the new would cover this.

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We need more democratic congress persons there.

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Thanks to all the others as well.

The same can be said for the Poor People's Campaign whose leaders are being arrested all across the nation. https://thinkprogress.org/more-than-100-arrested-nationwide-for-rallying-for-health-care-and-environmental-protection-e949287534c5/
We need a new media outlet in this country so very bad. This should be carried live right now on the likes on CNN & MSNBC but *crickets*

Quick, someone start a GoFundMe for a real news station please!

So tired of the "Where's the media?" bromide.

Just search around, FFS.

And instead focusing on BS. It's time it starts. News is nothing more than TMZ gossip these days.

what is that? Every news station? Every newspaper? Everything? Everywhere?

"The Media" is not a monolith. We have varied practices, varied stances, varied results.

Please don't lump us all into a single steaming pile of worthlessness.

If you don't see degrees of usefulness in what we do, you're not looking closely enough.

No offense to you. I'm sure you're a lovely person, but I'm tired of the sweeping blame game.

Peace out, and take care. We can get through this, and there are media out there helping uncover the BS.

The media or rather the "MSM" is what I am in reference to.

Your 24/4 so called news shows" which really are more like "pundit pageantry". CNN, FOX, MSNBC. Of course I don't expect FOX to cover any sort of "real issues" people face on a daily basis.

I'm not sure why you'd be defending them but we all know for instance that they helped elect Trump with their constant masturbation over him in 2016.

No I don't see the usefulness in what "you" do and just exactly who is "we"?

Case in point; there has been basically no coverage at all of the #PoorPeoplesCampaign and the marches happening all over this country despite being in over 40 cities. Absolute "crickets".

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Thanks for the examples. You have defined media as cable television news. That's a very narrow definition, but by that definition, I generally agree with your assessment.

However, why am I defending journalists? Because I am one. As are most of my friends. And by the tens of thousands we go about our jobs every day as part of "the media," working at newspapers large and small, news websites that cover everything from the White House to the state house to your house, writing about county fairs, fair labor practices and football games.

Further, I read on this site constantly the whine "Why don't THE MEDIA cover this?" So I'm intrigued and do a Google search only to find dozens of stories on "this," whatever it happens to be.

Somebody yesterday asked why the New York Times during the election had NEVER written about Trump's bankruptcies or his history with women or his other failures as a person and businessman. I did another simple search on their site for stories about those topics that ran between June 2015 and November 2016. Guess what? Dozens of results for stories exactly about those topics.

You clearly are not one of those people, but there's always this chorus about how the media never does anything, and frankly, most of the time it's bullshit and often echoes the tone of the president, who'd rather see us all thrown in jail.

So excuse my defensiveness, but it's tiring to always be on the defensive for doing our jobs.

Yep, some of us are better than others. Some of us do good journalism, and some of us do bad journalism. There's a poster on this site who has come up with a great dividing tool to understanding the types of "media": 1) truth-seeking media; 2) for-profit or ratings-driven media; and 3) ideological (generally conservative) media.

The people I know are almost all in the first box. I have a few students, who from the first day of journalism class their sophomore year, I can tell are headed toward the second box because of their desire to be a star. Those headed for the third box I am bad at recognizing, or they don't enroll in my classes.

We do our best as journalists and journalism educators to produce truth-seekers.

The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics contains the guiding principles for our profession. Its preamble reads:

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

We do our best to uphold these, but for some journalists and their "owners" the profit motive drives them even harder. Thoughtful journalists such as Kovach and Rosenstiel have proposed removing that profit motive from the journalistic model in the U.S. by creating a tax similar to those imposed in European democracies to fund truth-seeking media. For many reasons, that's unlikely in the U.S., which means we're stuck with the three types of media outlined by our friend on this board.

I would hope that most consumers understand that while journalists at the Times, the Washington Post, and their local "dying" rags occasionally make mistakes or don't have the resources to cover every story in the world, that you also give them credit for approaching every day as a chance to sift through the bullshit to bring you and the rest of the U.S. some version of the truth. And if they get it wrong, that they'll seek to fix that mistake the next day.

If you watch for-profit entertainment TV media, understand what it is, and then turn it off unless it's the only place to watch news unfold as it happens.

If you read or watch ideological media, even if it agrees with your worldview, understand that part of the story is being left out, deliberately, to make that side look better.

