Has the media truly become the enemy of the people?

When I took Poli Sci as an undergrad.... the prof was obviously a socialist/communist... but he often warned of a "one-party state" especially where the press is in the "pocket" of that party.

We have that in California. The Republican Party is alive but too small to make ANY difference in State issues (there are a handful to Republican congressmen sent to Washington). Every state-wide office is held by a Democrat, and in every case, a radical leftist Democrat. The Democrats have such a wide majority in both houses that the Republicans are just wasting space. And yes, the Press here is all run by uber-liberal democrats. The only hold out is in Fresno... the San Diego Newspaper USED to be fairly balanced but it was bought out by the LA Times. The Press is the mouth piece of the Democratic Party. And the state judges are appointed by increasingly liberal politicians and so nearly all are now uber-liberal.

What happens in a one-party government where the Press simply speaks for it? The party becomes more and more radical..... and in time, becomes corrupt (becoming a machine). We are seeing the first, the second will come. Look at Chicago or Detroit for decades..... It tends to self-perpetuate, too..... that one party getting stronger and stronger, eliminating opposition by controlling districts, voting policies, etc., etc. For example, it helps the Dems if illegal aliens vote so the Dems created a policy where ANYONE can get a license and when you get a license, you are registered to vote, thus illegal aliens can vote here. And the Dems have workers that go into areas where illegal aliens live and because of VERY loose "mail ballot" rules they've put in place, the operatives just gather up the ballots and vote for them. What can the Republicans do? NOTHING. They have no power and no voice. Oh.... and the Dems got it so your party is listed on the mail in ballot and guess which voter's ballots are often found to be "invalid?" They don't have to know how you voted, they know your party. And all this WILL get much worse....


How can this end? It's hard. But sometimes the one-party government becomes SO corrupt that the Press can't hide or spin it.... and the voters rebel in enough numbers that the one-party can't stop it. In other words, it has to self-destruct. Less often, it becomes SO radical that a popularist movement starts and again votes in numbers too great to manage. Another possibility: The One Party may split and go to war with itself; we're already seeing a "new crop" of uber-liberal communist Democrats in CA and on the Federal level.... the liberals vs. uber-liberals may not be friends for long. We may end up with two parties again, but both leftist but at least some sense of keeping each other theoretically accountable.


Democracy DEPENDS on an open, unbiased press AND on opposing voices being present and heard. There are places in the USA where this exists, I hope, but not in my State. Where you have 90% plus of working journalists admitting to being "liberal" and 95% registered democrats, well.... BUT I HAVE HOPE. Mostly because of the Internet and because the Press is quickly loosing the trust and respect it once had. In some ways, I think Trump may be part of a rising popular rebellion.... kind of scary (rebellions are usually like that) but MAYBE.....





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The media is bias in a way I don't think it ever has been before. I don't think it is an enemy though

Lämmchen said:

Recently we've seen in the US some twisted versions of the news and people got angry...until they saw the other side of things. Has the media truly become the enemy of the people?

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Yes.

Josiah said:

When I took Poli Sci as an undergrad.... the prof was obviously a socialist/communist... but he often warned of a "one-party state" especially where the press is in the "pocket" of that party.

We have that in California. .

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We have that in just about every state, Josiah.

There are hardly any conservative or moderate newspapers anymore. The reputation that the Chicago Tribune once had and even the Wall Street Journal is long gone. Meanwhile smaller papers wither and go out of business, so that national publications like USA Today have filled the gap...and they are firmly liberal now as well. Even if a smaller, regional newspaper survives here or there, it is served by the AP or owned by Gannett, and they are cut from the same cloth, too.

Only Fox news :boxing:

We are still in January and already we have had at least three downright news hoaxes that were picked up and run with by all the usual media--the supposedly compromised status of Sen. Lindsay Graham because of something homosexual, the report that Trump had instructed Cohen to lie, and now the fake report of an attack by Catholic schoolchildren upon an American Indian protestor.

Albion said:

We are still in January and already we have had at least three downright news hoaxes that were picked up and run with by all the usual media--the supposedly compromised status of Sen. Lindsay Graham because of something homosexual, the report that Trump had instructed Cohen to lie, and now the fake report of an attack by Catholic schoolchildren upon an American Indian protestor.

