Reporting versus Creating the News

One thing that truly bothers me in this, the Information Age, especially in the United States, is that news agencies create rather than report the news. In my view this is going well beyond their brief into territory they were never designed to wander into.They are not impartial arbiters of the the truth or referees in the social arena, but just another player, another gladiator after the spoils.

Bill Moyers puts it this way... "Our media institutions, deeply embedded in the power structures of society, are not providing the information that we need to make our democracy work. To put it another way, corporate media consolidation is a corrosive social force. It robs people of their voice in public affairs and pollutes the political culture. And it turns the debates about profound issues into a shouting match of polarized views promulgated by partisan apologists who trivialize democracy while refusing to speak the truth about how our country is being plundered.

Our dominant media are ultimately accountable only to corporate boards whose mission is not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the whole body of our republic, but the aggrandizement of corporate executives and shareholders. These organizations’ self-styled mandate is not to hold public and private power accountable, but to aggregate their interlocking interests. Their reward is not to help fulfill the social compact embodied in the notion of the people, but to manufacture news and information as profitable consumer commodities."

It is high time we told these lobby groups to get out of opinion making and simply report what is happening around the world. There are a number of reputable agencies that do this, so why can't all the rest. I am not interested in editorial and opinion, but the untainted facts! Let me make up my own mind and let my friends do the same. But how dare you tell me what to think!