Maybe, American MSM journalism's descent into Orwellian dystopia has become so apparent to those in the know it's foolish to even discuss "objectivity" in the US corporate media. But since it remains the primary source of "news" and "information" to the American people it can't be dismissed as simply irrelevant.
For sure, one can become apoplectic reading and seeing the swill that's presented as "news" and "information" by the MSM-I plead guilty-but again it simply can't be ignored. It's sort of the "elephant in the room".
So here goes, but before any ado, let's get this out of the way before going any further; there is no such thing as "objective" journalism, at least what's pitched to the public as non biased, completely neutral, and without subjectivity. That idea may have begun with good intentions, presenting sides of an argument and letting the reader draw his own conclusions. But like most "good intentions" it's never been realized and never will be.
What's even worse look at what's happened to the "ideal" of objectivity. In America today too often what is presented to the public by the MSM that is supposed to represent the "objective" facts of an event is most likely the government's version and not subject to debate.
Even when that supposedly "objective" version is contradicted and refuted by investigation, there is no mea culpa, our "facts" were wrong, the government's story was wrong. Nothing of the sort is presented to the public; it's simply forgotten.
Take the downing of the Malaysian M-17 passenger jet liner over eastern Ukraine last year. It was presented by the MSM as being brought down by a missile fired by ethnic Russian Ukrainian separatists, which was the identical story presented by "official" Washington.
Yet when the OSCE-Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe- investigated the wreckage the cockpit was riddled with bullet holes that could only have come from a fighter jets machine guns. A former German jet pilot after poring over photos of the wreckage indicated the holes were unmistakably from a jet fighter's machine gun's cannon fire. Residents on the ground at the time of the incident reported later they had observed a jet fighter flying below the passenger plane. Only Kiev government jet fighters were known to fly sorties in eastern Ukraine. Finally the separatists had only hand held, shoulder type missiles that were incapable of reaching the height of the Malaysian plane.
As far as I can tell, none of this has ever been reported by the MSM. The whole incident has been conveniently sent to a memory hole as if it never happened. Could it be the "official" version of the downed airliner was contrived, couldn't pass the "smell" test and was subsequently disappeared?
But this is only one instance of journalistic mal-practice presented as "objective" reporting. The whole Ukraine crisis has been completely distorted and misrepresented to the public by "official" Washington and the MSM i.e. there was no coup in Kiev in February, 2014, the president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych simply fled from office. The people in Crimea-after seeing the obvious coup-thus determined to hold a referendum and elected to join the Russian Federation. Yet in America it was presented as an "illegal" referendum concocted by Moscow rather than the people expressing its right for self determination.
So when so called "objective" reporting is actually distortion, misrepresentation, omission if not outright lies, then it reveals itself as illegitimate, nothing but propaganda hiding behind the fig leaf of freedom of the press. That certainly isn't "objective" journalism.
Journalism should be about seeking the truth and reporting it. The MSM in America does nothing of the sort.
In America prominent think tank individuals, former generals now working for defense industry contractors-though not disclosed as such to the viewer-, neo-con ideologues and their assorted ilk as well as high government officials are given a platform, placed before the public as if their bloviating is the "objective" truth even though what they're advocating is unfounded and may be an outright lie.
In America there is little if any investigative journalism by the MSM. It has essentially become a tool, an organ of the state, something traditionally associated with a totalitarian state and its state owned and operated media.
In America, freedom of the press and the Constitution have become what the MSM hides behind masking its true role as an organ of the state.
Journalism's natural skepticism of government's policies and actions has been forgone revealing it's role as the complicit enabler of the state's policies and actions.
In America and the West the facts of anything resembling the truth can be found but only in the alternative media such as OPEDNEWS, ICH, Truthdig, Truthout, TomDispatch et al as well as other sites committed to honest journalism.
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