One of the things that pisses me off the most

[maxrandb]

Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2024, 06:31 PM - Edit history (1)

and trust me, approaching my 7th decade, there are a few, is the nonchalant way our press has just discarded 250 years of American democracy.

They have treated the past 10 years like our democracy is a game show, or a reality TV series.

Everybody cheers as Donnie Dipshit does his "Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine" routine, but the gong is sounding for all of us and the free world.

The press has decided that if 49.8 percent of American voters, in the right combination of states choose fascism, then fascism is democratic.

We are all about to find out it isn't.

No depth to reporting. No examination of serious issues. No detailed analysis of policy.

It's all become; "what demographic will performing fellatio on a microphone appeal to"?

The press has spent so much time fixated on "who is going to get the rose", it doesn't matter that the thorns are dipped in poison.

Now, they report on potential invasions of Canada, Panama and Greenland as if it's an episode of Survivor.

It's so blindingly unserious and stupid, you can almost forget that lives are at FUCKING stake.

It's why I won't watch a FUCKING second of ANY American press.

November 5TH showed me that it all needs to be ripped out by the roots.

They say you have to hit rock bottom before you wake the Fuck up. We are there.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Media is no longer equated with journalism and democracy.

It's another division of "entertainment" and profits.

It's possible that McCarthy could have prevailed in the Fifties were it not for Edward R. Murrow. That wouldn't happen today.

[Tesha]

2. Journalism is dead

Now we have entertainment to distract us.

It’s all just corporations owned by the super-rich who use their power, owning the eyes and ears within their reach, to manipulate.
They manipulate folks to buy stuff they don’t need, to vote against their own needs and to put people in power to change laws.

We’re f’d, well and truly

[bronxiteforever]

3. Great post. Carl Sagan warned us.

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

[progressoid]

30. +1

Carl was great.

[Wicked Blue]

4. The power of the press belongs to those who own it

and guess who owns it

We need our own media outlet

[Ray Bruns]

5. Applicable "A Face in the Crowd" clip

https://m.

[FakeNoose]

20. Great movie that has never been seen by anyone under 60

[Wiz Imp]

24. Um, I'm under 60 and I first saw that movie probably 15-20 years ago (when I was in my 40's).

Thought it was great then and even more applicable today

[snot]

25. Thanks for the tip!

For anyone else who hasn't already seen it, I found the whole movie on archive.org (an extremely worthy organization that I hope you'll consider donating to; they operate the "Wayback Machine," among other things, which helps preserve material on the 'net that might be worth remembering [or that someone might even prefer we forget]), at https://archive.org/details/a-face-in-the-crowd-1957 .

[progressoid]

31. That wouldn't work today. Tr***p's cult would still follow him.

[Bluethroughu]

6. The alternative media on youtube can keep you up yo date, without give MSM money.

MidasTouch
Brian Tyler Cohn
David Packman
Legal AF
Democracy Docket

Lots of choices for News not just entertainment

[boonecreek]

7. They really need to break up big media.

But that would require repealing the Communication Modernization Act so I won't be holding my breath.

[Pepsidog]

8. I could not have said it better. American press has failed us in spectacular fashion.

[Magoo48]

9. IMO, Capitalism like ours has but one inevitable end--fascism.

Vulture/extraction Capitalism into corrupt government, into oligarchy and billionaires’ control, into fascism.

[Stardust Mirror]

10. deliberately dumb

You don't find many answers if you don't ask any questions

I've noticed that when things happen, mainstream media never asks the questions that need to be asked, yet here on DU those questions are inevitably and quickly asked by our members. So, it's not like the questions are mysterious - I think many of the questions that should be asked are obvious.

So I conclude that the oligarchs who are the owners/employers of mainstream media DO NOT ALLOW those questions to be asked.

[Ohioboy]

11. The media is not seeking truth

A true journalist drills down on the truth. The media nowadays just wants to promote the circus.

[Aviation Pro]

12. It's all about access

Always has been.

I suggest that the media ask salacious questions like where did Shine Box Donnie learn to fellate so expertly.

[Martin Eden]

13. "Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine"

We just have to find the fucking GONG !!!!