But most of all, don't start lumping every media outlet into the same pile. When that happens, all journalism is delegitimized and our democratic republic suffers.

Peace. Jeff.

Unfortunately, cable TV enterprises and other commercial mainstream news operations are too often seen as the beginning and end of "The Media."

Your perspective is a valuable one. Conscientious, accurate, and thorough reporting is available from many sources, if one takes the small effort required to look for it.

It's also critical to note that the consumers of local and independent news sources are generally more informed and motivated than the average passive couch potato with remote in hand. So a story that reaches an audience of millions just looking for the endorphin rush of confirmation bias may have less real impact than one reaching a small but thoughtful audience.

And, as you know, many times mainstream news outlets find leads in the pages of small regional papers or web sites, on community radio stations, and even on blogs. So when we dismiss a story as non-impactful just because it's not visible in the Washington Post or on MSNBC, we're missing the point.

Your post gives me hope. Please consider making it an O.P.

And keep up the good work. Cheers.

Lots of hearts.

with the MSM reference. Once upon a time in this country there was actual cable news which wasn't pundit filled and concentrated a lot more on real news. Local news is just that, local and often doesn't make it into the national news scene. Case in point (again) --
"Protests hit Canton school over shocks to disabled students" which hasn't gotten any national coverage on news outlets and if not for social media like Twitter, would be completely unknown (even on Twitter it's pretty buried.)

Much of the problem arises in how journalism has changed. A lot of it has become very sensationalized and over the top with "gotchya" headlines and lead stories. And yes in that, stories which should be making news, aren't.

Nate Silver wrote a great article about all this, when you have the time check it out.

The Media Has A Probability Problem

"what is that? Every news station? Every newspaper? Everything? Everywhere?"

I'd imagine it's a reference to the profit-oriented, rating-driven media which dominates the broadcast landscape in the US, balancing truth and accuracy against that which deprives the company of its advertising rates and the board's bottom line.

As long as ratings drive news content, "varied practices, varied stances, varied results" are irrelevant.

(try Ben Bagdikian's The Media Monopoly, first written in 1987 as a primer, Bagdikian being accurate in his predictions of consolidated media ownership as he was prescient)

Thanks, LW. Great reference, too.

Take care.

I love John Lewis. I can't think of anyone who's put his whole body on the line the way he has, for decades by now. He's faced police billy clubs, attack dogs, and more. Not afraid to get his hands dirty (and scuffed up and bloody, also). Now there's a true hero and patriot for ya!

Three types of American media:
1. truth seeking journalism (WaPo, New Yorker, Vox, TPM, John Oliver, most individual journalists)
2. profit-first infotainment (CNN, MSNBC, most tv news)
3. Republican propaganda media (Fox Limbaugh, WSJ, Daily Caller, IJR, Sinclair, Levin, Breitbart, NY Post etc)

MSNBC is the second: profit-first infotainment. Watch some of it if you must, but be skeptical.

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I thank John Lewis and everyone who is at the Mexican border Protesting!

is especially near and dear to your heart, Luna!

John Lewis and all the Protestors!

I hope the media is reporting on it.. because I googled and all I got was pnwmom's link on DU.

busy ki$$ing the Monster's A$$$$.

Thank Goodness for Twitter and social media!

Luna

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protesting this abominable policy!

Thanks for the thread, pnwmom!

He is the epitome of Good Trouble.

I love Congressman John Lewis and I love his "preaching to chickens" story. I have some great pictures of him at the National Convention with Karrem Abdul Jabbar and Keith Ellison

What a great man. What's that old saying?....They broke the mold, when they made him.

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Women (NOW) from 1977-1982. She has been there for civil rights for decades.

A salute to those brave souls willing to stand up for what is right on the border.

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Green tells people including my kids that I am a civil rights attorney. My kids find this to be very funny

And how fun that you know Al Green and have met Hillary!

I have also been to several high dollar fund raising events with John Lewis. I have signed copies of March 1 and March 2. Al has promised me signed copies of March 3

And I swear the any person in my presence who ever boos or harasses him while he gives a speech will be slapped in the face.
And they will feel the burn.

I hope many more Democratic members of Congress join the protest.

He's a hero and a roll model. He walks the walk. I have so much respect for this great man.