In many regards it seems sometimes the media mettles too much into US politics. Often, they end up favoring a certain politician over another, and more often than not, it just happens to be the one which is spending the most money on advertising with that newspaper, their online version, or buying ads for the newspaper's website - convenient I'd say? Okay so, no revelation there, and as we grow older and watch the repeats of past history go around in circles every decade it tends to jade us and make us a tad bit cynical - but hey, that's politics and it's a messy business, as has been said.
Still, we do rely on our media to keep the politicians honest, and generally they love to stir up controversy which makes it a double-edged sword too. Freedom of the press therefore helps promote freedom and liberty, so that's a good thing, as long as those things I mentioned above don't get too far out of hand. Let's talk about this for a moment shall we?
The New York Times had an interesting article on April 4, 2012 titled; "In China Press, Best Coverage Cash Can Buy," by David Barboza which stated;
"China is notorious for censoring politically delicate news, but willing to print flattering news about businesses; if the price is right. Want a profile of your chief executive to appear in the Chinese version of Esquire? That will be about $20,000 a page, or get on a news program by state-run China Central Television? Pay $4,000 a minute, says a network consultant who arranges such appearances. A flattering piece in Workers' Daily, the Communist Party's propaganda paper $1 per Chinese character."
That same day there was another reminded of the cellular telephone scandal in the UK from one of their major newspapers. Couple that without our own challenges here at home and how our media seems to have become our fourth branch of government, often more powerful than the other three as it dictates policy and legislates from the pages. Where does all this go from here? Well, if we let it, that entire train could roll out of the high-speed station and leave us all behind, so, I'd say, let's not go there.
Still, how can we stop such things when the media has so much power, and the power brokers find ways to buy their way to political propaganda? That's a real catch-22 my friends, and with newspapers in the US hurting as bad as they are, they'd be more likely to take the money and confirm a little "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine," at the expense of our nation's future, and our future liberty and freedom. Beware the industrial media complex. See my point? Please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on 2012 Global Politics. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
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