Its weird. When I was a wee lad, I looked to 6ABC for the news (when I cared). I sat and I watched everything from the breaking news, to sports, to the lotto numbers. So, then I always thought what I saw on the news is true. And for some point in all of our lives, we all did. So, now that I'm a young man, I look at the news. And I don't see the same things any more I see an agenda. An agenda pushed by usually current events.
Now, I'm the type of guy who will watch anything. I get my news online from cnn.com and bbc.co.uk . However, when I watch TV news I watch CNN, FoxNews, BBC America, CNBC (news effects the markets and vice-versa), and pretty much any sources of news. But watching the same story of an event on 3 different sources presented 3 different ways makes me wonder which slant is true, or closest to the truth.
The fact is the news in this country is a private enterprise. In other countries, like England and Italy, the government has a tight grip on the news media. The Italian government controls 80-90% of the news in Italy. But here we have a news media industry. FoxNews of course is owned by Fox which is owned by News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch. CNN is owned by Time Warner, and Ted Turner. Both of these men are businessmen, with profits and bottom lines to worry about.
So what? Why should it matter that the news has to make money. Things cost money. Well, its not that they have to make money. EVERYTHING is about money. But ask yourself this. What if both networks reported the same news? They'd have to fight tooth and nail for viewers. This is the case when it comes to local new stations. But on the national level, that's not so much the case. On the national level they sell to the different sections of the country. Meaning making FoxNew a right-slanting station and CNN a left-slanting station.
This has several benefits. First, right swinging interest groups have a concentrated market to sell and advertise to. And same for the left interest groups. Second, we can almost pick and choose the news we want to hear. If i want to hear anti-Obama sentiment a quick change to FoxNews and I'll get all I want. If I want to hear Obama praising, CNN LOVES Obama.
So, when I heard all the Bush-bashing from 2000-2008 it could have only created a vacuum when he left office. Someone had to be left with the duty of bashing Obama. A duty FoxNews was more than happy to undertake, and conservatives were eager to watch.
Now, this isn't my platform to say we need a uniform news source, nor a bashing against the consevatives or liberals. This is just an observation that we can choose what news is the news we follow. And if this country is about anything its the right to choose what we believe.... right?
