Garbage In/Garbage Out: Reasons to Enforce New Regulations on the News Media

The US national government should implement official standards and practices for the regulation of news media for three reasons. First, as it now stands, the mainstream media is owned and run by a handful of corporations which do not have investment in the well-being of the population. Second, the news fails to add a broad perspective or comment meaningfully on it's subject. Finally, the news media is alarmist to its own detriment, driven to a distortion a reasonable perspective by its own contradicting motives.

Powerful large corporations own the mainstream media. Large powerful corporations generally have ties to other large corporations. Corporations exist solely as a mechanism to create profits. Profit by definition is the amount of money or reward a person can siphon from a system. It is simple logic to assume that it is easier to exploit and thereby profit from system that is filled by the ignorant as a majority. Allowing the conglomeration of news media is thereby giving the responsibility of informing the public to corporations that would have it be in their best interest to mal-inform or keep the majority clueless.

It is considered the purpose and responsibility of news media to cover current events in an immediate and factual manner and present the information responsibly. But, like a hound dog with nose to the ground, the media goes from one scent to the next, never looking up to place all the pieces into a broader context, to recognize patterns and draw meaningful conclusions. The media does not seek to enlighten its audience, but rather immerse it in meaningless seemingly unrelated events and factoids. This does a great disservice by giving the audience the impression of a random, meaningless and unchangeable world out of the reach of their comprehension.

In the interest of attracting an audience in a competitive market, the major news media has to play upon the fears of its followers preying upon their emotions to illicit the public's attention. Those willing to expose themselves to the "the news" on a daily basis are likely first to be infected by a state of panic, which then devolves into a numbness, resulting in a general depression, and after long enough, finally, a self-identity of a powerless and helpless individual.

The need for news media in society is not aligned to the needs of the current media conglomerates. Without the media being funded and controlled directly by the people, it will not be able to serve the people. Instead, as it is now, the media will be set up and run to manipulate “the people” for the purposes of its advertisers and its shareholders, benefiting the few at the cost of the many.

Spun Out on the Wisconsin Labor Movement Spin

In reading John H. Hinderaker’s blog, John H. Hinderaker: graduate of Dartmouth, lawyer with a nationwide litigation practice, and member of the Claremont Institute (a conservative think tank based in California) it was no surprise to see the denouncement of the labor movement uprising in Wisconsin within its contents. If there were such a thing as a class war (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) one would not have to go through much effort to determine what side John H. Hinderaker would be fighting for. But what is difficult to determine is what audience outside of superrich elite, that conspired together to create the nonsensical mash-up of ideas being passed off as a political philosophy by the Claremont Institute, would subscribe to the interpretation of events as it is described in the article of that blog so appropriately titled, "[The] Mob scene in Madison."

It might be hard to imagine, as someone likely to make over half a million dollars a year, what it might feel like to have to struggle one's entire life to barely scrape a living, and have the only thing, keeping such a person of low standing from total destitute (the unions), stripped away through some loophole concocted by lawmakers of the same standing, of say, maybe a Dartmouth graduate lawyer that own's their own national firm. Such a person of low economic standing might get very upset at the notion of losing their job or their salary. And, having all their friends and neighbors sharing in the same situation, they might organize and demonstrate against those in the process of undermining what little bit of power that protects them from big business interests. 

Hinderaker describes the scene of protesters at the Wisconsin State Capitol: "the mob was vulgar and threatening, as usual." And, "The attack on democracy that the Democratic Party has launched in Wisconsin is disgraceful." But really, if you think about it, considering the circumstances and the size of the crowd, the demonstration was low key and peaceful, as is easy to notice from the video footage provided on the blog’s page. If the video is watched in its entirety, the person recording it even says as much. Overall, one could go to a typical football game and see much worse and be in more danger.

It is the public's right to protest in a peaceful assembly, to suggest otherwise is harmful to the Democratic foundations of this country. And, as is suggested in the conclusion of the blog by Hinderaker “they [the Republican Congress] can by a vote, order such persons in prison for the remainder of the legislative session, something to consider." Such a statement is horrifying and unconstitutional in its very nature, a conclusion unbefitting a person of such standing and education. Maybe a law should be made requiring all fancy rich lawyers to have to spend a week out of every year in jail so they don't take the notion of imprisonment so lightly and think more carefully about spews forth from mouth or pen.

To end on a more amusing and upbeat note, quoting from FoxNews.com, Sally Kohn:

This is simple. The vast majority of Americans think it’s wrong that 400 obscenely rich people hold more wealth and power than the assets of 155 million ordinary Americans combined. Why? Because it is wrong.

Such monstrous inequality and lack of opportunity for ordinary Americans is not a sign that capitalism is broken but a sign that our economy and politics have been rigged to work for the very few at the top. And since the same few rich people and big businesses at the top make most of the political contributions in our country, politicians are woefully skittish to challenge their greed.

And that's why the final reason to thank a union, the organized voice -- and yes, political money, too -- large enough to stand up to the otherwise-unchecked disastrous power of big businesses that care nothing about you or our economy and care only about their profit. That’s not what America is about.

That's  why we let people vote to join unions, to stand up together for working Americans and to fulfill the vision of freedom and equality for which our nation was founded. -- Just like we let people vote anti-democratic, anti-working families politicians out of office.