Sunday, December 1, 2013

THOUGHTS ON MEDIA CONTROL AND INDOCTRINATION


Bill Hessell shared your blog post on Google+
While much of the public still believes the much repeated fiction of the "liberal media bias" which has been propagated by conservative politicians and their media backers, the reality is that for at least the last 25 years the majority of media outlets in the US have been owned and controlled by conservatives who have been very willing to distort and emphasize the news in ways that serve their political purposes. Talk radio is heavily dominated by rabid right-wing propagandists, Fox News's claim to be "fair and balanced" is a joke that should be obvious to any listener who hasn't totally bought their line. While many reporters and broadcasters are personally liberal, their news coverage must conform to the guidelines set by the newspaper, station, or network management and their corporate sponsors. The days of a Walter Cronkite, Bill Moyers, or Dan Rather giving an unfiltered account of the news on a major network are over. Even NPR, which does give balanced news coverage, is protested by conservative elements, I suppose because their coverage dares deviate from the line the right-wing powers wish to have believed as fact. Add in the political indoctrination that now takes place in many fundamentalist Christian churches, it becomes clear that the influential but unlikely convergence of money, media, and twisted morality cloud many people's judgments of our political realities and electoral choices. A media that is truly fair and balanced is desperately needed, but in our currently polarized and imbalanced nation, is out of reach.
MEDIA CONTROL AND INDOCTRINATION IN US-CHOMSKY

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