[BC] Fairness doctrine by another name? aka censorship?

[Sid Schweiger]

>>The evening news around here (Pac NW) is pure pabulum full of 
incomplete stories and mind candy.  They never report how congress is 
screwing us  and the weather persons would never dare comment on the 
chemtrails filling the skies and plainly visible during their 
weathercast.  There's a lot of stuff on national news that should be 
only on local news and very few newscasts call to attention things 
like the stimulus bill (and the Patriot Act for that matter) being 
passed without even being read by the congress critters voting on it.<<

Evening TV news across the country is the same, and I noted over the weekend, on several TV newscasts, Republicans stating quite clearly that they did not vote for the stimulus bill because it was rushed through by the Democrats without sufficient time for *anyone* (Dems included) to read it.

However: TV news, for all too long now, has failed to inform.  Instead, it panders, and many of the more perceptive media critics have said so.  Informing the audience, giving them what they need to make informed decisions about candidates and issues, doesn't make as much money as pandering does.  Too many TV newscasts I've seen with my own two eyes could just as well have been anchored by Jerry Springer.  The fact that these so-called newscasts compete for an award named after Edward R. Murrow (who presciently said: "A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves") is surely making Murrow do flips in his grave.

Over the long weekend I dug out "Network" and watched it again.  Its (at that time) fantasy of where TV news was headed has become an appalling reality.

Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Brighton MA  02135-2040