Media repeaters at work.

I happened to be flipping across news channels the other day and NBC was doing a “report” on the health care debate. During their segment they had cited polls about various things that Americans believed was in the bill. I only caught glimpses of it as I was eating dinner at the time, so I won’t even try to recite their polling data, that and the data found has nothing to do with the point I am about to make. I have explained before that the news media had lost touch with what true original reporting was. It astonished me to realize that people trust these outlets as their only source of information about current events. First off, the segment itself was an insult to my intelligence and then intelligence of over half of the American people. To imply that concerns over current health care reform are somehow illegitimate because this is just stuff that people believe is in the bill, instead of reporting on the actual text of the bill. Secondly, this segment did not reflect true reporting by any stretch of the imagination. Anyone can take a poll, but it takes a true scholarly effort to actually go out and read the full text of the bill, and report on its actual contents. Since when did the core of journalism because more about opinions, and less about facts and original stories, and an effort to seek out the truth before your competitors. Don’t insult our intelligence by reducing the argument down to a belief. If you want to make a case for people believing something with little facts or evidence to back it up, take a look at global warming. You don’t want to take on the American people on HR 3200 because regardless of what people believe, the truth is written publicly for everyone to see.

The internet and alternative medias are an excellent tool. I dare say that that the alphabet networks have been the only source of information for too long to really think that people can see right through them. Dan Rather is a perfect example of that. The people are becoming too smart and well informed to keep trying to pull the curtain down over our eyes.