2.13.2A: the_bigshow
“Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.” - Aleksandr Solshenitsyn
You’ll have to forgive me, I’m going to be getting on my soapbox for a moment. This is going to be another, probably not-so-long-winded rant on the state of our government system and our free speech rights coming from a liberal minded intellectual. Most people probably consider these a dime a dozen, and if you do as well, that’s your right, but this is me, throwing my two cents into the already heated media debate, and whether or not you chose to listen is on you, not me.
Fact of the matter is, free speech isn’t a prevalent factor in today’s media. What it could probably be considered closest to is In fact, you only get airtime if you have money to wave around, and how well your message gets across depends on the amount that you’re waving. Which means that big business usually winds up with the megaphone while the smaller pundits are forced to yell and shout to get the public’s attention with little assistance. Government officials who make choices that may be more for the good of the people and the citizens of this country, are forced out of office because big business has the money in their budget to fund their own agenda and get the television and radio spots that they need in order to manipulate the situation in their favor in the eyes of the voters and the politician doesn’t have room in their budget to launch the same kind of ad campaign, with the same kind of intensity in order to get their point of view, and occasionally the truth out there in order to keep the system fair and democratic. Big business is manipulating the democratic system for their own personal gain, and most people just glaze over and let them do it. On top of that, the system is rife with monopolies and oligopolies that the government isn’t even regulating-that they can’t really regulate, because of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, when they basically gave away the digital spectrum to the big media corporations-corporations that work together to stay on the top of the ladder-and obliterated any chance for smaller firms to work their way up through the system.
And then we come to the internet age. Now, don’t get me wrong-I love the internet. It really is the best thing since sliced bread. However, we’ve become such an instantaneous society, where everything has to happen right here, right now, that we’ve sacrificed accuracy in favor of expediency. There are so many things that are misspoken and have to be retracted these days because reporters aren’t paying attention to their facts. They’re worried about making their deadlines, getting their stories in in time for the six o’clock news and not thinking about how what they’re reporting is going to effect people. Never mind the fact that people are also sacrificing the hard news, the real news in favor of the celebrity bubblegum fluff that has taken over society. People aren’t getting the real stories-the stories about what’s going on in Iraq, or Afghanistan, the US’s significant hold on the policies and day to day running of certain countries in Latin America, the fact that the War on Drugs isn’t working and why, and the media outlets claim its because the people don’t want to see it, but honestly, what the people want to see and what they need to see are two completely different things. And I swear, if I see one more lead story on the evening news about Britney Spears and her custody battle, or find out that CNN is doing wall-to-wall coverage on the death of a D-List celebrity like Anna Nicole Smith as oppose to things that actually matter-I think I may shoot myself.
In short, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 needs to be reformed majorly, and news stations need to start doing their job and doing it right, before anything can ever change in the state of the press. And I have a feeling that will be a very, very long time coming.
683 words
You’ll have to forgive me, I’m going to be getting on my soapbox for a moment. This is going to be another, probably not-so-long-winded rant on the state of our government system and our free speech rights coming from a liberal minded intellectual. Most people probably consider these a dime a dozen, and if you do as well, that’s your right, but this is me, throwing my two cents into the already heated media debate, and whether or not you chose to listen is on you, not me.
Fact of the matter is, free speech isn’t a prevalent factor in today’s media. What it could probably be considered closest to is In fact, you only get airtime if you have money to wave around, and how well your message gets across depends on the amount that you’re waving. Which means that big business usually winds up with the megaphone while the smaller pundits are forced to yell and shout to get the public’s attention with little assistance. Government officials who make choices that may be more for the good of the people and the citizens of this country, are forced out of office because big business has the money in their budget to fund their own agenda and get the television and radio spots that they need in order to manipulate the situation in their favor in the eyes of the voters and the politician doesn’t have room in their budget to launch the same kind of ad campaign, with the same kind of intensity in order to get their point of view, and occasionally the truth out there in order to keep the system fair and democratic. Big business is manipulating the democratic system for their own personal gain, and most people just glaze over and let them do it. On top of that, the system is rife with monopolies and oligopolies that the government isn’t even regulating-that they can’t really regulate, because of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, when they basically gave away the digital spectrum to the big media corporations-corporations that work together to stay on the top of the ladder-and obliterated any chance for smaller firms to work their way up through the system.
And then we come to the internet age. Now, don’t get me wrong-I love the internet. It really is the best thing since sliced bread. However, we’ve become such an instantaneous society, where everything has to happen right here, right now, that we’ve sacrificed accuracy in favor of expediency. There are so many things that are misspoken and have to be retracted these days because reporters aren’t paying attention to their facts. They’re worried about making their deadlines, getting their stories in in time for the six o’clock news and not thinking about how what they’re reporting is going to effect people. Never mind the fact that people are also sacrificing the hard news, the real news in favor of the celebrity bubblegum fluff that has taken over society. People aren’t getting the real stories-the stories about what’s going on in Iraq, or Afghanistan, the US’s significant hold on the policies and day to day running of certain countries in Latin America, the fact that the War on Drugs isn’t working and why, and the media outlets claim its because the people don’t want to see it, but honestly, what the people want to see and what they need to see are two completely different things. And I swear, if I see one more lead story on the evening news about Britney Spears and her custody battle, or find out that CNN is doing wall-to-wall coverage on the death of a D-List celebrity like Anna Nicole Smith as oppose to things that actually matter-I think I may shoot myself.
In short, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 needs to be reformed majorly, and news stations need to start doing their job and doing it right, before anything can ever change in the state of the press. And I have a feeling that will be a very, very long time coming.
683 words