Perhaps, once upon a time, newspapers and other media outlets reported the facts with minimal bias, but that certainly doesn't happen these days. What's useful, informative, or really important often gets pushed aside for whatever is most entertaining, is least offensive to advertisers, or - worst of all - doesn't reflect badly on the corporation that owns the paper/station/web site. Americans have short attention spans and a hundred channels to surf, so news outlets resort to sensationalism to hook people. Before you mock tabloids in the supermarket, think about the crap you see on the average 6 o'clock news broadcast. For instance, when the ground war in Iraq was breaking out a decade ago, a news station in Pittsburgh was running a story about puppies found in a trash can ahead of that! Just melts your heart doesn't it? Give me a break! Then, after all the real news about the September 11 tragedy started to dry up, TV stations still had hourly (or more often) updates of the clean-up.
Poll: Public Opinion of Media Drops
Sun Aug 4, 8:23 PM ET
By WILL LESTER
"WASHINGTON (AP) - Public opinion about the news media has fallen back to pre-Sept. 11 levels, a poll released Sunday found. "
Funky Dung
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