File this under "Suspicions Confirmed".
So I've read that Chuck Todd of NBC News was on a show this morning along with former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Apparently the Gov was taking the media to task for their role in all the confusion and misinformation that is out there regarding Obamacare.
And Todd's basic response was it's not his or the media's fault but Obama's and the Democrats for not being clearer in refuting the misinformation campaign put forward by the Republicans and their allies.
In other words it's not the media's job to point out when someone says something that is verifiably false. It's the other sides job to do that. The media just reports what is said. That it can be shown to be a bunch of crap? That's up to someone else.
In a nutshell that is everything that is wrong with today's traditional, corporate-owned mass media. Whether they have been cowed by the Fox News "fair and balanced" meme, or neutered by their corporate masters who want to shy away from controversy lest it interfere with revenue and profits, today's media is worthless to the average citizen living in a democracy.
The duty of a media is to inform the citizenry. If you simply report what someone says, and it's something that can be easily shown to be false, and you just report it verbatim without any reference to actual facts or documentation that would put the statement in context, then you haven't done your job. You are no longer informing, but misinforming the public.
So maybe the media is afraid if they point out someone is wrong, then they are not being fair and balanced. They are picking sides. The result is a public that believes there are two simple sides to each story and each has equal validity. They are simply differences of opinion. The problem is that objective facts that might shed light and allow the public to better evaluate the statements from each side are left out of the equation. Pointing them out might seem to be "biased" towards one side or the other.
The corporate media are helping to weaken our democracy. Been feeling that way for a while. Chuck Todd just verified that it's true.
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