One of the BBC’s star journalists, Michael Buerk, said this:
"A flawed media, I suggest, leads to a flawed democracy," he warned us. "Ill informed citizens cannot make proper judgments about their leaders' actions, about the actions that take place in their names, about the laws that govern them. The media matter."
-We find a president in the White House who sends our country into an unnecessary war and into massive economic debt, and we ask ourselves, “Why didn’t someone warn us?”
-We are shocked when we find out that an FDA approved drug has potentially caused death, birth defects or illness and we ask ourselves, “Why didn’t someone alert us?”
-We act completely surprised when we eventually learn that widespread genocide is occurring in several African countries, and we heatedly ask, “Why was I not informed of this?”
Where are today’s Journalists?
Where are the
Mike Wallaces or the
Edward R. Murrows of today?
The short answer is that they are going the way of the dinosaur, and they are becoming completely obsolete.
Today's corporate media sources are not interested in serious and significant news. Instead, they're churning out childish news, dumbed down for numbed out audiences.
CBS will bring in Katie Couric because she will be more than happy to read the
latest Paris Hilton story straight off the teleprompter.
We can even find another good example of this sensationalistic sell out journalism in this month’s Glamour Magazine.
Hidden deep in the magazine is a
very serious article about the growing problem of young women buying very dangerous drugs off the Internet. Do you find mention of this article on the cover?
No … You won’t.
What you do find is:
“YOUR TOP 10 SEX QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT LAST”
or
“LOOK & FEEL YOUR SEXIEST AT 20,30,40 YEARS OLD.”
In fact if you look at
cover after
cover after cover of Glamour you not only find the same crap pieces, but you will find them in the very same position of the cover. The same goes for
the British version.
Now … you say … Peter … What do you expect from Glamour Magazine?
If you want a serious news story you might want to look to a more respected magazine in the Condé Nast portfolio. If you want intelligently written articles, perhaps you should be reading The New Yorker?
Well … Conventional wisdom tells us that The New Yorker has been losing money for years. It is kept alive only because of its strong reputation and its ability to live off of the cash cow Condé Nast magazines like Glamour and Vogue.
This begs the question … Who is to blame for the downfall of serious reporting and investigatory journalism?
THE CONSUMER IS TO BLAME.
The only thing that matters in this country is ...
MONEY. A.K.A. “The almighty dollar.”
If you buy it, you will see more of it.
The sole reason why Glamour, and other magazines like it, continue their time-tested formulas is because people keep buying them.
The American public buys these superficial magazines because they like their reporting like their fast food. Full of crap and easy to digest.
There is so much crap in magazines these days that intellectuals actually started to turn to blogs to get intelligent viewpoints and honest reporting.
However … no place is safe for long.
So the next time you are in the supermarket line with your two pints of Ben and Jerry's
Chubby Hubby ice cream and your fridge friendly twelve pack of Diet Coke, try not to reach for the garbage rags. Save your hard earned money and do us all a favor ... send it to
PBS.
Labels: BBC, Brad Pitt, Brangelina, CBS, Edward R. Murrow, Glamour, Gossip, Jessica Simpson, Journalists, Katie Couric, Media, Michael Buerk, Mike Wallace, News, Paris Hilton, PBS, Perez Hilton, Tom Cruise