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How people cannot realize this and have a mind of their own just blows my mind. Perhaps they deserve to be brainwashed.
I really don't see how they get away with it, but I find it to be a crime against the American people to push falsehood out and call it quality news. We need a hard reset, we need a law against faking the news.
Did you hear all the tweets by celebrities saying the maga catholic boy has the most punchable face and that we should track down who this kid is?? Sickening! These people are dragging America down to hell with fascists lies and support for witch hunting Trump supporters.

jsimms435 said:

The media is bias in a way I don't think it ever has been before. I don't think it is an enemy though

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I think it is rapidly becoming a grave danger to the people, and therefore a mortal enemy.

Look at the recent issue with that teenage boy who allegedly abused and harassed a Native American. It appears that what was originally released was very one-sided and didn't even show the true sequence of events. Yet on the basis of that people are practically calling for blood - social media is awash with people sharing posts to "name and shame' this boy, deluge the school with phone calls to "tell them what you think", and so on.

Seriously? What are people trying to accomplish? Even if the truth were exactly as portrayed in the worst accusations, is it really a crime so heinous that the rest of this boy's life should be ruined? Doesn't a teenager get a break, given that it's well known teenagers sometimes do stupid things and things that they later regret? With the relentless rise in teenage suicide, does this boy really need the kind of pressure that suggests it will follow him, literally for the rest of his life, with armies of indignant do-gooders insisting that he never be allowed to work anywhere? Even if it could be conclusively proven without a shadow of a doubt that not only did he get in that Native American's face but also shouted racist abuse at him, does he deserve to have his entire life ruined?

When I was a teenager matters like that were dealt with by the school, not with the court of the uninformed public opinion acting as judge and jury. I just hope that poor boy doesn't end up taking his own life but to be perfectly honest the way the mindless wing of the left behaves on social media I have to wonder how many would be claiming it was a good thing that a teenager took his own life.

I'm glad I grew up in a time where if I did something silly my friends would mock me for a while until it was forgotten (usually by someone else doing something silly). If I did something inappropriate it was dealt with by a teacher and, if necessary, the headmaster. Now every little thing is posted online and the mob isn't silent until every minor transgression is punished severely. One might hope the media would call for restraint but apparently restraint isn't what's needed in cases where a boy is accused of being a racist.

Edit: What really worries me is that the people who are quick to share pictures of this boy apparently don't stop to think that one day it could be their child or grandchild, their niece or nephew, in the public eye for allegedly doing something inappropriate. Perhaps they would like to make sure their kid suffers until they literally kill themselves to escape from it, or maybe they'd rather have the chance to find out the full story before using it as a learning opportunity if necessary.

Andrew said:

Did you hear all the tweets by celebrities saying the maga catholic boy has the most punchable face and that we should track down who this kid is?? Sickening! These people are dragging America down to hell with fascists lies and support for witch hunting Trump supporters.

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So far today I've seen posts on my feed that name the boy (whether the name is accurate is another matter), posting the phone number of the school office, and claiming that the boy is evidence of the damage Trump has done to the country. Because, you know, that boy must be about 14 years old and Trump has apparently turned him into a racist in less than a sixth of his lifetime. These are from people I had always considered intelligent, even if I don't usually agree with their political stances.

Lämmchen said:

My sister-in-law works for a major newspaper. She loves her job and the fact that journalism brings the news to the people. The problem is she doesn't see outside of her newspaper and the media sources that people look to when they don't subscribe to paper media is different. On the front page of online news you'll see Opinion columns as front page headlines! To me that's outrageous and to me that makes the media an enemy of sorts pushing their ideas onto me when all I want is objective news.

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I don't have a problem with opinion pieces, even on the front page. What I have a major problem with is opinion pieces presented as if they were news. If anything I like reading opinion pieces, even when they are written by people who have a very different worldview to my own - if someone takes the time to explain why they think the way they do it helps me understand them. If something is presented as if it were fact when it is really an opinion then it's a problem. It also bothers me (and I see this more and more) when opinions are slipped into articles when the writer's opinion really isn't relevant. For example, changing "people who believe Donald Trump has inappropriate links with Russia..." with "people who believe, quite rightly, that Donald Trump has inappropriate links with Russia...".

tango said:

I think it is rapidly becoming a grave danger to the people, and therefore a mortal enemy.

