The media outlets can't be that irresponsible, can they?

Started by topside, March 16, 2017, 07:42:58 AM

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topside

So I saw these headlines today on Breitbart. There are others similar on MSM sites - with a different spin:

Angelina Jolie Warns of 'Rising Tide of Nationalism Masquerading as Patriotism'

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/03/15/angelina-jolie-warns-of-rising-tide-of-nationalism-masquerading-as-patriotism/

Donald Trump: 'Failing' Snoop Dogg Would be in Jail if he Shot Obama in Rap Video

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/15/donald-trump-failing-snoop-dogg-would-be-in-jail-if-he-shot-obama-in-rap-video/

Rapper T.I.: Snoop Dogg a 'Legend,' Trump a 'Diarrhea Face Ass Man'

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/03/15/rapper-t-i-defends-snoop-in-insult-laced-rant-against-trump/

... and these are just representative.

This is just an actor and singers / performers. Snoop a badass legend? Compared to POTUS? No, Snoop is just a little performer - his life is about entertaining people.  These performers live in a bubble and are more out-of-touch than most and are always working to bring attention to themselves and extend their careers. Sure, two of these examples are using their First Amendment rights to incite violence against our country - that's another topic. But why does the media put these marginal opinions front-and-center?

Now here is the point. For better or worse, the media serves to focus the attention of our nation (and others) on the topics they promote. This is a central role for our nation and I don't know why the media doesn't take it more seriously than to use these marginals while they marginalize those who are the backbone of our nation - HiLIARy's  "deplorables". Why in the world are they so irresponsible to choose these marginal opinions to represent? It's beyond my logic - I think it's back to no ethics or morals from the left and to a lesser extent by some on the right. They actually have a very serious role in our nation for communicating in the US and abroad that shapes what gets attention - what gets talked about. I don't think any of the media have a clue about their impact to our nation. If so, then the MSM so bent on tearing our country apart and leans their communications to the losing Dim team and those that contribute the least to the prosperity of our nation?

There needs to be a code of ethics for the media - a media constitution of sorts and a media judiciary appointed by an "objective" group. Why not - could it get any worse? Then there should be a scorecard kept about how media outlets perform against it. It could improve things. Certainly the WH could use it to decide who gets in the pressers. Maybe people could use it to decode which outlets are worse than others. Sure - it would be biased by those who mediated the code. But it might get rid of some of the crap that shows up from little Snoop or Angelina.


topside

Think of our nation as a system of resources ... including the population and all the natural resources. And that there are different observation points and controls. Examples of observation points are the condition of infrastructure, behavior of groups, voter outcomes, polls, local and national events, etc. Examples of controls are the federal constitution, state constitution, all the laws, POTUS, Congress, the media, etc. The nation is driven to different conditions by control reactions to the observations. It's a very complex control system with competing control mechanisms. Aside: Analysis of system behavior falls under an engineering and math discipline called control theory.

Until recently, I've always thought of the media as an observer. My perspective is that their job, in pure form under our constitution, is to observe what occurs across our nation and objectively report it.  But under the current way things work, this pure form is naive. Obviously the media bias (both sides) is a control function - they have found that they can have a profound control over our nation and there is a (relatively) small group that exercises that power.  And their power has no checks and balances - we are now witnessing unprecedented abuse of this power.

Sure - individuals also exercise some level of control. But, nominally, it is minute. It doesn't sway the entire population which is what the Constitutional controls work with.

Brainstorm with me here for a minute. I'm thinking that the media should not be protected under First Amendment rights - there should be another part that covers collective, substantial groups. Individuals are protected and can express whatever view they have. I would say that the First Amendment was focused on individuals and did not anticipate media control of power. The media is part of the nation's decision process and balance of this power maybe should be part of the Constitutional structure. The media should not be shaping the county's narrative without being part of the checks and balances that are on other parts of national power. Now, I'm not advocating government control of the media but rather enforcible guidelines that keep harm from the US citizens - the same idea as in our Constitution. But I'm thinking that this idea of a Constitution amendment that stipulates acts of treason, acts of war, and acts of terrorism by groups in our nation are not protected by freedom of speech as in the First Amendment.

People who control very large sums of money also have substantial national power - e.g., Soros. That might also be addressed with the same "amendment".

This isn't quite right yet, but I think the thought has merit. Thoughts? Is anyone aware of precedence for this area of thought in previous writings? Seems like Ben Franklin would have said something about the area of press and national control.

je_freedom

Any attempt to rein in the "mainstream" media and their service to the Political Establishment
would only be used by the Political Establishment to suppress the alternative media,
which is the only true check and balance on the MSM.
Here are the 10 RINOs who voted to impeach Trump on Jan. 13, 2021 - NEVER forget!
WY  Liz Cheney      SC 7  Tom Rice             WA 4  Dan Newhouse    IL 16  Adam Kinzinger    OH 16  Anthony Gonzalez
MI 6  Fred Upton    WA 3  Jaime Herrera Beutler    MI 3  Peter Meijer       NY 24  John Katko       CA 21  David Valadao

topside

Quote from: je_freedom on March 16, 2017, 10:02:22 AM
Any attempt to rein in the "mainstream" media and their service to the Political Establishment
would only be used by the Political Establishment to suppress the alternative media,
which is the only true check and balance on the MSM.

You missed the point. There is a part of the US power structure that has no check or balance on it. Calling alternative media a viable balance of the MSM obviously hasn't been enough. Moreover, the examples given in this post were from Breitbart - they've fallen into the same trap as the MSM regarding poor use of their power.

If you think about it, to say that we need no real check and balance on the media is similar to saying we don't really need a Constitution. Like saying we don't need to balance the power that controls our nation. That's not right - what we have now hasn't worked in past years. We're finally seeing the pendulum swing back now, but don't forget how far left it swung. And the media on the right should eventually stop acting like the MSM on the flip side - they should be observers that report events and not controllers of power over our citizens. But they are forced to fight with the same media tools / weapons in this environment.