pan6467

I remember back in the 80's (God I'm getting old) someone famous said about CNN and the 24 hour news channels as they were starting out, "that they only have so much news to report on and eventually to make profit news will have to be manufactured. And eventually people will become totally desensitized to everything."" That quote has stuck with me, because it was a true prophecy of what news has become.

I truly believe we have become a society where nothing shocks us anymore. But I also feel that there are some issues that up until the 90's the press laid off of.

Had it not been for the press's hounding, I truly believe Clinton would not have had the troubles he had and would have been able to do what he was elected to do. In the past presidents got away with having affairs and they weren't exposed.

Rather's comments don't surprise me, but I think he's wrong. I see two sides. One the press competes with each other more now which means they can be more watchful of government and what goes on, but on the other hand the competition promotes news to be sensationalized, which in turn desensitizes us to true issues.

I don't see news being held back, except when one side (politically) wants to cover it up or spin it so that the other side looks bad.

I also think it is pathetic that we have this mentality now that this form of news leans left or this form leans right and we dig to find biases. (Both sides do it equally.)

It's divisive to the country, because in the end people stop trusting the news in general and only focus on what sources cater to their beliefs. Which becomes bad in that those sources then can control how you think about what goes on and how you react.

Example: you watch the 700 club, listen to Limbaugh and Dredge and watch Faux News (misspellings purposed) and hear how great the war in Iraq is going, and how people who oppose it are liberal commies who hate America, it taints your views on those opposed to the war.

Same as if all you do is read European websites and get your all your news from anti-war sources (Rense is a great example) that focus on just the bad. So then you are tainted and believe that everything we are doing is evil.

If you take both sides and then take out the sensationalism and spin you can come to a personal conclusion and may surprise yourself in what you find.

I do have to disagree with you, the public isn't standing up for itself, we are being led by one side or the other (depending upon your views) and being told the other side is totally wrong and hateful.

I propose that if people found a truly neutral news source they would be able to focus on issues much better and not just partisan politics (which is dividing and destroying us as a country). And we may find that what we have been fed these past few years has done nothing but divide us and keep us from focusing on how to better the country and get along. That the views of the people as a whole are not as different as the press they choose want them to believe.

Hope that made sense. I truly believe until the 90's the press was pretty centrist. But became more polarized because both sides realized that was how to control the masses beliefs and votes.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"