Can the mainstream media redeem itself?

update 8/21/18:

Not by their actions today. Look in the mirror once, please!

Today, led by the Boston Globe, media outlets around the country have been, in a coordinated effort, writing and publishing editorials railing against Donald Trump’s ‘war on a free media’ and ‘free speech’. This entire effort is an example of how our mainstream media has totally lost touch. They have fallen into the Trump trap. All this does is prove their bias.

The mainstream media in this country, to the people of this country, are irrelevant. They have lost their relevance because they have lost their ability to see themselves in a realistic context.

Most people would refer to the media as biased, propaganda arm for the Democrat party, and a vehicle for message indoctrination. While all this is true, I use another word. I call it hypnosis. The media is so hypnotized in their own bubble by the theoretical position they occupy in our society. By the place they are established by the Constitution. And, while they tell themselves they deliver on these high ideals, they do not.

They will constantly go after Breitbart or FoxNews as right wing or biased news. They discount their perspective totally. Do they ever ask themselves where they reside on the left right spectrum? The answer is yes but they always put themselves in that lofty constitutional position doing the public good. How nice a way in which to see one’s self. Unfortunately it is not true. They are hypnotized by the culture, their training, their job into believing that certain things are true, and that becomes their narrative, their truth. And that is a hypnotic belief. It is fed by dog whistles and narratives. They close their minds to the truth.

“The true enemies of the people — and democracy — are those who try to suffocate truth by vilifying and demonizing the messenger,” wrote the Des Moines Register in Iowa.

This is totally opposite of reality. The ‘truth’ presented by the media is typical ‘relativist truth’. It is ‘my truth’ vs ‘the truth’, because everything is relative. There are no definite truths. Only political correctness, the opposite of truth. If they actually told the truth would they be 90% negative of Trump while being only 10% negative on Obama? Of course not. Yet they even say there were ‘no scandals during the Obama presidency’. Two reactions. 1. False. Try the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, NSA, Benghazi, just to name a few. 2. In their minds, using ‘their truth’, none of that was scandalous because it promoted their (hypnosis) political agenda. They believe they can mercilessly and viciously attack President Trump 24/7 yet they require that he not express a counter opinion or defend himself. Unrealistic and ignorant. And his push back does not signal to them to get their facts straight. Remember all the lies they say he tells? Check the list. Most are a difference of opinion, a general statement translated too specifically by the partisan media, an ‘inconvenient truth’, or something that sounded false at first, but was proven true later; like bugging his campaign.

The country has long understood this bias, propaganda, indoctrination and hypnosis.

Donald Trump didn’t create this idea, he just recognized it. As he has the intestinal fortitude to say it out loud. Therein lies his support and today’s actions will make that support stronger.

Is he wrong or mean about the media?

Trump denounced the effort on Twitter, saying the Globe was in collusion with other newspapers. “There is nothing that I would want more for our country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS,” the president typed. “The fact is that the press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people.”

No, he is actually being generous. The way they operate they are an enemy of the people because we cannot trust them. Over the past 60 years, the media in this country has evolved from a news reporting organization to a news making organization. And the left has taken advantage of this brilliantly.

In order for the media to redeem itself, it needs to do three things.

1. recognize the reality of the issue and deliver it as news.
2. authentically offer the other side (or both sides as the case may be).
3. be honest about where you are on the political spectrum.

For example, with all the attacks on FoxNews, they never deny where they are on the political spectrum. And they try, particularly on their nightly news show, Special Report, to be as balanced as possible without denying the reality of the news item. All the other nightly news shows display their bias and desperation for audiences with their overly dramatic headlines. And, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, CNN, etc., never acknowledge their left leaning position.

Do I believe the media can do these three things? Yes. Will they? That’s another question. Probably not. They are too invested (hypnotized).

For the rest of us, what do we do? What do we do when we live in a society where the media cannot be trusted to deliver the news. Where they can only be trusted to deliver one point of view, offer no perspective, do no research, and hype that one point of view ad nauseum. What do we do?

Vary your news sources. If you watch FoxNews, mix in a little NBC, ABC and CBS. If you are watching MSNBC or CNN, just stop. If you read the New York Times. Mix in a little Wall Street Journal. If you read Time Magazine, listen to Rush Limbaugh. There are many more left wing media outlets, so the right wing are not as easy to add in.

Or, a shameless plug, investigate The Gray Area. The Gray Area is where you will find the left and the right media presented in their own words placed in their left/right position on every issue, every day. At least that way you know what you are getting when you read the New York Times or watch CNN or NBC. It may be slightly left or far left. Then compare that specific issue to the other side. Then you can decide where ‘the gray area’ is for you on that issue.

Some time those same media outlets will hit that ‘gray area’ sweet spot, either by accident or on purpose. Pretty regularly the Wall Street Journal does. And chose not to participate today.

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