You might be a corporate media news editor if...

[Radical Activist]

We've seen these done for Republicans and Democrats. I decided to do one for the corporate media. Please add your own.

You might be a corporate media news editor if...

You think politicians receiving big campaign donations from defense contractors is a conflict of interest that corrupts the system, but you expect people to believe that your parent company making millions or billions of dollars in defense contracts doesn't have any influence on how you cover the news. Ditto for polluter's and union-busting corporations that provide major advertising revenue.

You look down on blogers who won't disclose their real name but you never disclose the political leanings or campaign donations made by your editors and journalists.

When someone from one Party tells the truth about an issue you allow someone with an opposing view to make statements that are blatantly false without correcting or challenging them, and you think its good journalism because that provides "balance."

You think only pretty white girls are ever abducted or go missing.

You think Deep Throat was a hero but anything said by Richard Clark, Paul O'Neill or the Downing Street Memo is discredited because they hate Bush and have an agenda.

You think a poll conducted by your own news organization is more newsworthy than a major policy statement by an important political leader or Presidential candidate.

You refuse to give certain candidates significant news coverage that might increase their name recognition and months later justify your decision to continue denying them coverage because they have no name recognition and score low in polls conducted by your publication.

You think blogers blur the line between activism and reporting but don'’t see a problem with Frank Luntz, Sean Hannity, Paul Begala, Robert Novak, or G. Gordon Liddy appearing as regular Television commentators.

You've never covered a large political protest without mentioning arrests or violence.

You complain that big money corrupts the political system but still force political candidates to raise large sums of money to pay high advertising rates in your newspaper, radio, or TV station.

You think a trial involving Michael Jackson is more important to people's lives than a trial involving corruption by the Republican Majority Leader in the US House of Representatives.

You think accusations that a President lied about an affair with an intern deserves constant coverage but credible accusations that a President lied about the justifications for starting a war should be dismissed as internet rumors.

You still print any statement made by the Bush White House as though it might be true without demanding documented evidence. What do they say in Texas? Fool me once...

Feel free to pass this along. Originally posted here:
http://downleft.blogspot.com/2005/06/you-might-be-corporate-media-news.html

[longship]

1. Let's have more fun. n/t

.

[Melodybe]

2. Kick

Funny, sad, and true all at the same time.

Good list, I tried to add something but you just about covered all the bases.

[Radical Activist]

3. Thanks!

I assumed I would leave out something good that someone else would come up with.

[number6]

4. ..

;)

[Melodybe]

5. Kick cause this is a good thread

[Radical Activist]

10. ty

[Poor Richard Lex]

6. we should call them the "mews"

[spooky3]

7. Great!

[Eric J in MN]

8. I excerpted this at

www.speakspeak.org

after reading your post.

Thanks.

[Radical Activist]

9. Thanks!

[Catchawave]

11. You might be a corporate media (ho)news editor if you.....

...run ads from smarmy PACs and Lobbyists, like the Swift Boat Vets', which attack liberal politicians and groups with unethical propaganda.

[LightningFlash]

12. You might be a corporate media newscaster if......

Instead of thinking about the consequences, you refuse to report on anything that the government does. You pat yourself on the back for ignoring the obvious, and let total lies be the basis of your reporting. Then you receive great notoriety and self-praise, when you cover a national story like a woman who had brain surgery.

Or even better, a woman who kidnapped herself for a month! You rely on money to decide what the public shall see, and take corporate donations to ensure what they see isn't controversial....And to ensure it never is unsettling, because after all, news is about the buck that paid for it.

[bin.dare]

13. You might be a corporate media news editor if...

... the company you work for has the letters: ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, FOX, CNN, NYT, LAT, WP, NPR, PBS,

ah shit, you might be a corporate media news editor if you work for news media in america.

[Eloriel]

14. DING DING DING!

LOL. That about sums it up, doesn't it?

I rather liked this article, and post the link when I see appropriate Media threads:
Published on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
The Influence of Fools: Why Liberals are mad at the MSM
by John Atcheson
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views05/0510-29.htm
discussed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=124551&mesg_id=124551

[rucky]

15. ...if you appear to be "balanced" by giving equal weight to

fact and GOP fiction.

[Radical Activist]

16. bump

[Radical Activist]

17. For the weekday crowd