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Originally Posted by willravel
I chose #2 because I feel that the media is a massive part of how the US thinks as a whole. In my opinion, our current problems are as follows:.....
.....We need rules about labeling truth as truth and fiction as fiction. When a news reporter sensationalizes a story and blurs the line between truth and fiction, they should be required, as a part of freedom of speech, to disclose sources, provide proof and be penalized if they don't present an unbiased story. If every news organization were fined $200k for the Jessica Lynch story, we could have paid for new programs in schools or better healthcare, while at the same time preventing the spread of misinformation.
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I have to disagree with your "Jessica Lynch story" as an example, will....
The U.S. government executive branch insisted on "embedding" all reporters in Iraq, to insure that it would be possible for it to control the flow of "news", instead of the news correspondents controlling it, as they were able to do during the Vietnam war, and during other wars that the US military had participated in....this is the "official story", and the media had only two choices, because of the embedding and censorship constraints place on it.
They could "carry" (distribute) this....or not...
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http://www.defendamerica.mil/article.../a040303d.html
<h3>Defend America</h3>
<b>U.S. Department if Defense News About the War on Terrorism</b>
Iraqi Family Risks It All
To Save American POW
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By U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Joseph R. Chenelly
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MARINE COMBAT HEADQUARTERS, Iraq, April 3, 2003 — New heroes have surfaced in the rescue of U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
Under the watchful eyes of more than 40 murderous gunmen, the 19-year-old supply clerk laid in Saddam Hussein Hospital suffering from at least one gunshot wound and several broken bones.
As her captors discussed amputating her leg, an Iraqi man leaned to her ear and whispered, "Don't worry." Lynch replied with a warm smile.
The man was already working with U.S. Marines to gain the critical information needed to rescue one of the first American prisoners of war in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
....Mohammad walked through battles in the city streets for two straight days to get to back to the hospital. His main mission was to watch the guards, but each morning he attempted to keep Lynch's spirits strong with a "good morning" in English.
He said she was brave throughout the ordeal.
When reporting back to the Marines on March 30, he brought five different maps he and his wife had made. He was able to point to the exact room the captured soldier was being held in. He also handed over the security layout, reaction plan and times that shift changes occurred.
He had counted 41 bad guys, and determined a helicopter could land on the hospital's roof. It was just the information the Marines needed.
American forces conducted a nighttime raid April 1. Lynch was safely rescued. She has since been transported to a medical facility in Germany.....
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I see nothing to "fine" the media for doing, in the above example. I see intentional, politically divisive, propaganda, in your example, coming from one political faction, and I see it as one of many examples that has deepened a divide that hampers discussion. The "middle" ground ends up being the mindset that does not see anything that has happened as any more unusual as "routine" politics.... and that does not lead to serious discussion....as in,
"discuss what"? or "same old, same old".....