Our Treasonous Media Is a Clear and Present Danger

[DiogenesLamp]

@driftdiver

I'm curious why you disagree with such a fundamental of America.  @Oceander gave the conservative, traditional American answer: if you don't like it, set up your own competing entity.

I take it you have never heard of this company called "Standard Oil"?   

[driftdiver]

And that's just the kind of answer I'd expect from someone who prefers to wrap their head in tinfoil.

@txradioguy
Glad I could make you happy.

Doesn't take much to keep someone who'se ok with the current media in this country.   

[driftdiver]

I take it you have never heard of this company called "Standard Oil"?   

@DiogenesLamp

Did you forget to change tags before responding?

[txradioguy]

And yet the majority of Americans get their news from where?

And where did those sources have close familial ties for the last 8 years?

MSNBC admitted they contacted the white house for permission before airing stories.

So much for a free press Mr. BS

Seriously...do you think this is some kind of NEW development with the media?

Have you been living in a cave for most of your adult life?

You really have no clue as to how biased the media has been and for how long.  The things they covered for and didn't cover at all.

Like someone pointed out earlier...it's silly to see people just now starting to worry about the media as if they only started biased coverage the day Donny took office.

And now thanks to Fox and Rush going in the tank 110% for Trump during the election..."fair and balanced" and "realville" went out the window and "conservative" media is no better than the rest of the MSM.

[Oceander]

I take it you have never heard of this company called "Standard Oil"?   

Prove a monopoly that falls within the anti-trust laws. 

Tinfoil and hate will only get you so far. 

[txradioguy]

@txradioguy

Doesn't take much to keep someone who'se ok with the current media in this country.

Please show me anywhere on here where I've said I'm happy with the current media in this country?

Go ahead...I'll wait.

[bigheadfred]

I am at work so I can't look it up. What are the totals for viewership of the major networks news?  All of my news is through the internet now. I don't watch antenna tv nor do I have cable.

[DiogenesLamp]

Fox News...Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck would beg to differ with you.

I know it's part of Rush's schtick to say he "balances"  or is a "counterweight"  to all the existing Liberal media,  but i'm pretty sure he never expected anyone to be so stupid as to actually believe such a thing.   


No,  Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck do not balance the trillion dollar broadcasting system currently feeding us crap and censoring information to 300 million people in America,  and billions of people in the rest of the world. 

So would the Washington Times...National Review and the Media Research Institute.

This is so silly it does not warrant a further response. 

[DiogenesLamp]

@DiogenesLamp

Did you forget to change tags before responding?

I don't understand your question.   I'm not sure what you mean about "tags." 

[driftdiver]

Please show me anywhere on here where I've said I'm happy with the current media in this country?

Go ahead...I'll wait.

@txradioguy

How do you keep an idiot in suspense?

I'll tell you tomorrow

[Suppressed]

@Suppressed

I'm surprised you would make such a fraudulent charge.    Why don't you go make a competing entity.   What an asinine statement.

@driftdiver

Fraudulent?!

Actually, I did. I co-founded a conservative local newspaper 25 years ago, serving as editor in chief to get it off the ground.  No government entity came in and stomped on me to prevent it (though I did find it surprising about financing restrictions on newspapers, so I'll admit there is (was?) a small bit of restriction for government-subsidized small-business loans).  Was it easy? No...conservatives don't tend to read newspapers as much as liberals.  But it wasn't stopped.

I also have gone into the schools -- despite not having children, myself -- volunteering help.  What a wonderful thing it would be if every conservative got off his butt and put together a 45-minute presentation on the Founding Fathers or something, and pitched it to schools.  The Left will provide free posters with cute animals and push animal rights or environmentalism, but there's not a lot of conservatives getting stuff into the schools.  A non-partisan presentation can be allowed in there and do wonders for appreciation of our American foundations; it doesn't have to hit people over the head with an anvil to help.

(I'm thinking my next one will be on WWII rationing.  Many students have NO CLUE how tightly food was rationed.  Tell them that they could have only a few frozen (or canned or dried) items a month, and they'd flip!  While this is an educational program that could get into the schools, it's also imparting a very conservative message to entitled post-millennials.)



