I don't want a liberal media.

[Are_grits_groceries]

I want a fair and unbiased media that looks at all sides with a critical eye. I know it's impossible to ever achieve reporting that is 100% unbiased, but I would like to see an honest effort.

Debunk the lies from anyone. Present both sides rather than using paid shills or those elected by the parties.

There is a place for commentary, but what passes for news now is nothing but the outline of an issue with a filling of partisan ideas. Don't make the anchors of the shows the focus of the reporting. Highlight the reporters in the field and what they find. Richard Engel is one I can think of who does this and is allowed airtime.

I just watched GMA regurgitate the police line about bottles and rocks being thrown. The police used this as their excuse for their excessive force. They also interviewed a supervisor who approved or was part of approving this action. She said it was needed because of the dangerous? situation that had been created by the protestors. She should have been grilled.

I know I am wishing for the impossible. ***SIGH***

[Syrinx]

1. Congratulations, you ain't gonna get it

Your media will continue to be right wing.

On the liberal side, you've got Keith Olbermann and Amy Goodman, which collectively reach a thumbnail of the republic.

The rest of your media is controlled by a handful of corporations that control everything else, so why shouldn't they control the media, and the tv "news" illusion?

[deutsey]

2. A truly liberal (not leftist) media would do what you describe

I don't think I'm splitting hairs here. Liberal, by its very definition, means broad-minded and inclusive. A leftist media, like a rightist media, would be more about promoting an ideology and defining everything through that ideology. A truly liberal media would have an abundance of both viewpoints.

I'm old enough to remember when the news media were, in general, liberal in the sense that I mean here (back in the '70s). Maybe it was because of the Fairness Doctrine, I don't know, but I remember when views of the right and the left were expressed in editorials (Point Counterpoint on 60 Minutes comes to mind) while the news was seen (again, in general) as an informative public service.

That began to change in the '80s (as a book called On Bended Knee documents http://www.amazon.com/Bended-Knee-Press-Reagan-Presidency/dp/0374251975, and as the wall between the editorial vs. commercial was obliterated by media corporations) and then with the proliferation of the 24-hour news cycles and FOX in the '90s it all went to hell...and it's still burrowing deeper and deeper into new Satanic depths every day, it seems.

[canoeist52]

3. I don't want a media that presents both sides of an issue...

When the other side is CRIMINAL!

[KharmaTrain]

4. You Can Never Escape Bias...

As long as a human being is writing, they'll put a personal slant in how a story is written. Some may try to play it down the middle but even the best have let their personal feelings slip.

Media is what each of us make of it these days. With the innertoobs one can avoid the corporate media filters and do their own news gathering, editing and reporting.

The problem with a "librul" media is one never existed...

[mazzarro]

5. A strong liberal/left-leaning media is urgently needed

before the situation becomes unbearable. The pipe dream of wanting a balanced media is never going to happen as long as liberals/progressives continue to ignore the advantage that the right-wing already enjoy and utilize all the times. The right-wing media need to be counter balanced asap.

[KharmaTrain]

6. As If One Doesn't Exist?

Every day there's Amy Goodman doing incredible work on Democracy Now!...the Keith Olbermann every evening on Current TV...Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and many solid writers and blogs. I'd dare to say we have a far better "left-leaning" media today than we did a decade ago. Now are you proposing a "counter-balance" or hoping to censor the right wing? What I think is needed is greater support for "left-leaning" media. In numbers and ratings there is strength...

[mazzarro]

11. Yeah - and they compare for what obtains as the right wing echo chamber

of television, blogs, cable, radio stations, think-tanks and publishing houses? Particularly the AM radio stations gives the right wing unequaled superiority in propaganda which is being coordinated and fed by the think-tanks. Show us where the equivalent liberal/progressive setup exists?

[KharmaTrain]

12. It's All About Peddling Influence...

Yes...AM radio is a cesspool of hate and is a major reason that radio listening has dramatically decreased in the past decade. Those who listen do so willingly...no one is forced to listen to that horseshit (except for the few remaining board ops who are paid to listen). We can discuss about the need to re-regulate broadcasting but that wouldn't eliminate hate radio...unless you're in favor of curtailing one's right to free speech. I prefer to win the battle of ideas in the "marketplace".

The problem with hate radio and the right wing propaganda machine is its hold upon the legislative. It's the rushpublican congresscritters who buckle under to rushbo and are in bed with the Kochs and other big money wheeler-dealers. The object is to counteract money with people power...to make voices and votes heard at the ballot box that puts the fear of whomever into these "public servants" and remind them who their real bosses are. The teabaggers were able to put that kind of pressure on their congresscritters and if liberals and progressives were to do the same in getting more of these people elected that would change the dynamic.

Cheers...

[bowens43]

7. I absolutely DO want a liberal media.

truth has a liberal bias. There are not always two sides. When there are two sides, there is often a right side and a wrong side. presenting the wrong side as being equally valid is morally reprehensible.

[Lint Head]

8. The press, defined as news gatherers, are specifically suppose to be the Constitutional

powers of the people to be able to decide what their tax paid elected representatives are up to.

This is one sentence thus one binding concept. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

[ehrnst]

9. To be anything other than liberal (not Leftist) is called Yellow Journalism

We have been told that liberal = lefty so long that we believe it.

Just as conservative didn't used to = Righty

Liberal is to view all sides - that's exactly what "balanced" journalism is.

[Ron Green]

10. Right-wing media is the path of least resistance.

It's simply the easy way to make money, and therefore keep operating. Dirty hippies, car crashes, creeping socialism, missing children, Negro in the White House, suspicious activity by foreigners, Honoring our Heroes... and on and on. These stories don't require evaluation or even thought; they go straight To the "lizard brain" for immediate consumption and ensuing fear.

As long as market-driven media are our main stream, this is what we'll have.