Alternate Reality According To The Media

By Charles Boz

KingNewsMedia.com

The backlash against America’s ‘mainstream media’ (MSM) or ‘big media’ as it is also called today, has surprised observers of all sorts of political, social, business and cultural backgrounds in that it has continued to deepen and widen in scope. Clearly, MSM’s reputation, image and worth in America continues to descend into levels of historical disrespect. Across the board, media, particularly ‘news media’ is sinking fast. Ratings for traditional broadcast evening news shows (ABC, CBS and NBC) are a shadow of what they once were and continue to diminish into being programs nearly exclusively for the senior citizen demographic.  News magazines are folding or barely holding on as a perfect storm of a terrible recession (or is it a depression that Americans are too proud to admit?), plummeting advertising and deep circulation losses  have made many magazines thin and anemic versions of past issues. The same is true for newspapers which are closing at a faster rate and scrambling to come up with any ideas to survive.   Some of the biggest names in the business, The New York Times, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, Boston Herald, US News and World Report, Newsweek and San Francisco Chronicle are seriously hurting and diminished in the numbers of consumers using their material and even more diminished in stature.

Without question, one of the worst economic environments the nation has faced since the Great Depression has something to do with it as does the rise of digital/Web media which clearly has become the future for news and is rapidly gaining dominance as the method of delivery for people. Shifting demographics are also at play as more generations of Americans are Web and tech-centric than in the past and entire segments of the population find both all they have known.  This is all true and we have seen many MSM defenders use every one of these reasons to explain their fall but more, much more is going on here too.

Undoubtedly, the behavior and actions of the MSM from the last presidential campaign have hurt it big time and I do not believe there is any going back.  The bulk of the American media had been suspected and accused of being deeply prejudiced politically in favor of liberal ideology and the Democrat Party. American media itself  allowed itself to become  a haven for one-sided thinking on an institutional level and nothing more than a conceited and exclusive club for like-minded people.  Ultimately, the MSM grew disconnected from the masses by is very lack of diversity of opinion. The overwhelming majority of the MSM could no longer relate to anyone other than East Coast, New York and Boston, West Coast, Hollywood and San Francisco,  Washington, DC, Liberal Democrats who went to college, attained a Masters’ Degree and embraced political correctness and other tenets of a Democrat Party gone awry with one far-left way of thought.

It all culminated in the past election when the majority of the MSM threw away any last vestiges of independence and professionalism and became blatant public relations agents for the Democrats and its nominee, Barack Obama. The behavior of the MSM was so terribly atrocious, so blatantly biased, so painfully bigoted and over-the-top that much of the media literally became nothing but cheap whores for a candidate and party instead of practitioners and defenders of the Fourth Estate and its sacred American role as independent balance-checkers  of government.  Scores of millions were insulted. Just as many were angered and left seeking alternative media or leaving it up to themselves to get the news from different sources they trusted or respected.

A steady stream of polls, research, consumer behavior trends, studies and other work has continued to pour in without any loss of steam since Election Day last year and it all continues to reinforce some common themes: namely more Americans than ever before do not respect the MSM, they believe the MSM is biased politically and do not trust the MSM any longer so they do not patronize it.  The last presidential campaign and the MSM’s reckless embracement of one candidate was so severe that even many Americans who never really bothered to get involved in the debate about media bias were turned-off by the media. Worse yet, the fallout and backlash goes way beyond politics. What should trouble American media even more is that more Americans than ever before strongly feel that the MSM is not made for them.  Research and poll after poll indicates that a majority of Americans not only believe that the media is prejudiced but that its bias is so deep that what they produce is literally not mean for them to see or read—it is meant for only people who think and live like those in media—a true clique that took over media in the country.

But if you step back and take a wide look at the MSM today, you will see just how deeply exclusionary it really is beyond politics.  The overall result of the MSM becoming so segregated and prejudiced with liberals and Democrats is that it simplified everything because it lacked a diverse view. The media’s narrow thinking and uniform political persuasion drove it to believe nearly everyone believed, lived, acted and valued what it did and those that did not were merely uneducated imbeciles that were most likely racists, simpletons, Republicans (gasp!), religious fools, traditional values idiots and other labels only worthy of contempt. In truth, America’s MSM became so terribly insular, so isolated and elitist that it literally struggled to relate to anyone and any thinking that was not theirs.  As a result, the media routinely mocks, insults and ignores everything and everybody it cannot understand or does not support.  It has taken a nation of 300 million individuals and simplified everything to such juvenile standards and labels that it is meaningless as well as absurd.

