EP09: RIP Journalism

UPDATE

Since we published this podcast, WikiLeaks has revealed:

The world has truly turned into a ball of confusion for many. Who to believe? What to believe? Who can you trust? Recent events have made it fairly clear that large swaths of the media are no longer objective. In some cases, it’s almost comically obvious.

Show Notes

  • Today’s topic: the death of journalism [:45]
  • Things are no longer entirely objective [2:10]
  • The Richard Nixon story [2:45]
  • Woodward and Bernstein broke the story and Nixon resigned in shame [3:40]
  • The press was for the most part objective. Or, at a minimum, the public perceived the media as objective [3:50]
  • Violent disagreement as to how things are reported today [4:50]
  • No one questioned the motives of the reporters back during the Nixon era and prior. We now routinely question the agenda of the provider of the news [5:15]
  • It really feels as under-reporting or misreporting what’s taking place [7:35]
  • The Louisiana flooding situation [7:50]
  • George W Bush took enormous heat for the handling of the Katrina situation [8:15]
  • Google “New Orleans George Bush” and you will see what I mean [8:30]
  • The media was all over this; it was a huge event [9:20]
  • Fast forward to right now; Obama has been on vacation, he has not visited the city at all, and yet the media is incredibly silent [9:45]
  • NOT an attack on the current administration; it’s NOT. It IS an attack on the media [10:05]
  • Phew was not even aware of the flooding going on right now [10:45]
  • Photos on Reddit are really harrowing [12:50]
  • The criticism is starting to come out, but it almost seems like the media had to be shamed into doing its job [15:10]
  • What are the implications of a non-objective media? [16:00]
  • Can’t watch Fox News, and I am a conservative [16:25]
  • The reporting Rachel Maddow was doing on Milwaukee rioting was totally ridiculous, and I am a liberal [17:50]
  • MSNBC is telling me what I want to hear, rather than being accurate [19:10]
  • CNN outright reported the Milwaukee story incorrectly. “CNN admits to propaganda about Milwaukee riots” [19:55] (See videos below)
  • There is no question re the deliberate misrepresentation [20:15]
  • The reporting was the exact opposite of the facts [21:25]
  • Add onto to all of this the non-reporting of the people who are funding stuff like this [23:40]
  • So many other incidents we’re not even talking about [23:50]
    • The way the political conventions were reported upon
    • The way that Hillary’s non-indictment indictment was handled
    • The complete screwing of Bernie Sanders
    • The firing and immediate rehiring of Debbie Wasserman Schultz
    • The way Loretta Lynch’s non-testimony testimony was reported on
  • The absence of objective reporting is what makes it so easy for people to not be enraged over things that should enrage them [26:00]
  • We are beginning to live in a state of future shock, or maybe it’s present shock [26:40]
  • Every week, the amount of information being created is greater than all of the information that existed before something like 1990 [27:50]
  • The news cycle just continues to move on because of the sheer volume of news. Just look at the Hillary hacked email server story. That’s a huge story, we haven’t gotten to the bottom of it, but we’ve moved on [29:15]
  • All of this increases the desire people have for simple answers to complicated, complex and nuanced issues. The best manipulators provide simple answers that people can latch onto; Putin does a great job of this [30:00]
  • The Clintons are masters of this kind of thing [31:05]
  • “Future shock” is defined as “too much change in too short a period of time” [31:50]
  • Future shock factor + unobjective media + nuanced-ness of so many of today’s issues + explosion of social media/blogging = massive confusion on the part of the public perception [32:15]
  • People not even talking about all the deaths of Clinton adversaries [33:15]
  • Dissonance concept is a short documentary made by Adam Curtis called Oh Dearism II and Non-Linear War (See video below)
  • Putin put out information on both sides of an issue on purpose [37:00]
  • If we had an objective media, Hillary would have been indicted; consider the massive implications of just this one issue [39:40]
  • Tim Pool of Vice, a very objective reporter: “I left Milwaukee because I felt unsafe as a white man” [43:40] (See video below)
  • That’s when I discovered the CNN misreporting [44:20]
  • Actively seeking white people driving through the area [44:45]
  • The fact that this is not being reported in mainstream media is nuts [46:50]
  • From the New York Times, July 11, 2016. Last month. A report called Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in ShootingsA black professor from Obama’s alma mater is the source of this information. I’ve heard almost nothing about this in the mainstream media – and this is from the New York Times [47:40]
  • A well-informed body politic is important for a healthy democracy [52:10]
  • Many people are intentionally informed by sources likely to confirm what they already believe [52:50]
  • Cult behavior and the development of cult-like mystical thinking [55:50]
  • Biased, unobjective reporting is leading directly to this kind of world [56:40]
  • We should watch BOTH sides of the reporting [57:20]
  • People get their new from unobjective sources…and then slam you for getting your news from similarly unobjective sources. It’s a double-whammy [60:05]
  • End points [61:00]
    • Think
    • Get news from multiple opposing sources
    • Discuss issues with people who disagree with you
    • Make good decisions when you vote

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