Biggest problem with ‘the media’ is not bias — it’s laziness
We live in a "sound-bite" world, so when the media give us sound bites for our daily information diet, we shouldn't be shocked or surprised. Nor should we accuse "the media" of having a liberal or conservative bias.
Trust me as someone who worked in the media before it started sliding so radically downhill: The media aren't all that biased, they're mostly just lazy and incompetent. There are, truly, no "investigative journalists" worthy of the name anymore, in my opinion. Not even the renowned, historical investigative duo Woodward and Bernstein are REALLY Woodward and Bernstein anymore. (In their case the problem is mostly aging, not loss of ability or changes in style. They're getting old, and someone who's 60+ finds it hard to get excited and do the physical labor of someone who's 30-40 years old. I speak from experience on this, people.)
Today's "journalists" are mostly broadcast "talking heads" who live and die by ratings and teleprompters. The few who might have a clue about investigative, serious journalism generally lose out to budgetary constraints by their employers (large print operations or television networks) -- or they are forced to simplify and limit their "coverage" of an issue, event, or person by the declining attention span of their audiences.
When you take all that sorry mess and call it "the media," then add in such obvious self-serving dopes as the Fox Network bunch, Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, and all the other self-anointed "journalists" who really aren't as competent as many amateur bloggers -- well, now you really do have the essence of that marvel we call "the media." And what you have suffers more from clueless incompetence than from political bias.
Forgive my cynicism today, but that's the way I see it. Tell me how you see it.
Technorati Tags: the media, media mistakes, media incompetence, lack of journalistic competence, take time for living