The MSM has indeed created an alternate reality it attempts to peddle to the masses who have finally had enough. Let’s look at some of the things that, according to the MSM, it believes and reports as fact but are deeply mistaken:

If you are black, you must be a Democrat.  If you’re black and a Republican, you must have money or you are a traitor.

There are no black conservatives.  Nearly every black supports Al Sharpton as the national ‘voice’ of the community.

Anyone who does not support homosexual marriage must be bigots or homophobes.

All Republicans are either rich, uneducated, racist, religious loons or from ‘Middle America’.

Religion is not important to Americans.  Atheism is hip and true.  The Catholic Church should only be referenced to pedophilia or anything to do with a perceived insult to someone by the Pope who should also be insulted.

Americans are truly ‘blue state’ or ‘red state’, liberal or conservative. All 300 million. Anyone who is ‘independent’ is on the lunatic fringe or needs to get with the program.

There are no conservative homosexuals and certainly no Republican homosexuals. If there are, they are traitors too.

All Hispanics favor illegal immigrants getting amnesty. All Hispanics are liberal. All Hispanics vote primarily for anyone or anything that is pro-Spanish language, uses the language and pushes aside English.

All feminists are Democrats. All feminists are for abortion. All feminists are liberals. All feminists are for abortion whenever a woman wants it right up to birth. Feminists cannot be Republican. Feminists cannot be about family values. Feminists cannot be stay-at-home moms. Feminists cannot embrace traditional religion.

All white men are well-off. All white men are secure in society. Only white men are Republicans or conservative. White men cannot suffer discrimination, bigotry and prejudice. The National Rifle Association is made up only of white men. Only white men are angry about lax immigration and broken borders. Only white men want English to be the standard language in the nation. White men can always get work. There are no poor white men or white people.

Political correctness speech and behavior is accepted by most Americans’ they do not mind losing freedoms of speech, thought etc. in order to make others feel good and accepted.

Americans do not say ‘Merry Christmas’, ‘God bless you’, ‘God bless America’.

Most Americans really care about not torturing terror suspects and want it to stop. Most Americans really like closing Gitmo and finding a place to relocate terror suspects.

Most Americans really care about and respect what Hollywood, Al Gore, Al Sharpton, entertainers, the women on the View, Oprah, the Daily Show, The New York Times, homosexual activists, feminists, abortion activists, artists, higher education types, unions, global warming believers, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Bono, Sean Penn, The Washington Post, White House Press Corps, England, Germany, France, the United Nations…..whew….have to say to us.

Not really.

When you look at just how many people and views the MSM has effectively shut-off from its world and does not recognize or respect, it is a wonder there is anyone left but liberals and Democrats to speak to…….oh wait, that IS all that is left.

Good for us. It is about time.

 

Charles Boz is a frequent contributor to KingNewsMedia.com

Patriotism & Two Party System

By Walter Krull

I heard during the Bush presidency that if I did not support the president’s military actions in Iraq then I was “unpatriotic” and I have heard during the Obama presidency that if I did not support him personally, well then I must be a racist as well as “unpatriotic”.  Now, I hear that if I do not support President Obama’s health care and stimulus plans along with his General Motors, AIG and Chrysler bailouts as well as his  ’cap and trade’ policy and closing of Gitmo, then I must be “unpatriotic” too.

Enough.  I am sick of it all. It is time Americans got off their lazy political asses, began to really think  and realize what truly is unpatriotic: supporting the two-party, Democrat-Republican political system. We are a nation of 300 million people representing every race, religion and way of thinking on earth and yet 300 million of us have been diminished to red-state or blue-state, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.  This is ridiculous.

I know schools in our nation today are terribly inefficient in actually teaching anything other than political and cultural bias that is typically in favor of creepy political correctness and mindless support of the Democrat Party (mainly because most of the so-called teachers in America’s public schools are nothing but unionized loafers who whore for the Democrat Party because the party shills for overpaid, under-performing union teachers) but I would love to know if the kids in school are actually learning that the United States of America was not founded on a two-party system and that the two major parties of today are not part of the government. Hell, I do not believe most Americans know that the parties are nothing but private organizations whose sole reason for existence is to gain political power so that it can reward members and supporters with financial and other gifts.

