I am now PC

[Bengal]

There was never a time when the various news organizations were purely apolitical conveyors of fact. There was a relatively brief period during which that illusion was cultivated for various reasons. That period is over. Naked partisanship is more honest. I believe the truth is more likely to be ferreted out by blood thirsty competition between rival news organizations driven by rival ideologies. At least we know where MSNBC et al. stand. Apparently, Al Sharpton is accepted as the political voice of Black America and MSNBC and CBS will do as he commands. They are his bitches.

Your first sentence is BS. Unless your going to split hairs and say that all the reporters bring their own bias to the story. But other than that. Sure they were...

The rest of your post I agree with. Unless the story somehow is related to the business that owns the news department. Then they bury it...

[Bengal]

One last comment on how the Mighty have fallen...

CBS replaced Dan Rather with Katie Couric. Nuff said...

[Tashtego]

Your first sentence is BS. Unless your going to split hairs and say that all the reporters bring their own bias to the story. But other than that. Sure they were...

Oh, when?

[danastas]

I wasn't slamming him getting fired... merely the BS reason that MSNBC and now CBS have given.
All I ask is they tell the truth. They canned him because they were loosing AD money. This BS moral high ground speech was pure PR BS.
If it was for what he said, he would have been shit canned the next day if not sooner.
It's that kind of dishonest behavior that disgusts me.

I think everyone is agreed on this.

On the other hand, Michael Moore and Phil Donahue were cancelled at a time when both of them had very high ratings on their networks. TV Nation had very high ratings on Fox, and Donahue was the top draw on MSNBC, but he was anti-war, and so he was cancelled. I didn't see people complaining about a double standard back then.

Clearly, there is no moral outrage with the networks in Imus's case. He's done this kind of thing repeatedly over the years. Why now? Clearly, it's the loss of ad money.

[thetroy]

Garth they can't cancel us we're on public access

[wakeUPdead]

You know since I moved out I never got cable or satelite hooked up and that was since like October man. And to be honest between the books and music and constant guitar playing. My life feels very much - at ease.

Hell I don't even know about most of the shit you all talk about on here, so it takes me a couple of web searches to get some details.

[Bengal]

Oh, when?

I'll give you a few...

1. Watergate
2. The McCarthey Hearings
3. Vietnam
4. WWII

There is 4 instances where "The Media" got it right and did the right thing. No big corporations told them to squash the story, or if they did, the journalist had ethics and went through with it anyway. Unfortunatly 2 of those instances were during wars but some of the best reporting came out of both eras...

[Tashtego]

I'll give you a few...

1. Watergate
2. The McCarthey Hearings
3. Vietnam
4. WWII

There is 4 instances where "The Media" got it right and did the right thing. No big corporations told them to squash the story, or if they did, the journalist had ethics and went through with it anyway. Unfortunatly 2 of those instances were during wars but some of the best reporting came out of both eras...

Hmmm. I think we are talking about different things. I'm asserting "There was never a time when the various news organizations were purely apolitical conveyors of fact." None of the instances you gave contradict this statement. Quite the contrary actually.

[OnlineStageGear]

It's funny how Al Sharpton lead the push to have the "Racist" Fired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVJ14uL22R4

[Bengal]

Hmmm. I think we are talking about different things. I'm asserting "There was never a time when the various news organizations were purely apolitical conveyors of fact." None of the instances you gave contradict this statement. Quite the contrary actually.

Hardly. Where was the political slant to Watergate? Nixon broke the law, the Post took him down. You think they did that because he was a Republican? None of the reporting I've studied from either war was slanted politically.Same thing with McCarthey. They reported the facts in all those cases. No slant from the owners. No political slant. So I fail to see your point...

But where I think we are not on the same page is I'm talking about individual journalists, not news departments as a whole. But even then, I don't think I'm off on my point...

[Carbuff]

Sad but true. Now substitute the word Government for Media. Still true.

This is true. Our Gov't has failed us in so many ways its not funny. Since its illegal to kill them all I guess single term limits would be a good start. Move out all the dead wood, cough, Kennedy, cough. I still kinda like the kill em all idea though.

[hippietim]

This is true. Our Gov't has failed us in so many ways its not funny. Since its illegal to kill them all I guess single term limits would be a good start. Move out all the dead wood, cough, Kennedy, cough. I still kinda like the kill em all idea though.

One of the best scenes in a movie ever was when in Mars Attacks when the old lady starts laughing as she's saying "they killed Congress".

[VitaminG]

Hardly. Where was the political slant to Watergate? Nixon broke the law, the Post took him down. You think they did that because he was a Republican? None of the reporting I've studied from either war was slanted politically.Same thing with McCarthey. They reported the facts in all those cases. No slant from the owners. No political slant. So I fail to see your point...

But where I think we are not on the same page is I'm talking about individual journalists, not news departments as a whole. But even then, I don't think I'm off on my point...

I think you are off in regards to news agencies generally. There may have been individuals with ethics, but I still think there are today. The news organisations though have always been political. Reporting through both world wars was very partisan and often run by the govt propoganda & recruitment machines. The enemy (whichever enemy) was painted up to be an evil monster coming to take your children, and our forces were gallant, brave, morally upstanding, fighting the good fight for all that is right.

The stories of the reporters that stood up during events like Watergate and the McCarthy hearings make such good tales because they're about an individual standing up in the face of adversity, against the tide of conformity. Plus being the dude that breaks a story of that magnitude can make your career as a journalist.

[VitaminG]

btw, by "political" I don't necessarily mean aligned to a particular political party. Political doesn't just mean Republic v. Democrat, or Tory v. Labour

[Tashtego]

Hardly. Where was the political slant to Watergate? Nixon broke the law, the Post took him down. You think they did that because he was a Republican?

In a word, yes. More elaborately: Nixon broke the law and the Post was there to take him down like a starving dog on a raw steak because he was a Republican.

None of the reporting I've studied from either war was slanted politically.Same thing with McCarthey. They reported the facts in all those cases. No slant from the owners. No political slant. So I fail to see your point...

You have not studied the history in enough depth then. All 3 episodes have a wealth of examples of political motivated manipulation of the news offered to the public.