John Stewart on crossfire.
This clip officially made John Stewart my favorite television personality and ended a very long tie for first place with Bill Maher. What I like most about the clip is that he goes onto the show because he is promoting a book, and he ends up denouncing the entire news media.
When I look at America and wonder why the majority of the population ignorant and out of touch with the politics that affect them, I realize that I have to take into account all of the manipulation done by the news media.
The discord occurs because Americans believe that the news media actually wants to help us. As a country, we have a flawed belief that everyone has our best interests in mind. The media, the government, the USDA, the church, they all have their own agenda. Usually their agenda revolves around the acquisition of money, and they use us to attain that money. We assume that the media has our interests in mind and that they would let us know any and all important information. The reality, however, is that they have their own best interests in mind and will go so far as to omit entire viewpoints to protect those interests.
The media makes its money and gains its power thorough ratings and having a large fan base; politics works in a similar fashion. With that being said, it seems like they would be natural soul-mates. Since the news media has no moral obligation to its public, besides a self-imposed one, entire media entities have been set up with solely political basis.
Is this bad or wrong?
Not really since there is enough information available that people should do their own research and come to their own conclusions rather than sitting around waiting for someone else to tell them what to think. Unfortunately, this is America.
Well, dang, I wrote a comment and then somehow lost it. I'll have to do it again.
ReplyDeleteHi, Arianna. A well-thought-out analysis. Everyone is working for the same thing -- ratings, money, power. Likewise, students are working for ratings (grades), money (a paycheck), and power (if they are planning to use their political science degrees in politics or the law). Why do people need so much power?
Sadly enough, I use to get my news from watching John Stewart or the Colbert Report. They provide comical relief to pressing issues. Since starting this class, I have actually been paying more attention to the nightly news on TV and read more papers online. I still believe that the government has our best interests in mind though. After all, we are their neighbors. I have a politican neighbor now. I forgot if it was Sonny or Roy Barnes but I think that Roy would vote the same way now as he did when he was in office. They are still human at the end of the day and have the same wants and desires as the next person.
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