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Is American Media Actual Satire?


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So recently I found this video by The Amazing Atheist, it's a little old, and I know some of you don't like him...but I do agree with him in most things however. This video is about Glenn Beck's response to the massacre in Norway that happened three years ago.

 

 

And I'll be honest, I couldn't stop laughing at this...I can't believe this Beck-guy. Are people like Glenn Beck common in America? Do people really listen to guys like him every day, how he babbles on about Jesus and gay people and obviously lying constantly? Is this entertainment in America? I knew there was some really retarded stuff out there, like Fox News and all these other conservative christian tv shows and radio stations...but Glenn Beck, he was a whole new level to me. The worst thing isn't Glenn Beck though, it's how people actually listen to him, and nobody gives a second thought about the bullshit he's feeding them every day.

 

Please, I don't really know what to say...just tell me about this. What is this?

Edited by RaveLow
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Welcome to America.

 

I don't know about other countries, but there is a lot of shit here.

 

 

There are some people who watch this shit, but, there are still some sensible people here.

Edited by Cyan Blue
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When you say Media, I think you are referring specifically to televised news programming. Otherwise your opening post needs to cover a lot more ground :U

 

"What knows he of England if only of England he knows?"

--An old proverb, which means an opinion on a cultural paradigm is better coming from the outside than the inside.

 

As a Canadian, I can think of some juxtaposition for news-casting.

The biggest difference is that Canada gets its news on TV primarily from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which is a publicly traded corporation except a majority share of it is owned by the Government. This means that the News will as-much-as-possible remain only as biased or fear-mongering as the Government would want it to. It also means that they try to give equal voice to both Government opinion and critiques thereon. Everyone else in the country --in terms of News-casting companies-- must compete with them. There aren't that many, since most of the infrastructure for it was built by the Government in the first place, so they rent. Global, CTV and Omni are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head that try to.

 

America does not have this situation with a 'singularity' of news avenues. In the spirit of the economics of capitalism, every region has its own television networks, and these networks compete with each other in the same way any small-medium size business would. This results in numerous competing News channels per city, in some places. (This is nearly never the case in Canada, with the exceptions of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, if I'm not mistaken.) Such plurality of news companies in a given region is why you might see in Hollywood portrayals of on-the-scene reporters "coming to you live from Channel 7 news" or competing weathermen from "Channel 99".

 

This plurality of news companies means that they must vie for attention on the networks, because people watching them = advertising money = the TV channel making money. So how does a news network attract attention? They need something to inform the public, otherwise they're not much of a news company. But they can't just report on the day-to-day affairs of people going about their pleasant lives, and only happy things, because that's boring to mass audiences. So they find conflict, and violence, and report on those. It's more dramatic than Bureaucracy or Legislature (even though in some cases those latter things are more important) and it makes people think that "these are the important things happening in the world, this news company is doing a good job." So they rate that news company highly. Better ratings results in more viewers, resulting in greater profit. At least in theory.

 

Now the largest symbol of this theory is the Fox News Network. Over the past few years it's made a name for itself on the internet for executing poor reporting and even libel (slander) of innocent, accidental, or even harmless subject matter in order to generate controversy and drama.

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This of course generates good ratings, which is why they continue to do it. Fox News has been repeatedly accused of failing to demonstrate good journalistic rigor, but why they stay on the air is because their current head leadership only cares about the show's presentation and appearance with which to continue framing this dramatization, political bias and occasional fear-mongering.

 

Glenn Beck is an unusual member of Fox because he seems to be a serious conspiracy theorist or political commentator when he actuates an entertainment program in truth, not entirely like Comedy Central's The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert (which is much more clearly labeled for its intentions).

 

All in all I do not think highly of televised news. Mostly because very few companies are satisfied with only relaying the facts, because when incidents happen, there isn't much to say beyond dates and a few words, for the first few days. So they pad it with opinions from experts (we hope), from the public (which could be a bad thing) and speculation as to its cause or effects (which is not within the paradigm of the news reporters). For whatever my opinion is worth, reporters should tell it like it is, and leave the why and what's next to competent members of the field.

 

Regarding the word "Conservative", I despise how much so many things have been politicized. Correct me if I'm wrong, but 'conservative' in theory is supposed to mean "freedom bound by order", and not "traditional ethical values within Politics".

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