Fact-Free Nation

I found a good article.  The title above is of the article from the current Mother Jones magazine about how lies have become normal in politics assisted by the media.

Here is the link to the full article:    http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/history-political-lying

It points out the evolution of the TV and radio news from the time of Vietnam.  With Vietnam the news casters, like Walter Cronkite who called the stalemate of the war and caused Johnson not to run for President again.  Reporters did their job questioning power. It was a time where a lie was called a lie.

Since the 80's, the news shifted from (1) being a financial lose to the networks, but adding integrity to the station to (2) news becoming fluff entertainment to draw viewers and adding financial support for the station.  It became uncouth or uncivilized to call a lie a lie. It all shifted to "balance," two sides of the story with no questioning for truth. The result from this is "news" with more liars.

In summary the article states: "... the difference between the untruths told by ... Lyndon B. Johnson, and the ones inundating us now: Today, it's not just the most powerful men who can lie and get away with it. It's just about anyone--a congressional back bender, an ideology-driven hack, a guy with a video camera--who can inject deception into the news cycle and the political disclosures on a grand scale.


Sure, there will be liars in positions of influence--that's stipulated, as the lawyers say.  And the media, God knows, have never been ideal watchdogs.... What's new is the way the liars and their enablers now work hand in glove.  That I call a mendocracy, and ti is the regime that governs us now."

I contend that the increase in number of liars and lies told have other origins. These are sample subjects for further discussion.

1. Journalism has been assimilated into Public Relations departments at the universities. An example is the University of Colorado.

2. Right-wing conservative elites and corporations are buying up all of the major media to add further control of the message.

3.  Heads of corporations that used to be experts in subjects related to the work and ethics related to their service, have been replaced with financial experts who have learned to maximize short term profit, game the system and are detached from the ethics of providing good products.

4. Threats by the GOP to take away public of public broadcasting has caused the neutralization of public radio and TV.  Their news shows have also been fuzzied and limited, because NPR and PBS don't want to alienate anyone, particularly the right-wing conservatives who always claim a liberal bias.  I believe removal of all public funding could improve public broadcasting.  However, I, also, believe the GOP would never withdraw all public funding. They have control over public broadcasting by maintaing the fear of funding loss.

This is only a start.