Coverage for Ramsey Story exponentially outpaces NSA Ruling

[chieftain]

I am working from home so I have had MSNBC on until I can't take it anymore, then I switch to CNN and then back again. This has been my viewing pattern for the past 2 days. Even though this impressionistic rather than empirical, the Ramsey coverage must be 4 or 5 times greater than the reporting on the NSA case.
Any objective analysis of the scope of impact on the American people would surely come to the conclusion that the NSA story clearly deserves primacy in terms of news focus.But the commercial enterprises that control our "news" have decreed otherwise I have always thought that the ratings driven fascination that cable news show toward child murders is intrinsically pornographic. But in this instance it also shines the bright light on the complete failure of the corporate media to fulfill its obligations to democratic principles. A republic's continued existence is dependent upon the consent of an informed citizenry. As we slide toward authoritarianism, the news media's refusal to play its vital role in a self governing society coupled with an extreme passivity on the part of the vast viewing public bring to mind with growing trepidation a Founding Father's words on the approval of the Constitution. "Its a republic, if we can keep it"

[acmavm]

1. It's intentional. The MSM doesn't want to report one of the

biggest stories of the last six months. They like keeping people stupid.

[mmonk]

2. Media is ratings oriented,

not issue or truth oriented.

[chieftain]

5. True. But one of the more disturbing trends of recent

years has been the substitution of entertainment and commercial considerations for news judgment.The concentration of ownership in fewer and fewer hands along with conscious decisions by commercial interests to co opt journalists has led to a seriously degraded information source for the American people. This fascination with bread and circus serves the network's conservative masters well as they deliberately distract the electorate from the unmitigated disaster that is the Bush regime.

[Greeby]

3. Naturlich

:eyes:

[David__77]

4. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing politically...

It severely disrupts the continuity of the right-wing attempt to hammer in the alleged centrality of "terror issues." That's not a bad thing.

[Ron Green]

6. I think, though, that the general mix of fear and entertainment

that's become the standard currency of the corporate media is well-served by this Jon Benet thing. It shows that the media can resurrect a 10-year-old story and use it at will to draw attention away from almost anything that might be important.

What this seems to mean is that someday there will be an unlimited supply of sleazy and sordid brain candy from which to pull out whatever item might divert our would-be citizens.

[Catchawave]

7. Ratings too :)

Thinking the MSM may be welcoming the break from covering Cheney directives :evilgrin:

Oh wait, they just cut to BUSH *live* commenting on the spying issue....terra, terra,terra...."how can I protect the Amerikkan people...blah, blah, blah..."

[Catchawave]

8. Update: Coming up next...Mel Gibson and

Snakes on a Plane :rofl: