Another shoutbox-inspired rant.  Please hold on to the bar…

I remember the Planeteer Council discussing this very issue, probably a couple of years back.  News media was getting worse and worse at the time, and we were all kind of irked that the only way to know WTF was going on was to get the same story from all sources and try to remove the collective spin from each; a daunting task, but possible.  Some liked one mainstream or another that seemed to coincide with their viewpoints more than others, while some retreated to alternate news sites of dubious reputation.  This graph shows that we were already on a strong trend towards this mistrust, that got bumped for a few years after 9/11 as we all went through our "MUST…WATCH…NEWS…" collective psychosis.  The trend was too strong to break for long though, and soon continued with gusto.

But, y’know, we were heading into "the most transparent administration in history".  His words, not mine, and pretty much the opposite of what was to come.  Everybody chose to swallow it hook, line, and sinker in the heavy fog of hope and change.

We soon found out that this administration was, in all reality, 100% set on being one of the most obfuscational and media-threatening regimes EVERR.  FOIA? Pfft, don’t bother.  Poor Carney finally couldn’t even bear the filth he was being paid to spew and bailed.  Virtually every political thing you see anymore is a fully-produced stage set with NO alternative viewpoints allowed.  Remember, poor Ron Paul wasn’t even allowed in on the debates, despite drawing more support than the Republicrat ‘candidates’ that were.

Great example: the Hildabeest’s recent coffee shop piece with 3 ‘everyday Iowans’…who just happened to be the former head of the Iowa Democratic Party, Biden’s ex-chauffeur, and a former intern for BHO’s campaign, amongst other similar sultry personality quirks.

No everyday Iowans got anywhere close.  They tried.  Select press only, and students were put on lockdown in their own campus, lest they…oh, I dunno…tried to talk to her highness, or something.

http://www.ijreview.com/2015/04/296973-everyday-iowan-close-got-hillary-clinton-today/

But I digress…I’d kept doing the multi-story shuffle, noticing that the news was getting worse and worse.  A trend of actual news media getting their scoops from message boards began to be seen.  The people were getting the news out faster and more accurately than the actual media professionals.

I just totally lost faith in all of them somewhere around the beginning of the year.  News outlets who nominally catered to certain demographics began revising their web pages TO ALL LOOK THE SAME.  Very disturbing, I don’t even know for sure whose news I’m looking at without checking the site address anymore.  According to this article,

http://mashable.com/2014/09/24/designers-dilemma-for-media-websites/

…it’s because everyone has gone to a ‘flat’ site design that is mobile-friendly.  Bullshit!  It’s in all their direct interests to make their news stand out from everyone else’s, and steal their clicks/votes/viagra-buying dollars.  And yet, exactly the opposite has happened.  The major news is homogenized as fuck now.

I’ve completely given up on CNN, BBC, and FOX.  MSNBC was never more than a sick propagandist joke made in poor taste.  I was digging Newsmax for a bit, then I found they made a HUGE donation to the Clinton foundation, which utterly trashed their ostensible standpoint as a slightly conservative news outlet.  Al-Jazeera you could at least count on to give another angle, but their site has adopted the media standard formatting as well, it would seem.

Don’t believe they’re all biorobots that squawk the chosen words upon command?  Conan totally nailed it, and nobody even noticed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o9x-yDyN78  

That must be one hell of a heavy envelope… :popcorn:

All the news you need to know, per our governmental overlords.

As many, I now rely mainly on those unnamed boards as a more accurate source of news than THE NEWS.  And that’s really sad, ‘cos most of those sites are afflicted with mass amounts of racism, misogyny, and downright mean-spirited sheisters.  BUT YET…they’re delivering the news better than the pros, despite these shortcomings!  Maybe it’s just because the story is easier to pick apart from their obvious personal slants as opposed to media doublespeak, I don’t know.  I just know it’s sad when we’re all having to resort to conspiracy sites and the like to avoid the blunt hammer of propaganda.

What’s your take on these happenings, fellow Planeteers?  Who wins from this? 

I’ll wrap up with a word from Tyreese…

Tyreese also recalled the harrowing news reports his father used to make him listen to on the radio as a child in order to educate him on “what’s happened and what’s going on.” He told Noah that his father taught him, “it was our duty as citizens of the world to keep up with the news. Those stories on the radio — something happens 1000 miles away or down the block, some kind of horror I couldn’t even wrap my head around — he didn’t change the channel, he didn’t turn it off, he just kept listening. You have to face it, keeping your eyes open. My dad always called that ‘paying the high cost of living.’”