I believe more than ever that being a partisan in today’s America is the single most ignorant and destructive thing a citizen can do for his country. The two-party system is outdated. It is hopelessly broken. It cannot be fixed. It is about time more media pundits, so-called intellectuals in education and think-tanks as well as citizens begin to shout it. Our system of government as it is now comprised is nothing but an elite club of two. Two political organizations share all of the power, money and benefits of managing the government. It is corrupt to the very marrow of their bones.  The sheer magnitude of wasteful spending on both sides and the depth of greed, corruption and inefficiency is criminal.

Our government on all levels–since the two party system intrudes even on the state, county and local levels–has become the very thing General George Washington and the founders of our nation fought against. Look at the lavish spending of our politicians. Look at how members of Congress reap benefits that would make you sick with anger when you realize they live like aristocrats while millions of citizens are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, feed their children and pay bills.  Even the staffers of the members of Congress have more lavish surroundings than they ever should have at the expense of taxpayers. Nice cars. Fantastic health plans and pensions. Well furnished offices with expensive chairs, lamps, carpets and the works. Private restaurants and clubs. The list goes on and on.

No wonder politics in America became nothing more than another for-profit industry–the perks are too damn good to give up when you continually steal money from the public, waste it, pocket a lot of it and live like royalty while scores of millions of the very same public are too shiftless, ignorant, uneducated and careless to demand it stop. The era of the career-politician has destroyed this nation. We need to create, support and elect third parties to change it. It is truly the only solution to a problem so severe, nothing else will do.

I marvel at how Americans can get so angry at business–especially monopolies like cable companies–but do not see how their very own government mirrors the worst of big business. We complain when a handful of companies control the vast majority of an industry and detail how they kill us with overpriced services, lack of customer service, lack of respect and lack of accessibility to people who will listen and rectify problems. Yet, all of this can be said about the two parties and how they operate. Try going to any city hall, statehouse or even Congress today and see how little you feel as a taxpayer. Try to gain access to your elected representatives. Try testing them to see how fast they give you an ear and for how long and attentive. See if anything gets done. See if you do not feel like in some way or another you were made to feel as if you were intruding even though they are the servant and you are the person being served. 

Nothing is as blatant an example of the creation of old-world European aristocrats in our government as is Congress. The whole town of Washington, DC–in theory a place of service to the people and location of numerous ‘people’s houses’ is nothing more than American,  modern day equivalent of the old Soviet Union’s Kremlin. Hell, the only thing left for the aristocrats in DC to do is simply build a deep moat and large wall around the town because they already have invisible ones (and not so invisible ones: fences, gates, walls and security is everywhere) and do everything they can to keep away from voters and deepen inaccessibility. Last year, Congress unveiled a new “visitor’s center and entrance” to the Capitol Building. Besides being terribly overpriced it was a clear example of just how detached our servants have separated themselves from us. The entrance now affords politicians the ability to not mix and mingle with the peons.  It is another literal physical barrier between the representative and the represented.

When the new entrance and visitor’s center opened, it was one Harry Reid, that wonderful dirt bag Democrat who  caused a stir (only in the non-liberal Democrat media) when he was caught actually breathing a sigh of relief that the entrance would spare him and his fellow Congressmen from having to “smell” the citizens in the halls of Congress. Wow, is this France before the Revolution? “Let them eat cake,” revisited?

It may be hard (although I cannot see why) for many Americans to admit and accept that our government is beyond repair. It may be harder for others to see that the only way to restore real and healthy democracy to our system is to shake it up with competition from alternative parties. But I firmly believe this is the singular option left for us. Whether Democrat or Republican, I believe both parties have become nothing but bloated ticks that have gorged on us the people for far too long. They have become complacent, unresponsive, arrogant, dis-connected and extremely unproductive.  The current two party system is closer to representing the OPEC oil cartel than a democratic political body. Behind closed doors, they are more similar than not and both are committed to protecting the status-quo.

I suggest that whenever you hear, read or see media pundits, politicans, lobbyists and anyone else enthusiastically and blindly support either party, you call them out on it. Let’s starting calling partisanship un-American and un-patriotic for a change.

 

Walter Krull is a regular contributor to KingNewsMedia.com and is an official independent politically.