Re: Fox news
[quote=superdave;463997]I turn on Fox News around lunch time and they're having an in depth discussion about Alaskan Moose moving on city streets. They actually have interviews with a few Moose experts and why they are moving into the city. I can't make this up if I tried.
Again, my point is that it's almost if they're trying to distract us with crap while there are real stories to cover around the world. Not to pick on Fox news alone because the local news has been bad for years and CNN isn't really any better.
When either Fox or CNN attempts to inform us, they only cover stories that favor their political slant. For example, Fox will cover stories that are favorable to Bush which I can't think of anything right now. CNN loves to mention how bad things in Iraq because it fits their agenda.[/quote]Wow Dave, I think this is one of the first times I completely agree with you...
The mass media are often an easy scapegoat, most of the time too easy even. But the fact of the matter is that they do have a great responsability when it comes to their influence on the public opinion.
Ask youself why the rest of the world thinks Americans are retards and see their point proven by John Doe pointing at Australia on a map when a reporter asks him where Iraq is? Ask yourself why (probably) the majority of the Americans couldn't care less about global warming or the slaughter in Dharfur? It's either because of something in the tap water or it's because news channels like Fox don't inform their viewers correctly (if they inform them at all).
In Belgium the press is regarded as the forth institutional power besides the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. And there was a time that this was the case in the States too, just think of Watergate. But now sadly news has been turned into a product which must be sold. I still get shivers when I think of how CNN reported on the Gulf War and the first years of the invasion of Iraq. If you didn't know any better, you'd think you were watching a game show or a soap.
But hey, I'm happy to notice from threads like this one that people in the States aren't retarded per definition and are starting to voice criticism :)