Love him or hate him, Rupert Murdoch actually understands why the mainstream media is steadily collapsing and what needs to be done to fix it:
Nothing illustrates Murdoch's point about the haughtiness and arrogance of the editors than the treatment of John Edwards's affair. That reporters and official newspaper bloggers were blatantly told to "shut up and not go there" only added fuel to the fire. The first and strongest image that came to mind for me during that episode was of a dinosaur defiantly screeching and trying to savage its prey as it sunk deeper into a tarpit.
"The complacency stems from having enjoyed a monopoly--and now finding they have to compete for an audience they once took for granted. The condescension that many show their readers is an even bigger problem. It takes no special genius to point out that if you are contemptuous of your customers, you are going to have a hard time getting them to buy your product. Newspapers are no exception."This election was really what did them in. To call them propagandists for the Obama campaign would be too euphemistic. On most counts, as a watchdog and "guardian of democracy," the mainstream media is a colossal failure. It never ceases to amaze me the number of times where I have read a report about the police doing something that should have arouse suspicion, such as breaking down the wrong door, or shooting a leashed dog in a residential neighborhood, and the media just obediently parrots whatever line is given them. The media also didn't do itself any favors this year by focusing so much on Palin will giving Joe "Gaffe Machine" Biden a free pass.
"It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news-and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened. Today editors are losing this power. The Internet, for example, provides access to thousands of new sources that cover things an editor might ignore. And if you aren't satisfied with that, you can start up your own blog and cover and comment on the news yourself. Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs, but they haven't always responded well when the public calls them to account."
Nothing illustrates Murdoch's point about the haughtiness and arrogance of the editors than the treatment of John Edwards's affair. That reporters and official newspaper bloggers were blatantly told to "shut up and not go there" only added fuel to the fire. The first and strongest image that came to mind for me during that episode was of a dinosaur defiantly screeching and trying to savage its prey as it sunk deeper into a tarpit.
The MSM likes to award themselves the mantle of watchdog, but they're more like lapdogs when the correct person rolls around (like Obama or Clinton).
The problem for them is that it is very difficult for people to be truly objective. And they're no exception. Moreover, they self-assess themselves as objective, while savaging Fox News and other not-quite-left-wing media outlets as hopelessly biased. Yet they continuously ran puff pieces on Obama this election on a 3- or 4-to-1 ratio to those run on McCain. Fair and balanced? I think not.
They're not objective. And neither am I. The differences are that I know it and acknowledge it and document my sources when applicable. They do neither of the three.
That is why the MSM is no more credible than any other information source, and what they say needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
That is also why the fairness doctrine would be such a disaster. Because the MSM isn't objective. They're mouthpieces for the communitarian left.
I think their lack of objectivity would be a less serious if they were more aggressive, honest and informative when it comes to public interest stories. A good example in recent times was the case of the Jena 6. Had the media done its job, we would have heard about how they attacked a guy who wasn't even really related to the original problems, and all of the other wonderful things that the guys involved did that got them in trouble with the law.