Our Press Freedom is under Fire

[cornermouse]

http://www.otherwords.org/articles/our_p...under_fire

In its latest assessment, Reporters Without Borders ranked the United States No. 47 for media freedom.

Yes, the truth,
Will set us free;
But it's not found
On NBC.

Freedom of the press, that inspired rallying cry of our democracy, is becoming a poignant memory. In its latest ranking of how such freedoms stack up worldwide, Reporters Without Borders ranked the United States No. 47. We certainly rate way better than China, which clocked in at No. 174 out of 179 countries, but this truly is a shameful grade....

[LaughingLiberal]

This is even worse than where we rank in delivery of health care to citizens. This is not a nice place to live anymore.

[Echo In Light]

And considering that, in all likelihood, Reporters Without Borders is comprised of many 'professionals' who, per their conditioning (i.e. professional training) would roll their eyes and flippantly dismiss scores of info/data that institutionally would be marginalized as Loony Conspiracy Theories, the rating is realistically far lower than that.

Even going back three decades, the range of 'acceptable' views to espouse within M$M was extremely narrow - this, coupled with referring to the propaganda machine as "liberal," is why so many americans view to-the-right-of-center views/positions as actual leftwing positions.

[TheCrone]

We live in an era where the CIA brags about the fact that its thirty or forty year mission to infiltrate the news rooms has finally worked out so well.

And exactly like Echo in Light is mentioning, the range of stories that do get brought to our attention is a very narrow one. Even among the "free" and independent reporters.

Add to those facts the reality that many reporters come from a liberal arts background, and don't understand scientific basics, and you have a situation where mis-information is the norm.

I come from a scientific background. This particular article looks only at the reporting done on the polluting of California via the MTBE gas additive, and how the mainstream press out and out and out lied about what happened. But if given the time - any one with a serious interest could find out the same thing about most mainstream media reported events.

(for anyone interested, my report is here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/06/22...ream-Media )

And again the goal in writing the above is that my intimate knowledge of this topic; knowledge that allowed me to see through the big lies. If deliberate mis-reporting happened on this topic, it probably happens on 75% of all the topics out there. Most people don't have that ability to so carefully examine a situation. If you work a full time job and are raising kids or caring for a sick elderly parent, you simply cannot be traveling to your state capital to sit around for hearings. Even if the matters are very important to your life, such as the purity of drinking water and cleanliness of the air..