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Anyone who has lived in or visited America has most likely witnessed the power of
the media, the bias of the media, and the elitist attitude of America's
Fourth Estate.
About 227 years ago, on September 25, 1789, the First
Congress of the United
States proposed 12 amendments to the
Constitution. Ten of the proposed 12
amendments were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December
15, 1791. The ratified Articles (Articles 3–12) constitute the first 10
amendments of the Constitution, or the U.S. Bill of Rights. In 1992, 203 years after it was proposed,
Article 2 was ratified as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Article 1 failed
ratification.
Here is the exact text of the original third amendment,
which eventually became the first amendment to the Constitution.
"Article the third...
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances."
Now if ever there was a doubt as to the power of the press
the first amendment to the Constitution should end the discussion. In that action, two special interests
received special rights and protection in America, religion and the
press. A third interest, the people,
received a guarantee of free speech, the right to assembly, and the right to
petition the government.
If our Founding Fathers could see the maze and mess of the
media today one wonders if such special rights would exist. Back then there were only newspapers and
magazines, and current news could be a week and often far longer before it
reached you.
The instantaneous nature of news today with the bias and
lack of fact checking inherent in it, while broadcasting such a cacophony of dribble and drabble through radio and
television would be enough to put Ben Franklin in a premature grave. Add to that confusion the explosion of the
Internet and the competition between everyone to control it, and the Founding
Fathers would probably give us back to Great Britain.
So today, we are stuck with a New World
media. Once upon a time, the media in America
had "ethics," "standards," and rules to assure
"objectivity." In fact all
members of the traditional or Main
Street media, meaning those who existed in the era
of print, radio, and television, agreed to establish a Society of Professional
Journalists and adopted a Code of Ethics in 1909.
Here is a summary of the Code.
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SPJ Code of Ethics
Preamble
Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public
enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.
Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is
accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.
The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical
journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.
Seek Truth and Report It
Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists
should
be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and
interpreting
information.
Minimize Harm
Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and
members of
the public as human beings deserving of respect.
Act Independently
The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is
to serve
the public.
Be Accountable and Transparent
Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one's
work and
explaining one’s decisions to the public.
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Well, it was a great idea in 1909 but largely ignored in
every presidential election cycle since until this year, 2016, when any such
binding Code of Ethics for journalists seems to have disappeared off the face
of the Earth.
This year the American media has demonstrated an elitist
attitude, a contempt for the people of America, a disdain for seeking the
truth, and they despise many of the political candidates. In short, ethics in the media is long gone.
Yet it is okay in this tumultuous election cycle because the
candidates themselves have also bent the rules of decorum and obliterated any
political correctness in the process.
As an advocate of the Lincoln
approach to our system of government, an approach Honest Abe discussed in his
First Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1861, here are his own words.
"The government, with its
institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow
weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right
of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow
it."
Not only did he have 1861 in mind when he spoke those prophetic
words, he was speaking for an America 155 years into the future, the year 2016,
and the presidential election "revolution" that is underway.
What Abraham Lincoln foresaw as a possibility when the
government, politicians, and special interests took control and ignored the
will of the people, has materialized today.
The signs were there but the perpetrators including the
media, politicians, and the establishment were blind to them. Every poll for the last decade has reflected
a growing mistrust of all institutions in America from the news media to
politicians to Wall Street.
People are watching, and people are losing faith because
they are not being heard and not being served by the very people they elected
to protect them. Institutional inertia
and governmental paralysis are unacceptable and Wall Street rip offs are the
height of arrogance by a privileged class.
Why do 50% of eligible voters refuse to participate? Why did a little over 20% of the eligible
voters elect our last president? Why are
there more registered Independents than Democrats or Republicans, for the first
time in our history? Majority rule by
the people is a joke because long ago Minority rule by Special Interest cast
the people aside.
What is clear to the America people but not clear to the
political and corporate establishment and politicians is the fact that the long
talked about "Silent" or "Forgotten" majority is finally
fed up and ready to fight back.
Media Bias
Regarding media bias, those who say it does not exist are
plain and simple liars. Many studies of
the media undertaken prove where the major media outlets stand in terms of
bias. Here are the results according to
Pew Research.
So, we know there is extreme liberal media, the liberal
media controls the vast majority of major media outlets, the liberal media are
Democrats, and the people of America
can be characterized as some liberal, some conservative, most in the middle,
and they are Americans first!
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