One thing I have very little respect for in America is the American Media. "It sucks" is about the right description. I generally think the print media is better than the TV, mainly bacause the TV news seems to be after sensationalism. Of the newspapers, I like the reporting of the Wall Street Journal (even though I may hate the op-ed page). I have not been watching TV for all practical purposes for the last two years. So, I have been forced to get my news from the internet, and lately a lot of political news comes to me via blogs.
Nevertheless, I find Pew Research Center's new survey on Media Consumption and Believability quite instructive in understanding the public opinion in this country. Even better is the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) study on misperceptions of the Iraq situation.
The current administration seems to have managed to keep the media on it's side for most of the part. It is only recently, after the situation in Iraq has been fubar, that the media has started to questions the role of the administration, and itself. I have not seen many systamatic efforts to lift the fog over what was said and what was reported in the media in the lead up to the war in Iraq. Amy Goodman's critique of the American media in the war time is especially scathing.
The failings of the media are not, however, restricted to the reporting of the government or war. Robert McChesney has written for years about how the modern infotainment business model has forced the commerical media corporations to agglomerate.
I don't have any big ideas on what can be done except to demand better, broader and more realistic coverage of news from the mainstream media as well as supporting alternative media outlets. I try to get my news from different news sources and generally tend to discount views on extremes. I also tend to spend disproportionate amount of time getting my news. Not everybody has that luxury. Is there an alternative?
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