No really–he’s a clown There is considerable irony in the fact that you can take Joe more seriously than a lot of politicians who play the clown unintentionally and without renumeration. Joe’s views on modern journalism for instance. The biggest……

Joe Gandelman has a good piece on the subject over at The Moderate Voice….

Its hard to believe, that all of the main cable channels can show a big profit by focussing so intently on repetitive celebrity gossip.

The media is owned by corporations that give money and supply arms to our government, so it’s not surprising they would want to avoid being critical of their partners.

They media also has to worry about their advertisers. The best audience to cater to is an afluent audience, the type of audience that is likely pleased with the status quo. The advertisers themselves don’t want to be associated with the real problems in our government.

I just read “Redirection” by Sy Hersh, which describes a shadow ME foreign policy devised by Cheney and Bandar, which seeks to minimize Iranian influence with covert ops that include funding and arming extremist Sunni groups very similar to al queda That, imo, is what Americans need to be hearing about.

Instead, we get nonstop coverage of whether or not today’s the day the judge will finally order the DNA sample from the five potential fathers of Anna Nicole’s baby girl.

Maybe, if we’re lucky they’ll risk a ratings share loss by breaking into the custody hearings if we go to war with Iran. Is this corporate-sponsored pablum to pacify dumbed-down American citizens? Ok, temporary fit of paranoia over with, lol!

C-Span provides some, but not nearly enough, relief.

What’s the answer in a world where every good idea needs the funding to bring it to fruition?

When we vote we will know more about a candidate’s private life than his/her past voting record, or beliefs on key issues. One minor error in judgement that may have occurred 20 years ago will be hashed and rehashed, while the rest of their accomplishments are ignored. Its pretty much happening now.

We have become a sensationalized society, fascinated by the most sordid details of celebrities’ lives. That type of information used to be confined to tabloids kept in the aisles of supermarkets. Imo, it should have remained there.

Yesterday, I visited the local Barnes & Noble. Looking through the “Current Affairs” section, I observed that at least 90% of the books were rants, from both the Right and the Left; it was Michael Moore vs. Rush Limbaugh.

I assume that B&N stocks what sells. If so, most people buy what reinforces their political prejudices (and is therefore a form of entertainment), and few buy what could make them better informed. This, of course, bears more than a faint resemblance to the blogosphere.

It is indeed very troubling.

He notes some specific examples where stories didn’t get wide coverage due to the other news choices, and also offers a meaty quote underscoring how corporations are now in charge of news choices…and their goal is to garner huge audiences, no matter what.

What we see happening right now, is that the ‘news media’ are becoming (part of the) [mass produced] popular culture. Or something similar. The intellectual aspect of it all is, slowly but surely, taken out of it so that, in the end, it’s all morally empty and intellectually irrelevant.

It’s bad enough that there are magazines that constantly focus on celebrities, but it’s even worse when ’serious’ news organizations focus on celebrities as well and ignore actually relevant news.

If they do, they could lose huge chunks of audience.

And if they don’t they betray their profession.

It’s unbelievable.

The worst part: do we see a trend that this will decrease? Or is this the new reality in the 21st century news and info media?

When we look at history, I am afraid that it’s all part of a trend and that matters will become much, much worse.

If Americans aren’t careful, only the elite will get its hands on objective or high quality news / opinion / information.

John Doe should spend a little less time trying to be ‘entertained’ and a little more time trying to be informed.

I always explain to my Spanish friends and co-workers; part of the reason Americans have certain views (like doubting Global Warming as much as they do or having believed the WMD story) is because their media feeds it to them. 100 channels but most of them say the same thing, and most of what they say is meaningless. Lets face it, most people aren’t going to go out of their way to read several media and learn about issues, they, at most, will accept what they see on the news and many don’t even go that far. Spaniards are no different, but they get more substance in their news.