[snip]

President John F. Kennedy once privately remarked that when the government and the media are in bed together, the public is probably getting screwed.

[/snip]

IN THREE MINUTES

By: Frank G. McGuire

Editor/Publisher, Security Intelligence Sourcebook
Former Instructor in News Media at FBI Academy
CBS News Consultant on Terrorism and Air Disasters

Source URL: http://www.emergency.com/nwsmedia.htm



-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), October 14, 1999

Answers

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEWS MEDIA ...
IN THREE MINUTES



-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), October 14, 1999.

Gee, I sure hope they are using protection.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), October 14, 1999.

Yes, we wouldn't want AIDS to spread all over the country!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Culy~Q (Curly@Q.com), October 14, 1999.

very nice...

-- argh (argh@nowhere.com), October 14, 1999.

Good one Critt!

...Here is an endless-loop list I created to use at the FBI Academy...

[snip]

 Commercial news media are corporations.

 Corporations run on money.

 Money is generated by advertising.

 Advertising is priced by the size of the audience.

 Audiences are attracted by drama (often a code word for violence) and sex.

 Audience-size is measured by ratings.

 Competition for ratings tells top editors where to send reporters & what to cover.

 Senior editors are management, reporters are not.

 Management has the job of making a corporation profitable.

 Profits keep a corporation in existence.

 Corporations are responsible to their profit-oriented stockholders.

 Stockholders buy stock in corporations, not in any ideology.

 Go to the top of the list and start over.

[snip]

Policy decisions are not made at media conglomerates by the reporter whose face is on the screen or whose byline is on the page. That reporter might well be a liberal, but he/she has no more decisionmaking authority than a police officer has over departmental policy.

Policy decisions are made by people who are on the financial side of the corporation, not the editorial side. The financial side runs the show.

[snip]

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), October 14, 1999.

Interesting you bring this up, Critt...

Watching PBS last night re: photography in this century

Without being specific, the script pointed out that during our world wars the photographers were not allowed to take any pictures of dead American Soldiers. This was (obviously) suspended during Vietnam.

We can't handle the truth.. or is it the powers that be that can't handle the truth...???

Keep the faith and HOLD ON!!

-- booann (cantsay@lovemyjob.edu), October 14, 1999.

Booann,

I saw that program, too.

That's probably what got me on this track today...

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), October 14, 1999.

Okay - here is specific evidence to show that - regardless of the national media's "corporate ownership wants only profits" theory - the people (reporters, anchors, writers, and producers) who choose what to say - and how to report what they choose to say - are specifically and deliberately biased towards the Clintons' administrations goals:

< Several journalistic practices are sending a clear signal that Republicans are disobeying media wishes on health legislation. Begin with the almost automatic recitation of the liberal term for their litigation scheme: "the patients' bill of rights." Few reports have even placed "so-called" in front of it. These same media outlets ignore conservative terms (for example, "partial-birth abortion" becomes "a certain type of late-term abortion," or on rare occasions is preceded by "what opponents call").

The other practice is heavy-handed linking of "bill of rights" opponents with the narrow financial self-interests of insurance companies. No opponent could have a sincere belief in a better, freer health care system [see box]:

NBC, Tuesday night. Tom Brokaw began by discussing "the rights of patients in this increasingly impersonal world of managed health care. The debate starts tomorrow, but we begin tonight with breakfast this morning, breakfast with the Speaker of the House and some of the most powerful health care lobbyists. They were paying for a lot more than bacon and eggs at $1,000 a plate."

CBS, Tuesday night. Bob Schieffer lamented Hastert's ill-timed fundraiser: "The bill that Hastert and the insurance industry are trying to kill, and the industry is mounting a massive campaign against it, would give patients the right to sue HMOs that wrong them."

ABC, Tuesday night. Peter Jennings announced that "on the eve of an important debate about managed health care in the country, it was the perfect opportunity to see money at work." Reporter Linda Douglass complained: "There has been very little pressure from the public, and when the public is silent, money talks."

ABC, Wednesday morning. Reporter Karla Davis concentrated on cash: "Doctors spent $45 million last year lobbying Congress. On the other side, the insurance industry spent $77 million and its lobbyists say the bill will hurt, not help patients....So it looks like Congress must make a choice to disappoint some very rich contributors or some who are even richer."

NBC, Wednesday night. Lisa Myers asserted: "With hundreds of millions of dollars and the health of American families at stake, tonight's partisan bickering appears to threaten House approval of new rights for 161 million Americans in HMOs. The President accuses House Republicans of using poison pills to try to scuttle reform... Republicans insist that's not true."

CBS, Wednesday night. Dan Rather announced, "The long-stalled, heavily lobbied patients' bill of rights is supposed to give people more say in the decisions of managed health care plans. Instead, it is the latest example of political gridlock turning into a chain reaction pileup of the nation's agenda." None of these stories allowed a Republican to explain their philosophical reasons for opposing the bill. That would only ruin the greedy gun-for-hire caricature. -- Tim Graham>>

Above from Media Research Center;

http://www.mrc.org/news/reality/1999/fax19991008.html

(specific url for this story), general web site is:

http://www.mrc.org/

---

Or consider that the numbers and selections for Times "Frauds of the Century" have been deliberately skewed to misrepresent conservatives, while protesting the Clintons' and such fellow liberal servers as G. Riverio.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 14, 1999.

Additional media perspectives...

National Association of Broadcasters

Broadcasters' Y2K Resource

Wondering how Y2K will affect you as a broadcaster? Get info here to make sure you are partying -- not panicking -- this New Year's Eve.

Year 2000 (Y2K) and the Broadcast Industry
(Last updated: 07/27/99)

http://www.nab.org/year2000/

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), October 15, 1999.