Since the deregulation of the MSM, via the telecom act of 1993, the accuracy of their reporting

has degraded significantly

Iraq has WMDs
Iraq is associated with AQ
We are right on course in Iraq
Oil will never go above 100 dollars a barrel
We are not in recession
There is no inflation
The economy is right on target
In the 2006 election, the incumbant party will retain control in Congress. i.e. the republicans
Guilliani will be the republican nominee
Clinton will be the Democratic nominee

etc. etc. etc.

There is no reason to believe that this trend will not continue. They know the time of corporate control of government policy is being threatened, and I anticipate more mistruths and lies to spew out from the airwaves and wires, however, what is different this time, is that enough people have been hurt in the last eight years, that they will not succeed this time

moved that to 6 that now control 90% of the media.

I don't hold them accountable for not being able to predict the future, I don't care about:

Oil will never go above 100 dollars a barrel
In the 2006 election, the incumbant party will retain control in Congress. i.e. the republicans
Guilliani will be the republican nominee
Clinton will be the Democratic nominee

But I do hold them accountable for accurately reporting the news, focusing on issues that matter, and offering even-handed analysis. Unfortunately, they almost never do all of these things at the same time.

This is the real and ongoing threat of the consolidated corporate media, and its conversion from a multitude of commercially independant reporting voices, to a public-relations mouthpiece of the corporate world itself. It is that its whole treatment of issues, and coverage of things, has gone from a reporter telling us ABOUT the corporations and its practices, etc., to the statements presented BY the corporation, ABOUT "US." You covered it exactly: "accurately reporting the news, focusing on issues that matter, and offering even-handed analysis"--this is what they are not doing, and what they are constantly twisting, spinning, and censoring.

It goes on constantly now, so all you need to do is pick any random selection of issues to exemplify it, and there it will be; large and important, small and seemingly trivial, it always happens now. The trick that they have learned, is to slant and censor in such a way, as to seem to have presented the entire situation. They also "package" stories, sometimes straight from corporations or advertising consultants themselves, that predetermine the whole course, end, and attitude of the "report." All hurricane, fire, etc., victims "lost everything but are glad to be alive ("inspiring/money doesn't matter")," rather than the reporter investigating whether shoddy building materials and deregulation made the disaster worse, and what Government help the survivors will not need to rebuild their own lives. The mortgage/loan/foreclosure crisis was "all the fault of those people who took out loans and could not repay them," instead of the deregulated, speculative loan brokers, who arranged loans they knew would be defaulted on, lied to the people getting the loans, then took fees for them. High gas prices are suddenly not the fault of oil futures speculation on deregulated markets, by investment groups that could not care less what the results are, even though this is the fact. No, suddenly the corporate media comes prancing along, the great reporter-hero, and asks whether or not small, individual gas station owners are price-gouging you at the pump! A totally unrelated situation, just to throw everything off. Questions are never asked to learn anything on this media; they ask questions to steer things and corner people, with the one result they will allow to be broadcast; they pretend to have wrapped up the discussion so you appear to have been "reasoned" with, when really, cult-like, only their version of things was ever worked into the story, and all the contrary was censored.

Even "puff pieces" are actually of this type: I happened to hear a "cute" story this morning on CNN that illustrated this. It was about "why" people have so many garage sales these days. The richie "reporter" on CNN concluded that, 1) these people make a lot of money at it, it is a "big money-maker," and 2) they are "fun" and you get to meet your neighbors and other nice people. The fact that people were selling their furniture--even mentioned during the story--did not indicate to Richie that this is evidence of the deepening recession, that people are selling their own possessions to pay bills, a classic Depression experience.

All suggestions that we should raise taxes on rich people, or regulate corporations, is met, on the media, with sneering laughter, and a pretense that it would never work or solve the problem, or even that it is somehow "illegal" for Government to regulate and control corporations.

Every single story is now steered and spun this way; you never get a real explanation of things anymore; this is the biggest, ongoing threat, and it does affect people's opinions when they don't realize they have been lied to or facts kept from them.

http://www.sparknotes.com/film/citizenkane/section4.rhtml

Hearst let neither money nor the truth stand in the way of his quest to be the most successful newspaper publisher of all time. For him, the Cuban Revolution of 1895 offered a perfect opportunity to sell more papers. His sensationalist and often false reports from Cuba are widely credited with pushing American intervention and sparking the Spanish American War. One famous anecdote, which made its way into Citizen Kane, tells of Hearst ordering the legendary artist Frederic Remington to send dispatches about the war from Cuba. Remington sent Hearst a telegram saying there was no war. Hearst replied that if Remington furnished the pictures, Hearst would furnish the war. Hearst made up stories about politicians, advocated political assassinations in an editorial just a few months before McKinley was assassinated, staged crimes so his reporters could write about them, and generally took “yellow journalism” (sensationalist journalism) to new depths of irresponsibility.

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they're just less able to cover up their mistakes. Years ago, you wouldn't find out until years later that what you were being told by the press wasn't true. Now you can find out in a day.