[Mblaze]

14. Starting with the end of the Fairness Doctrine

and the onset of privately owned cable news, the profit margin rules over hard-hitting journalism. Reality-TV politics is the modern cash cow but I think those udders are drying up as we speak. We're in a cowardly new world of surrender journalism that hopes to avoid its inevitable demise; thus the dumbing down of America.

[ScratchCat]

15. The internet and social media killed journalism

Because it allowed bullshit to compete with truth. It gave an untold number of folks who don't want to lift one finger for labor to be rich through advertising linked to "numbers of clicks". Corporate media, caring for little more than profits, then changed their model to incorporate consideration for said bullshit. Now, all the MS media cares for is a reality show it can sell to its viewers, truth be damned.

[Nigrum Cattus]

16. Just to clarify - Fellatio has (2) L's

I do agree with the statement though.

[Evolve Dammit]

17. Excellent post. We are about same age and waiting for first Super Bowl. Kidding aside, good points.

[dchill]

18. It's not "our press" anymore.

All the major media corpses are owned by billionaire fascists. Freedom of the press has been acquired.

[rubbersole]

19. The 'Telecommunications Act' was the key to billionaire ownership of all media.

Too late to fix it now. Kinda like our democracy.

[Dem4life1234]

21. In historical films and other forms of media...

Maniacs like him would be depicted as villains to be made example of.

He looks and acts every bit like a villain. How far America has fallen.

Where is this liberal media conservaturds complain about? I sure as hell haven't seen it. Maybe that was true in 1970 something when journalists had bigger balls.

[canetoad]

22. Your post and many subsequent replies

Encapsulate my recent thoughts about the state of US politics.

For most of the 20th centure the US was the home and the leader in entertainment. Movies made people rich, created dynasties, heroes and heroines. Then television did the same but in a more pervasive way.

Now real life mimics a soap opera or as you so succinctly put it, a reality show. The characters are both good and bad but they are no longer confined to our large and small screens, they infuse every aspect of life.

[Locutusofborg]

23. The People who voted for Trump could care less...

about the mainstream media. They don't watch it, read it or listen to it. They pride themselves on being committed to "alternative media," which means Fox News, Fox Business channel, One America News network, NewsMax, conservative talk radio and conservative social media, most prominently Twitter//X and even farther right social media like the QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy websites.

[yellow dahlia]

26. You are all singing our song.

My husband and I say: If we win Mega Millions, we would buy media.

Maybe we should buy a ticket?

[BoRaGard]

27. .

[OAITW r.2.0]

28. We, as a nation, haven't suffered enough yet.

Trump is working on it, though.

[Alice Kramden]

29. K&R n/t

[JR11]

32. Preaching to the choir

I don't know how often any of you tune into rightwing channels or radio talk shows, but I keep tabs and check in every now and then to see how they're processing verifiable information and shared reality.

Well, I've never been one to get informationally siloed, and I've never viewed anything in a one-sided way, but when I get a load of what has been (and still is) being proffered through these right-wing info channels, I eventually exit out of it feeling assaulted and violated at the gut-level. It's just an operation of insidious propaganda, at the level of informational warfare; and what I'm left with is the realization that deep-level mind control has been systematically performed on the demographic comprising Maga. What's taking place should be considered criminal and an active operation of treason against America and the democratic establishment. All the usual suspects like the late Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Tucker Carlson, Hannity and earlier lead-in players like Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, just to name a few of the high profile ones, all worked that demographic with the same formulaic, artful deception built upon a framework of agendas, and it still playing out in wide open spaces.

This isn't a matter of free speech or acceptable discourse; it has been an active act of contrived deception bent on causing real world consequences.

I just overheard a quintessential red hat wearing Maga type, so convinced and committed in his call in statement saying that the J6 committee were treasonous for basically the act of bringing justice into the picture concerning the giant out-of-control mob and the acts they committed. It didn't stop there... these "ultra maga" are so gung-ho about seeing public executions, and he was calling for executions for decent people like Liz Channey and Adam Schiff.

This is what is so dangerous. Trump and his connection to that demographic gives me every reason to believe he's going to throw red-meat to these people to keep them in-line while he and his admin strip them of what little priviledges they have and lower their quality of life even further.

As to the original post... it's as clear as a bell that special interests have overtaken all mainstream avenues of media, and they're cooking the collective conscience to meet the recipe of their choice, as they see it.