@txradioguy, you hit the nail on the head.  For all the grief conservatives give to the Left, I also find that it's the conservatives who won't get out there and do things.  Yeah, we have jobs.  But we also have off time, too.

driftdiver, please don't give in to the liberal canard that we're powerless without government approval.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

@txradioguy

How do you keep an idiot in suspense?

I'll tell you tomorrow

Oh so you'll keep yourself in suspense?

[DiogenesLamp]

Like someone pointed out earlier...it's silly to see people just now starting to worry about the media as if they only started biased coverage the day Donny took office.

What the hell is wrong with you?   I've been screaming about the lying sacks of sh*t media people since 1992 when they deliberately created a false impression that the economy had gone off the cliff just so they could undermine George HW Bush (whom I couldn't stand)  so as to help Bill Clinton get elected.   


If I wasn't screaming about the media before 1992 it was because I wasn't aware at that time of how they were manipulating things.   I just thought Reagan was catching a lot of tough breaks on coverage,  it just never occurred to me in the 1980s that the Talking Heads on the News broadcasts were deliberately manipulating the coverage to push an agenda,   but in 1992 I fully realized what was going on. 


"It's the economy stupid. "


No,  it's the media manipulation stupid. 

   

[Suppressed]

I take it you have never heard of this company called "Standard Oil"?   

Yes, it's the only oil company ever in the world.  </sarc>

Standard Oil kept prices low for the consumer.  Any competitor required them to lower prices to compete. 

[driftdiver]

@driftdiver

Fraudulent?!

Actually, I did. I co-founded a conservative local newspaper 25 years ago, serving as editor in chief to get it off the ground.  No government entity came in and stomped on me to prevent it (though I did find it surprising about financing restrictions on newspapers, so I'll admit there is (was?) a small bit of restriction for government-subsidized small-business loans).  Was it easy? No...conservatives don't tend to read newspapers as much as liberals.  But it wasn't stopped.

I also have gone into the schools -- despite not having children, myself -- volunteering help.  What a wonderful thing it would be if every conservative got off his butt and put together a 45-minute presentation on the Founding Fathers or something, and pitched it to schools.  The Left will provide free posters with cute animals and push animal rights or environmentalism, but there's not a lot of conservatives getting stuff into the schools.  A non-partisan presentation can be allowed in there and do wonders for appreciation of our American foundations; it doesn't have to hit people over the head with an anvil to help.

(I'm thinking my next one will be on WWII rationing.  Many students have NO CLUE how tightly food was rationed.  Tell them that they could have only a few frozen (or canned or dried) items a month, and they'd flip!  While this is an educational program that could get into the schools, it's also imparting a very conservative message to entitled post-millennials.)



@txradioguy, you hit the nail on the head.  For all the grief conservatives give to the Left, I also find that it's the conservatives who won't get out there and do things.  Yeah, we have jobs.  But we also have off time, too.

driftdiver, please don't give in to the liberal canard that we're powerless without government approval.

@Suppressed

You cofounded a newspaper that nobody has heard of.   Now thats gonna change the world.

It takes a simpleton to ignore the impact the mainstream media has had on our country.   Everything from immigration to gay marriage has been significantly impacted by the activists in the media.  People who coordinate with foreign governments, people in our govt and with people like George Soros.

Yeah that local newspaper that nobody has ever heard of is gonna counter the hundreds of millions being spent to socially engineer this country away from the Constitution.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

@Suppressed

You cofounded a newspaper that nobody has heard of.   Now thats gonna change the world.

How about a precious snowflake like yourself, who wants government to create a nationwide safe space?

[DiogenesLamp]

Prove a monopoly that falls within the anti-trust laws. 

Your response is completely irrelevant to the point I am making regarding your previous response. 

 You said:   "if you don't like it, set up your own competing entity." 


Was private industry going to solve the problem of Standard Oil?   



 Was it?   


Please keep up with the specific point being debated,  and once you have adequately responded to that,  then you can introduce another point about whether the media falls into an anti-trust scheme.   


Back when Standard oil was destroying competition through unfair (and now illegal)  business practices,  there was no anti-trust legislation on the books.    The point was,  the problem of Standard Oil was impossible to solve through business competition.   

[DiogenesLamp]

Please show me anywhere on here where I've said I'm happy with the current media in this country?

Go ahead...I'll wait.

It is implicit in your argument that nothing whatsoever should be done to correct it.   

