Internet, Bloggers' Half-Truths Are Killing Newspapers and Journalism

media is biased

if the newspapers and mainstream media actually reported the truth instead of being equally hypocritical by releases half truths themselves then we wouldn't need the internet for our news source. they wont talk about FEMA camps or the military conducting police activity in the U.S. but well hear all about how great the health care plan is that is conveniently predetermined for us to accept when we dont even know whats in it. give me a break i have family that live next to the NAFTA highway being built right outsode their door and still the news denies it. so dont be quick to judge when you do not have all your facts.

Media

The "mainstream" media are losing ground for a number of reasons. One is that they have abandoned any pretense of trying to be objective and have become the propaganda arm of the far left. The far left should have their own mechanisms for disseminating their propaganda, at their OWN expense, instead of hi-jacking what should be a non-partisan media, intended to serve the general public not just the hard left. I dropped my subscription to a major "newspaper" because I didn't want to pay for the promotion of someone else's propaganda.

Your ideas about the internet and news are literally crazy!

I am a journalism student in the UK and have extensively studied the American media.

Probably the main reason why a lot of newspapers are closing is because the political ideology of neo-conservativism, from Reagan to Bush Jnr., allowed the right of the media to have both an economic and an ideas monopoly which ultimately left its citizens naturally depoliticised and therefore not interested in the news.

And now the economy has failed due to the same consumer-driven, wasteful, polluting people, companies and people weren't saving during the good times etc. so again, many newspapers can't survive.

Blogging is pretty rubbish to be honest, there will always be a place for good journalism, but the internet is obviously changing things.

People need to be interested in the news, the recent election of Barack Obama looks like a nod to a new age. And we need to find a way of making the internet pay somehow, maybe through subscriptions and advertisng. Pieces on the internet cost nothing to produce.

traditional journalism has lost our trust

Ms. Erbe, you seem bewildered by the fact that the American people are increasingly rejecting traditional journalism for something you regard as inferior. What you seem to be missing is the fact that traditional journalism has lost its credibility. Consider just a few examples:

* The CBS News story during the 2004 election criticizing George Bush's National Guard service that relied on fabricated documents.

* The NY Times story during the 2008 election insinuating John McCain had an affair with a lobbyist, without a shred of evidence to back it up.

* The so-called responsible media trying and convicting the Duke lacrosse players of a rape that never happened.

I have also seen multiple instances of agenda-driven media coverage that is not even close to objective and fact-based. I'm well aware of the shortcoming of bloggers, but at least they are honest about their biases and agendas. And for that reason I actually trust them more than I trust you and other traditional journalists.

You are indeed being displaced by bloggers and other sources of news, but that is the symptom of your problem, not its cause. Until you and your colleagues accept and face up to the fact that you have lost the trust of the American people, your industry will continue to wither away.

Veracity? Don’t insult our intelligence.

This is stretching it a bit: “used to protect readers and consumers from being targeted for commercial or political purposes, that old-fashioned edited newspapers and magazines used to (and to a limited extent, still do) provide.” That was never true.

On the contrary there was always the problem that traditional news outlets were always very slow to inform their readers of big news stories that didn’t fit the editors’ political interests. For example, twenty years ago James Hansen testified before congress trying to scare us about global warming. See his predictions in figure 3(a) & 3(b) on page 7 of this PDF from his own published article (journal page 9347):

http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/1988/1988_Hansen_etal.pdf

Real scientists know that such long-term climate forecasts are not possible. No one has ever demonstrated the ability to make such predictions accurately, and journalists would know why not if they cared to look into it. The most recent global satellite data published by the University of Alabama at Huntsville proves that Hansen was completely wrong. This predicted warming never occurred:

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/HANSEN_AND_CONGRESS.jpg

As you can see, 2008 was even colder than 1988. But we shouldn’t have had to wait twenty years for the truth. Journalists should have identified Hansen as a crack-pot and noticed that he had no track record of being able to accurately predict such things. No one has the ability to accurately predict climate on that time-scale. It would be like predicting the ups and downs of the stock market over the same time frame, or the weather. Had Hansen predicted what actually happened, no one would have seen the need to waste hundreds of billions of dollars. Now the politicians have stimulated much more of this wasteful spending, to be paid for by your grandchildren (ironic how they claim to be protecting the children from doomsday when they’re really bankrupting the children’s future with false fears). Here is more background on this deliberate hoax perpetrated twenty years ago:

http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/hansens_anniversary_testimony/

