Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Last fall, prior to the presidential election, I reported on the suicide of the mainstream media (MSM). I pointed out that they were abdicating their responsibility for fair, accurate, skeptical reporting in favor of advocacy “journalism.” It seems that the Media Research Center has quantified the failure of the MSM during the first 100 days of the new president’s administration.
It seems that journalism is dead, and this should worry us all. We need more watchdogs and fewer lapdogs.
Sinaiticus 
“To preserve the freedom of the human mind… and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.” Thomas Jefferson to William Green Munford, 1799.
My fear is not that the press has become lapdogs, but that the press is merely reflecting a collective desire by the American public to not have to think and make decisions for themselves any longer. “Please, almighty ABC (or FOX, or CNN, or any major media), please tell me what I should think about this issue. Please don’t provide me unbiased facts and make me think for myself and come to a conclusion based on a careful study and review of said facts.” The press is merely reflecting the desire’s of its customer.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it is shameful the condition our ‘free press’ has sunken too, along with our government. I think, however, that this is a symptom of a bigger problem America faces. Whether the public has become lazy, or mass media provides information overload and we simply don’t know what to believe anymore, or we have allowed ourselves to be falsly polarized by individuals looking to profit from a divided nation (seriously, just how different are red and blue – and do we really let political machinations divide us into two camps, and only two camps?), we (the public) simply do not demand anything of our leaders anymore. And because of that our leadership, be it political, business leaders, religious, whomever, does not respect the public. And the press reflects that.
They (all the major media, both conservative and liberal) tell us what they want (vs. telling us the facts) because they have no respect for their customers. And we give them no reason to respect us.