[txradioguy]

It is implicit in your argument that nothing whatsoever should be done to correct it.   

Not even close.  Only in your conspiracy fueled fantasies about "Big Media" is that even close to being a rational answer.

I have been a constant and consistent critic of how the media operates in this country and abroad.  I literally work in the lions den...I see how it works from the inside...and I study history...the bias cover ups and pandering to one political party have been far far worse in the past than they are now.

There are things we know and stories that have been covered that 20-30 years ago wouldn't have been touched because back then...the MSM really did have what the people knew on lock down.

[DiogenesLamp]

Yes, it's the only oil company ever in the world.  </sarc>

It certainly would be if your thinking on the media censorship problem was applied in the case of Standard Oil. 

Standard Oil kept prices low for the consumer.  Any competitor required them to lower prices to compete.

They would move into a neighborhood and install a gas station.    They would lower their prices to below operating costs of the local competition and hold them there until the local competition collapsed. 


They would then raise their prices way beyond the normal market price,   and gouge everyone through this newly created monopoly of supply.   


And you think this could have been solved by market competition?     


And I didn't even get into the  threats,  bribes,  destruction of property,   and other behaviors in which they engaged. 

[driftdiver]

How about a precious snowflake like yourself, who wants government to create a nationwide safe space?

@Weird Tolkienish Figure

Aren't you special.

Yes the roll of the government is to protect all citizens equally.  Thats a safe place.  Perhaps you'd prefer a totalitarian safe place which is where we're headed.

Why you guys are ok with the foreign influence is difficult to understand.

[DiogenesLamp]

Not even close.  Only in your conspiracy fueled fantasies about "Big Media" is that even close to being a rational answer.

I think it's been about three or four times you've mentioned "tin foil"  or "conspiracy"  or some variation on that theme in lieu of an actual rebuttal.   


You use these words in an attempt to end debate,  (and a debate which you are badly losing)  not to provide insight or reason.   

I have been a constant and consistent critic of how the media operates in this country and abroad.  I literally work in the lions den...I see how it works from the inside...and I study history...the bias cover ups and pandering to one political party have been far far worse in the past than they are now.

There are things we know and stories that have been covered that 20-30 years ago wouldn't have been touched because back then...the MSM really did have what the people knew on lock down.

That a tiny percentage of the population has escaped the "lock down"  that the media has perpetrated on the USA does in no way mean that the problem has been solved for the vast majority of the population.   


The threat to our nation is from misinformed "low information voters"  who simply  rally to whatever talking points come to them through the television.   The margin of victory in elections is usually never greater than 10%,   so the Media only need swing 5% of the middle group of low information voters to get their candidate elected and thereby implement policies that will live long after their candidate is gone. 


"Don't ask,  Don't tell"   being but one example that grew (as conservatives knew it would)  far beyond what it was claimed at the time.   

[Suppressed]

Back when Standard oil was destroying competition through unfair (and now illegal)  business practices,  there was no anti-trust legislation on the books.    The point was,  the problem of Standard Oil was impossible to solve through business competition.

The Left says it was a "problem".  You say it was "unfair".

The consumer says, "It gave me a good deal on a product."

I suppose Google succeeded only because of the government.  Same with Microsoft before it.

[Suppressed]

Putting all of the other outlets aside, are you now suggesting that government must guarantee equal access to media broadcasting outlets?  That the equal time rule must apply to everything, including news stories that don't focus on a particular candidate?  Are we now going to advocate for reviving the now-dead fairness doctrine?

@Oceander

It's the old "if you aren't good enough to compete, and the people don't want your product, we have to have the government step in and protect you" line of the Left, using such things as tariffs and handouts. 

Now available in Orange!

[DiogenesLamp]

The Left says it was a "problem".  You say it was "unfair".

The consumer says, "It gave me a good deal on a product."

Are you seriously talking about Standard Oil's now blatantly illegal behavior in destroying their business competition?   

I suppose Google succeeded only because of the government.  Same with Microsoft before it.

Well if the government wasn't enforcing copyright law,  than anyone could have been Google or Microsoft,  couldn't they? 


Of course I regard enforcing copyright law as a rightful Provence of government,  meaning I recognize that there are tasks that can only be done,  and must only be done by government. 


No one else can every become big enough to do them.