News consumers must demand ethics from news outlets

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Ron Friesen / Herald Forum

I am so embarrassed by the news media in the United States. Our standards for news have virtually sunk to the level of “yellow journalism” that dominated newspapers during the Industrial Revolution of the late-1800s and early 1900s.

And guess who understands this and manipulates the news better than anyone in our history? Donald Trump.

“If it bleeds, it leads”: This is still the foundation of news reporting, which William R. Hurst discovered with his newspaper’s sensationalist reporting of crime as he was competing with Joseph Pulitzer and his New York paper at the end of the 1800s. He capitalized on peoples’ primitive reaction to danger, which is fight or flee. Of course, before fighting or fleeing, we have to recognize the danger. And that is exactly what yellow journalism of the time did.

Headlines proclaimed danger from criminals, weather, illnesses, other races and cultures and warned us that this could all happen to us at any time. A lot of the “news” was exaggerated or made up. But who cared? Newspapers sold by the bundle! Profits went up. Publishers got rich!

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/forum-news-consumers-must-demand-ethics-from-news-outlets/

[pat_k]

1. And now we have algorithms showcasing the. . .

. . .the most emotion-evoking "news" --the often rage- and hate-producing conspiracies, distortions, and completely fabricated events.

I'd say we may be heading for far more dangerous ground then the days of yellow journalism. It seems easier and easier to fall into completely independent and isolated information silos that are increasingly detached from humane and objective reality.

On edit: Demanding sanity from media outlets is just one part of the puzzle. We need to get some control over technology-driven exploitation of our attention.

[Silent Type]

2. Agree with article, media needs a "separation between news and opinion." Unfortunately, 95% of Politics is opinion,

sometimes right, sometimes wrong.

[ificandream]

5. I agree about separating news and opinion.

The lines have been too blurred.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Keep in mind, it's not about how profitable the media outlets are

It's about the profits of the CEOs of the companies that OWN the media.

What the media covers is not as important as what they DO NOT cover.

More important than the questions they ask, is the questions they never ask.

[LearnedHand]

4. The voice of the shareholders drowns every other voice out

The 1996 Telecommunications Act that allowed media consolidation said media companies could enrich their shareholders instead of democracy, as outlined in the Constitution.

On edit: When shareholder profit is weighed against the masses crying for media to fulfill their constitutional obligation, the masses lose. Every. Single. Time.

[Skittles]

6. I just want the news without their personal opnions

just straight news

I gave up on our MSM long ago