secret society at Yale, who in turned at the CIA. He has family who was connected to OSS and the CIA. Bush used these CIA assets in the press to help him get elected. Bush is still using the CIA to put disinformation and deception into the American press. It is a long time historical fact that the CIA since the 1940's has been wanting to privatize all of the economies in the middle east to put the oil and the natural resources in the hands of America's elite. The US Army has been fighting insurgencies and counter insurgencies since they killed their first Indian. The Iraqis people are now the US Army's new Indians on the block to pacify to lay the foundation for American Corporation's. Nothing has changed. All is the same! General Petraeus did not write a new report on the insurgency. He just took a copy of the one his father in law General William Knowlton who was in charge of the pacification of the Vietnam people during his two tours in Vietnam who helped to run-Operation Phoenix to get rid of his oppositions. Sound familiar! The problem with General Petraeus is that he is not a real soldier. He is a George Bush in uniform. He has never shed the blood of his enemy! He has never killed any one in the line of duty! He is not a combat officers. Just in name only!

by matt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 16 comments) on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 2:05:05 PM
 

Nice opening sentence

Your nouns doesn't agrees with your verbs.

by Howie Kurtz (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 3:37:26 PM
 

Comment is hidden Reason:

Ratings

I have a radical theory that ultimately the MSM does care about its ratings.  

I do my part by never watching FOX and only very rarely turning on CNN.  In fact TV has deteriorated so much I really don't watch it much any more.  I do watch Keith Olberman's show and I watch Democracy Now.  Sometimes I turn on CSPAN, watch Jon Stewart or Steve Colbert and I watch an occasional movie.  If everyone followed my viewing pattern, FOX would soon be off the air and CNN would probably follow - or, more likely they would change their programming.

Let me add that there are great alternatives.  There is an abundance of good programming on the internet, just check out http://www.opednews.com/progressive_radio.htm.  Check out some of the many podcasts that are available and maybe get an MP3 player so you have some mobility while listening.  I'm still listening to shows that were broadcast in November that I've not yet had time to hear.

by PrMaine (10 articles, 8 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 335 comments) on Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 8:17:29 AM