Should Americans Give Mainstream Media the Silent Treatment?

Gee…where have you heard this before? And yes is the answer to the question of whether we should give the “mainstream” media the silent treatment. Here is Chris Talgo writing at the The American Spectator:

There are alternatives to the drive-by lamestream, waiting to be tapped and expanded.

Once upon a time, the American people trusted the mainstream media, and vice-versa. Back when Walter Cronkite was the “nation’s newsman,” most Americans felt confident that networks and newspapers reported “the facts” — at least most of the time. Even 20 years ago, a majority of Americans had trust and confidence in the mass media “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly.”

However, in 2018, the relationship between the Fourth Estate and most Americans is on the rocks. How bad is it? Sixty-two percent of Americans now believe that news in traditional mediums such as TV, radio, and newspapers is biased. Furthermore, 70 percent of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum believe inaccurate information on the internet is a major problem.

One might ask why the media would willfully misreport the news, bury the truth, and violate the fundamental ethics of journalism. Several reasons come to mind, but perhaps the most important is “journalistic group think,” which has in recent years risen to a whole new level.

It should come as no surprise that journalists, like educators and entertainers, lean left. But what should surprise (and frighten) most Americans is the degree to which the media toes the liberal line.

On the issue of group think, former CEO of National Public Radio (which is certainly not a right-wing outlet) Ken Stern bluntly stated, “When you are liberal, and everyone else around you is as well, it is easy to fall into groupthink on what stories are important, what sources are legitimate and what the narrative of the day will be.”

How entrenched is group think? In a frank discussion in the Washington Post in early 2017, Erik Wemple noted: “In 1990, for example, Washington City Paper— then under the leadership of current Politico media critic Jack Shafer — found that Tony Kornheiser, then a sports columnist for The Washington Post, was the only registered Republican among a sampling of 49 top editors, reporters and columnists at the newspaper.” And he was regarded as a RINO!

Read more: The American Spectator

Image credit: www.spectator.org.