Look at the recent issue with that teenage boy who allegedly abused and harassed a Native American. It appears that what was originally released was very one-sided and didn't even show the true sequence of events. Yet on the basis of that people are practically calling for blood - social media is awash with people sharing posts to "name and shame' this boy, deluge the school with phone calls to "tell them what you think", and so on.
tot
Seriously? What are people trying to accomplish? Even if the truth were exactly as portrayed in the worst accusations, is it really a crime so heinous that the rest of this boy's life should be ruined? Doesn't a teenager get a break, given that it's well known teenagers sometimes do stupid things and things that they later regret?

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You're talking like a rational person now who has a conventional set of values. But these events are driven by totalitarians who have power as their only objective. And it will get worse because one of the major political parties is more than happy to use them as its street fighters in the cause of overturning the 2016 election, along with the almost automatic support of the mainstream media.

Albion said:

You're talking like a rational person now who has a conventional set of values. But these events are driven by totalitarians who have power as their only objective. And it will get worse because one of the major political parties is more than happy to use them as its street fighters in the cause of overturning the 2016 election, along with the almost automatic support of the mainstream media.

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If the media is really willing to ruin the life of a teenage boy for the sake of ratings, and the mob is willing to "like and share" without bothering to "check and verify" then I really struggle to see a future that doesn't include civil war.

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I'm assuming from some of the responses here that the attempts by right-wing bloggers to "correct" stories somehow shed light on "truth"? Are we that naive to believe that Mr. "What's Really Going On" (post 16) has any less an agenda than CNN/Fox/MSNBC? Would some raw video help?

[video]https://player.vimeo.com/video/312330750?cjevent=5cdd2bb31e7811e98019001a0a1c0e0b[/video]

There are four videos in the full clip. The one above is only the first. I couldn't get the other three to copy/paste. But watch all of it.

Now a question - was anyone actually talking to anyone else? Or was everyone just excited and excitable?
If we're going to talk about the "media" being the enemy of the people, then we need to examine how our biases will lead us to conclusions that support our own narrative of 'truth' and 'fake news'

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ImaginaryDay2 said:

This helps how, except to misrepresent (yet again) unfortunate events?

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The kids chanted their school song and the class clown took his shirt off lol they are just kids who got back from a pro-life rally. The black israelites said some very hateful things to them, "these crackers cant even be out in the sun for too long" "go back to Europe this is not your land" "Trumps a ******" and these kids were just waiting for the bus.. Maybe they should ban school chants and ban their maga hats and the boys should be punched out and harassed, they were the ones standing there as a man walked up banging a drum in his personal space... the kid stayed well composed, but the indians friend was telling them that they need to go back to Europe!

ImaginaryDay2 said:

I'm assuming from some of the responses here that the attempts by right-wing bloggers to "correct" stories somehow shed light on "truth"? Are we that naive to believe that Mr. "What's Really Going On" (post 16) has any less an agenda than CNN/Fox/MSNBC? Would some raw video help?

[video]https://player.vimeo.com/video/312330750?cjevent=5cdd2bb31e7811e98019001a0a1c0e0b[/video]

There are four videos in the full clip. The one above is only the first. I couldn't get the other three to copy/paste. But watch all of it.

Now a question - was anyone actually talking to anyone else? Or was everyone just excited and excitable?
If we're going to talk about the "media" being the enemy of the people, then we need to examine how our biases will lead us to conclusions that support our own narrative of 'truth' and 'fake news'

Click to expand...

I see a bunch of school kids being school kids, I see they look rather shocked and confused by whats going on and were excited about it even chanting along to the beat, thank God they didnt listen to those fowl mouth black israelites that are shredding the bible and calling them crackers to go back to Europe. They never flinched but just did their school chants... they definitely don't need to be threatened or harassed for their team spirit.