Forum Post: Main Stream Media Problems: "False Equivalency Fallacy" and FOX NEWS's "Liberal Media" cry wolf SCAM
Posted 12 years ago on May 9, 2012, 5:24 p.m. EST by Endgame
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When it comes to covering politics all of the mainstream media are terrible at it. What happened to real investigative journalism and holding the right people accountable?
The problem with Fox(which is even more mainstream than all the others)and the far right bubble isn't that they are slanted right, its the lies and the dumbing down of every complex political situation so they can put some bs spin on it while using slogans to easily get their false narrative out.
The problems with all of the mainstream media(CNN and MSNBC) is their lack of investigative journalism when it comes to covering politics. They only cover sound bites and slogans. And what is most annoying and dangerous is when the media turns every political story into a "False Equivalency" story. Like when the far right republicans held this country hostage during the debt ceiling fiasco, the main stream media said "it was both sides fault" and then didn't give a damn reason why it was both sides fault. Even though the facts says it was completely the fault of the far right for not compromising on anything and creating a manufactured problem that could of really screwed this country over. But the belt way media's non-logic was "both sides are to blame just because".
When the media covers politics with "False Equivalency" it causes the ones that are truly to blame to get away with it. If its the Dems doing shady shit, call them out on it, if its the Republicans doing shady shit, call them out on it. But don't give this watered down safe "its everyones fault" bs if its actually NOT everyones fault in that scenario.
The far right have done a great job of manipulating the rest of the main stream media by always crying wolf with the "Liberal Media" claim they throw around. The rest of the main stream media hears that and goes out of their way (due to fear of that claim) and bend over backwards to appease the far right and in turn covers politics in not only in a lame and dangerous "False Equivalency" but they actually end up slanting to the right on almost every story. Its a great scam and the rest of the media are to stupid to realize they are being manipulated.
Rachel Maddow being one of the exceptions. I may not agree with her all the time but I do think overall her and her team does great work and calls out the rest of the belt way media for their nonsense.
BUT its important for Occupy to realize that its important to recognize when we have positive coverage but its just as important we recognize when we get negative coverage. Or even unfair coverage. And even though the majority of negative coverage we get can be considered unfair coverage, we need to realize that not ALL negative coverage is unfair. We need to take constructive criticism(from outside the movement and from within) and learn from our mistakes and become a stronger movement. And hopefully we won't fall into the trap of being in denial about any of our flaws while spending all of our time patting ourselves on the back in blind admiration of ourselves. We need to be careful not to live in a bubble.
During the debt debate the people most responsible that they never blame are the people who vote for Republicans, until Americans are willing to call out their neighbors on their bullshit, we must look to ourselves for leadership, if we are not willing to defeat Republicans then we get what we deserve.
"What happened to real investigative journalism and holding the right people accountable?"
-- Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman wrote a book called "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" that answers your question in extraordinary detail.
MSNBC is a political organization disguised as news. Maddow may appear that she pushes the boundaries of acceptable mainstream discourse, but she knows how far she can go. After all, her 6 figure paycheck is signed by the very corporation who makes billions of dollars on illegal wars of aggression, and was a leading proponent in off-shoring US jobs, and now has a CEO, Jeff Immelt, who was appointed by Obama to run the Orwellian Council on Competitiveness and Jobs team. Phil Donahue is a prime example of what happens when you go too far.
Are you you hoping that OWS will take constructive criticism (advice) from the 99%spring and moveon.org?
Maddow constantly bashes GE(the owners of NBC). So I do give her more credit than I do the rest. But you make valid points.
And I think OWS should take constructive criticism from EVERYWHERE. Just because someone is aligned with a political party doesn't automatically mean we should shun them away. I agree that our political system is corrupt and in turn all political parties are corrupt. But not everyone that participates in the system are evil people. We should seek knowledge from where ever the source just as long as it helps us become better than what we are.
San Diego Tribune printed Al Quada on the front page like it was a real organization
lol