For a list of 31,478 scientists who signed a petition opposing the man-made global warming theory, as well as a peer reviewed journal article detailing the evidence that disproved the theory, please follow this link:

http://www.petitionproject.org/

If the global warming prediction failed that should be big news. But the failure of journalism’s favorite theory is a hard stone to pass. This is even worse than Newsweek sitting on the story of Monica’s blue dress until after Clinton’s re-election. The Internet eliminates this bias, because the entire spectrum is out there. We are free from the news media’s political blinders. Journalists have a long history of not citing their sources on this debunked theory. They still act like it's a foregone conclusion.

Left, Right, Middle... Read them all

Any time you find a fact in common to these various directions of print media, you have teased out a kernel of truth. I have been doing this for some 40 years.

It is like family reunions. Opinions are like *holes...everybody has one. No sense in fighting with the guy who is passing you the turkey.

I like this caption [Meet Mr Luckey, NY Daily News, 5-17-08]

"He who never changes his mind is either foolish or dead..."

The point is that issues, especially in this "Brave, New Century" will never again be painted as "black or white". That is tough for us who have been taught to reject all shades of gray.

Somewhere, out there is the Answer or, at least a mitigating temporary solution until the Answer is revealed.

I do not believe that my “belief system” is superior to yours. Nor do I believe that your “belief system” is superior to mine. Everybody’s “Belief System” is the cumulative experience of one’s life. As such, it must change, just as the events of life change you.

Everybody’s “Belief System” is measured by the yardstick of one’s own choosing, and is defended by the choice of the yardstick [money, power, control].

The better choice is to let any and all attack your “Belief System”, and correct what is lacking.

The media did the deed themselves

I have no sympathy for the media! Look at some of the recent scandals involving " reporters " such as the disgraced Dan Rather and the more recent attack on a citizen, exercising their constitutional right of free assembly, by " reporter " Susan Roesgen at the Chicago " tea party."

I make it a point to notify the networks that I am boycotting their advertisers products and also send emails to these companies advising them of my displeasure with who they support with their advertising dollars. Maybe if we hit the networks in their pocket books they will start reporting facts.

Remember what the liberals did to Anita Bryant because she did not support " gay rights "

and they forced the Florida orange juice producers to drop their sponsorship of Anita Bryant? What ever happened to " free speach?"

What is Killing Newspapers?

Newspapers are killing newspapers, not the internet. When reporters decide to become "commentators" instead of "honest fact reporting reporters", it is they who kill the newpapers.

The same goes for the TV "reporters", they all want to be commentators.

What ever happened to "just the facts, Mam"? There is a reason the Main Stream Media is not trusted.

Killing Newspapers & Journalists

Don't blame it on the internet Erbe, newspapers committed slow suicide by being so biased and left wing. e.g. The Boston Globe didn't even bother to cover the recent tea party demonstration held in Boston, rather, they felt it better to cover a demonstration down south instead. America is getting fed up with the media bias. Journalism is about reporting all the facts, not just what it feels good about. Wake up Erbe,

go back to school, learn a trade and get a real job and stop whining like a left wing liberal. Become part of the real working class and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Become a productive member of society.

Wow.

I had never heard of you before today, Bonnie. I read one of your articles explaining (with a delightfully childlike absence of facts) why you believe we should all have our Constitutional rights trampled and our guns more strictly regulated. As if that simplistic answer will magically solve the problem. Just giving up our rights will do it, huh? Wow. Guess that makes us selfish people...

I always feel disheartened when I encounter people like you who work tirelessly around the clock to deny me my rights.

So, you'll pardon me if I feel little sympathy that you might soon be unemployed. Maybe then, you'll actually have to live in the real world, and hey...stranger things have happened...you might actually learn something useful.