If the Media Polices Government, Who Polices the Media?

Think about it. The media keeps on waving their forty year old We-Caught-Nixon flag as an “excuse” to burrow their noses into every little thing that they think they should be allowed to report on. OK, fine, I’m all for freedom of the press, but shouldn’t there also be some constraint shown by the media-at-large?

What brought this on? Two things. One is the recent blurb about the Senate upholding the Pentagon’s ban on “casket arrival” coverage – for the record, I’m all for the ban, but you’ll figure that out shortly. But there’s two things in this issue. The press claims that this ban is only in place to keep the public “in the dark” about the returning bodies. That it’s all simply for political gain: if we don’t see the images of the caskets, we will “support the war effort” or some shit. Like we can’t figure out that people are being killed in combat – we’ve figured out the people are dying in our own country without casket photos. And while the political bit might be true, but here’s another reason that the press never stops to think about: the privacy of the families that these soldiers are returning to. Leave it up to the families. If they want their beloved filmed in their flag covered coffins and shown on TV, let them come to you, you blood sucking vipers. It’s as simple as that. Where in the Constitution are you promised the right to forget what is decent and respectful for the sake of news? I looked: it’s not in there.

The other thing is similar, yet different. In fact, it’s got me more pissed off than I thought it did. This ongoing coverage of the non-military civilians and their untimely deaths in the Middle-east. What the fuck are you people thinking, giving these murderers high-profile, prime time coverage? Where in the hell are your brains? Don’t you get it? Terrorists need exposure to make their point. If the masses don’t know about the terror acts, then they won’t be terrorized. Yet you people continuously cover their acts and worse, you give them world wide coverage. You put their masked faces in all of our livings rooms, for fuck’s sake. Are you all that stupid? Are you all in league with them, just to boost your ratings? Do you get bonuses based on the amount of blood that you can film and push to those images to those of us that are just looking for sports scores and general news? Can you honestly tell me that you do not know what you are doing, when you devote six hours of coverage to one single terrorist act? You don’t even have six hours worth of information: you have 15 minutes of news that you just keep repeating and repeating and repeating the same information, until you have to cut to a commercial.

Here’s a thought. Take a page from the networks that carry MLB games. When an idiot gets onto the field and runs around the grass, usually interrupting a game, the TV coverage breaks to avoid showing said idiot on screen. They don’t return to the game until the idiots has been caught, arrested, and removed from the ball park. Why do they do this? They hope that by not giving the dork airtime (which is why most people would run onto a field in this situation) that other people will realize that this particular stunt won’t work. That if they want to get attention, running onto the field during a ball game will not get your ass broadcasted on live TV – in fact, it will get you jail time.

Get the point, you fuckwit media people that think you’re doing us all a holy service by covering these events? By devoting continual coverage to terrorist acts and murderers, you are helping them. If you’d only show some constraint and get your collecting heads out of your asses, maybe you’d have realized this on your own. Maybe you would have figured out that not everything is fit for public reporting.

And since they haven’t figured it out yet, is there anyone that can police them without having a government trample on their Constitutional rights? I don’t know.


7 thoughts on “If the Media Polices Government, Who Polices the Media?”

  1. That’s better. I was beginning to wonder about the title of this place. You really were getting to be too laid-back Left Coast.

    So how much coverage is acceptable? Surely it shouldn’t be suppressed, but the coverage is sensationalized. How would you cover it?

  2. I’d shoot every third anchor, just to start.

    Frankly, I don’t have an answer. And why not suppress some stories? What some call suppression, other people would call “decency” or “good taste”. I have always felt that the editior/media master would have enough common sense to figure out what would be “too much” but the last few years it’s gotten down right ugly and it seems like they get away with irresponsible broadcasting… pisses me off.

  3. It falls under the category of the interview of a person just befallen of some tragedy- “so, how do you feel right now?”

    Just once I’d like to see the recipient of that question take the microphone and shove it….

  4. I agree the mabey the FCC should start to regulating the Media. I agree stop covering it don’t give them what they want which is the coverage. I also agree stop repeating the same thing over and over, it gets so bad that you need to turn the TV off till the next day.

  5. They play the same clip over and over and over and over and over… until you have it burned into your brain.

    I’ve boycotted TV altogether in favor for downloading comercial-less copies of network episodes from the net.

    If they felt a need to inform people about it, why go on for hours? Why not just have a 1-minute spot on it if you feel people NEED to know?

    Why make people wait the whole show to see the only story worth seeing? It’s all become marketing. These broadcasting companies and news networks have sold their ethics and morals to make every penny they can and it shows.

    Remember 9/11? I must have seen the towers explode a good 20 times in the 30 mins I was getting ready to go to work. I know it’s a tragedy but that’s excessive. Remember Princess Di? How often did we see the images of the tunnel? Remember, remember, remember.


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