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calimary

(80,699 posts)
6. I had to defend my old industry to a friend who took issue with
Thu Aug 30, 2018, 12:13 PM
Aug 2018

with my criticism of Pox Noise, Sinclair broadcasting, Alex Jones, and Limbaugh and hate radio at large. She criticized me for “always blaming the media.” I had to correct her. And point out that I was criticizing select parts of the media - the right wing-slanted media that Roger Ailes pushed with the institution of Pox Noise. He stated that his new network had been set up SPECIFICALLY to advance the right wing’s world view. He thought the “mainstream media” wasn’t giving the so-called “right” a fair shake. So he built a vehicle in which the “right” and far-right wouldn’t just get a fair shake, but the ONLY shake. He was clear, open, and unapologetic about it.

The first time I heard the slogan ”Fair and Balanced” - I knew what it REALLY said: “fair and balanced TO ONE SIDE ONLY.

I had to point out to my friend: I spent the better part of a quarter-century in the news business. I worked with Emmy winners, Pulitzer Prize and Polk Award winners, Armstrong and Peabody Award winners. News professionals who bet their good names and reputations and credibility on every word they wrote or broadcast.

And editors all over EVERYWHERE. Professionals who were fiercely determined to make damn sure their reporting was accurate and objective. Editors hovered over every script to make sure there was objective writing and accuracy. Hell, we even have an editor looking over our copy in our Indivisible Clackamas “Call to Action” emails that we write up and send out to the membership every week. For the same reason: accuracy and truthful claims. We back up every item with a link to the original reporting or background material from which we wrote each item.

So wherever I worked, throughout my career, in big outlets and small, network and local, radio and TV and print, it sure as hell WASN’T any fucking “fake news”! And everyone I worked with on or off the air took great pains to make sure they got it right. And clear. And accurate. And impeccably unimpeachable. Taking NO sides - except on the side of The Truth as closely and carefully and meticulously as they could know it. The only fake news there is - is on Pox Noise every hour of every day and night.

Pox Noise offends me. Because its whole reason for being is to slant the news toward the way THEY want it, and not the objective truth. Pox Noise is deeply offensive to me and everything I learned about information brokering while working in the news biz, and all the distinguished and highly respected news professionals with whom I was incredibly privileged to work. So is Sinclair Broadcasting. So is hate radio. Offensive to me. DEEPLY offensive to me. Can’t get beyond that, either.

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