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

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