Traditional media, the American Establishment, and the right-wing.

Some blogs and places I’ve gone online have been forever shocked by what’s going on in the American cable television world.

Long ago, I've come to the conclusion that all cable and network 'news' our 'journalism' programs are neither news nor journalism.

They are entertainment for their target audience - conservative, right-wing, and usually Republican.  This should come as no surprise.

 
Think about it -

All these network and cable outfits in this country are owned by large media corporations, which contain divisions that distribute entertainment across many media (television, radio, music, Internet, print, etc.). And not just America – this spans much of the rest of the world.

These corporations - like pretty much all of them - are all driven by maximizing profit and attaining higher shareholder return, much of which comes from advertising revenue. Advertisers of products are the actual customer. The actual consumer of their products (i.e. the television-viewing public) are not. At least not directly. The audience views the news, views the ads, buys the products being advertised. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So it shouldn't surprise anyone that their products serve largely as vehicles to drive ads.


Most large powerful corporations are essentially part of the American Establishment. And said establishment is by nature conservative - it wants to keep things are they are.


 And I've sort of taken for granted that television audiences (i.e. the are generally decreasing among younger generations, and becoming increasingly more old and conservative.
 
So I could just tune it all out and get my information from a variety of other sources and be good to go, yes?
 
Well I could. Except -

While folks like Media Matters, FAIR, and so forth do a great job in documenting, analyzing and refuting much of the toxic stuff dumped into their audiences' minds, it's always after-the-fact, and never in real-time. In other words, the damage is done when such falsehood are not challenged right there and then. It's as if the audience is hermetically sealed in pool of corrosive ideas, that keep said audiences locked in, obedient and ignorant. And when ignorant people attain political power and use it, the whole world suffers as a result.

What is the answer then? I need to think about this some more.