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From: bob@cadovax.UUCP (Bob "Kat" Kaplan)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Media Irresponsibility
Message-ID: <404@cadovax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 14:39:53 EST
Article-I.D.: cadovax.404
Posted: Wed Feb 13 14:39:53 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Feb-85 04:41:37 EST
Organization: Contel Cado, Torrance, CA
Lines: 35

From robertsb@ttidcb.UUCP (Robin Roberts)

> I am once again confronted with the fact that the news media do a great deal
> of harm by their distortion of priority in news issues. Its long past time
> for them to clean up their act.

You seem to be under the impression that the function of the news media is
to report the news.  This is a fairly common misconception, so I can't fault
you for that.

We do not have a 'free' press.  It costs money to publish a newspaper or
operate a radio station.  In order to survive, a news organ must be
financially successful.  Thus, most newspapers, magazines, radio and
television networks have the primary interest of making a profit.  The
profit comes from the money spent by the advertisers.  To this extent,
the media are controlled by their advertisers.  (No one is going to publish
an article on an unsafe drug, for example, in a magazine whose advertiser
manufactures that drug.)

The purpose of the news media is to shape public opinion.  Whether it's to
get us to believe that the crime rate has gone up (or down) or that the
economy is improving (or worsening), the motive is to manipulate the public
into believing what's good for the public is what's good for the corporations
who control the media.

I hope this doesn't sound too much like another conspiracy theory, but I get
really worried about people like Rupert Murdoch or companies like Warner
Bros. Communications, who try to buy up newspapers and other media, and then
publish only the news that they see fit, and only in a way that they see fit.

-- 
Bob Kaplan	{ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!trwrba!cadovax!bob

"All the clouds turn to words.  All the words float in sequence.
 No one knows what they mean.  Everyone just ignores them."