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Fixing the damaged media

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bob_dole

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AR dealt with this issue a small bit in Fountainhead.

How are we to fix the problem of the American media? That is, how can we have a media source which is not motivated by meeting the needs of customers and advertisers (thus promoting sensationalism--CNN) and also not controlled by the objectivity of government, which might manipulate the media (thus promoting suppression of truth--Fox News).

In Fountainhead, the Banner is presented as a corrupted, tabloid-like media monster, controlled by the whims of society. Nothing is much different in the reality of today.

So how can we achieve objectivity, an unbiased approach, to something so important as news media?

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how can we have a media source which is not motivated by meeting the needs of customers and advertisers (thus promoting sensationalism--CNN)

There's your problem right there - that you have such little regard both for the public and the fact that media outlets are in business to make money by providing the members of the public with what they value. What you are after is some means of turning media into an altruistic affair unsullied by money and popularity. That ain't happening, is precisely what we do NOT want to happen (part of the problem with media bias is that many "journalists" are motivated to distort the truth by holding "higher causes" to which the public are to be made subservient), nor need anything like that happen.

So how can we achieve objectivity, an unbiased approach, to something so important as news media?

Change what people want, how they view and interpret what is presented. If you want more objectivity in the media, promote more objectivity in the audience. Media outlets will then start supplying more of it. To do both, promote objectivity in the universities. From them objectivity will eventually get to the public, both directly and indirectly through it being taught to the suceeding graduates of J-schools.

Also, get rid of the barriers to increased competition. For example, open up every single radio and television frequency for purchase, replacing the licencing system with proper ownership. Put an end to limited franchising on pay-tv systems. Allow cable operators free reign to negotiate with property owners for rights of way for their cables. Institute proper ownership regimes for satellite positions. Privatise the satellite launching business. And so on.

JJM

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I don't really understand the problem here. America is - probably - the country with more internet connections per capita. Why try to fix the old media when the web is still rather unregulated? How popular are the fox and cnn sites in comparisson to puny html sites like matt drudge? And how well can "fox gov propaganda" work when we have daily links to such diverse sources as IRNA, Haaretz, Pravda, and pajamas media....?

Remember how Capitalism in the XIXc. was good but people didn't recognize it, and try to "fix" it? I just hope the same doesn't happen with the web.

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Well, first you have the problem of definitions like "what is media?" Is it just major news networks, T.V., radio?

In Fountainhead, the Banner is presented as a corrupted, tabloid-like media monster, controlled by the whims of society. Nothing is much different in the reality of today.

I imagine Murdoch filling Wynand's role, although I doubt he is as aware of what he is doing as Wynand.

How popular are the fox and cnn sites in comparisson to puny html sites like matt drudge?

Well...a lot of people who watch those channels also don't know anything about the Internet.

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I agree, but I am curious - purchase them from whom? Who rightly owns them now?

Properly, nobody, that instead they should be homesteaded like land once was - but in today's context I was thinking that they should be sold by the government to the highest bidders and the proceeds used to pay off some debt (unless you advocate repudiation) because it's a good a way as any to get rid of some of that debt without taxes.

JJM

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I have to agree with above,

A newspaper is a product, just like a toy, that is marketed and bought and advertised to a certain group of people for max profitability because news, in any form, is nothing more than a product of a long and complicated marketing scheme.

Media coverage is subject to the whims of the people, so to change the Media, you must first change the morality of the people who buy that news. The companies will then change their advertising and marketing strategies to meet the public's criteria.

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