What have we learned from the Ferguson tragedy?

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After non-stop media bombardment in the countdown and release of the Grand Jury decision regarding the killing of Michael Brown, what is our 21st century lesson from what happened?

This may take a little time.

Our first lesson, we know bias and racism remain as underlining currents in America although anyone not knowing this lives in a bubble.

The bias exists between races, cultures, and even within races.  There is economic bias, class bias, opportunity bias, wealth bias, education bias, language bias, and a host of other biases that have nothing to do with race or color.

Then again, what can you expect in a nation that serves as a melting pot for all people of the world.  No other country in the world welcomes anyone and everyone like we do and when you get here, if you try to preserve your national culture, you are most likely biased.

Bias is such a monumental issue in America our founders made special provision in the Constitution and Bill of Rights to guarantee equal opportunity to everyone regardless of the prevailing biases.  They also made special provision in the Constitution and Bill of Rights to protect every American from any abuse resulting from such biases.  Finally, they established a system of justice to protect Americans abused because of bias.

On June 21, 1788, the Constitution was ratified.  We now have over 226 years of experience in enforcing the Constitution and we still have incidents of bias like the Ferguson, Missouri tragedy.

No doubt, we have come a long ways.  Way back when, only White landowners were citizens.  Minorities were not citizens, nor women regardless of color, nor all the immigrants we welcomed from around the world.  Not even the Original Americans were citizens.

Thanks to the Dutch, English and French, slaves came to America and they were not citizens.  When the Chinese came here to build the railroads, they were not citizens.  Nor were the Mexicans brought to harvest the American crops.

Even when we opened our doors to those fleeing desperate conditions, like the Irish potato famine, wars, unrest in Europe or Asia, the so-called Soviet crop failures, and the flight to escape Nazism, they received sanctuary yet had to earn American citizenship.         

I think bias may be a permanent human condition dictated by our programming throughout life and the culture in which we live.  If only we could learn to respect the biases of others perhaps, they could learn to respect ours and we could all live in harmony and peace.

Our second lesson, the media in America has lost its prestige that gave it special mention in the Bill of Rights.  Never was bias more apparent than in the media coverage of the Ferguson affair and few times in our history has the media led such an assault on our judicial system as the media reaction to the Grand Jury decision saying there was no probable cause for indicting the police officer, Darren Wilson, who shot Michael Brown.

For example, there is a ratings race between MSNBC and CNN and both cable networks have decided they have no chance to break the Fox News stranglehold on conservative and moderate America.  For well over a decade, FOX has dominated cable news with ratings two to ten times more than their competition.

That leaves the other two, MSNBC and CNN, in a dogfight to prove which is most liberal to the left wing extreme, so they have to out liberal each other.  What a shame since the liberals have not won a national election since, oh probably forever.

Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt were about the most liberal presidents of the 20th century and they got us into the most devastating wars of our history, World War II and Viet Nam.  Indeed, they gave us the "New Deal" and "Great Society," but we also had the worst riots and urban warfare ever seen.

What is it about liberal movements that results in so much hate, disruption, and polarization?  Now that we have cable and national television networks fighting it out for the liberal spoils of ratings, we are right back in the midst of the discomfort zone.

Make no mistake; there are great liberal programs, services, and philosophies that benefit all people.  Yet just like with the conservatives, the good liberal programs were often hijacked by the lunatic fringe of the movement or were overshadowed by partisan polarization.

Social Security and Medicare have saved our older generation, whether conservatives or liberals.  Head Start is one of the few bright lights in the dismal performance of our education system.  Such liberal programs have distinguished America from other nations.

           

Liberal activists like Elizabeth Warren, when it comes to fighting Wall Street, are the only hope for ever curbing the abuses of wealth and power.  Yet, in order to secure the backing of the liberal media and liberal politicians, she and any other liberal must sell out many of the centrist principles of the real America to be part of the national debate.

Perhaps the greatest abuse of bias is obvious from the failure of the liberal media, when attempting to fan the ratings flames of the Ferguson tragedy, to acknowledge the existence of the toxicology report on Michael Brown on that fateful day.

A host of people and so-called experts are paraded before the cameras to tell us how flawed the grand jury system may be, or to discredit the testimony of the policeman regarding the condition of the victim Michael Brown.  When people have predetermined the outcome of a legal action, facts and truth have no role in the debate.

Well the fact is according to the toxicology report Michael Brown was stoned to a level equal to being drunk and incapable of driving.  So stoned on marijuana he walked into a store just before the incident, grabbed some boxes of cigars, and stormed out without paying.

Then walked down the middle of the street in broad daylight as if driving a car and not knowing which lane he occupied.  People do crazy things when they are stoned.  Charles Manson killed people.  Many others killed themselves.

The fact Michael Brown had a bag of pot in his possession indicated this was no first time use of drugs.  Why does the media refuse to expose the fact he may have been just another victim of drug abuse and when someone weighing 280 pounds is stoned, robbing stores, and walking down the middle of streets, perhaps they really are possessed by demons.

America needs to hear the rest of the story now hidden by the biased media.  We deserve the truth.  Then, we may be able to address the tragic conditions in our society that allow young men like Michael Brown to fall under the evil influence of drugs just like so many have fallen under the evil influence of another addiction, alcohol.

The full toxicology report story as contained in the Grand Jury documents is in the next CPT story about the Ferguson tragedy.

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Fox News Blows Out News Competitors, Dominate Cable

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Surprise, surprise, Roger Ailes, that demon to all liberals in America, once again simply trounced all the other cable news shows through the entire prime time slot according to the latest October cable news ratings.

So dominant was Fox that Megyn Kelly's brand new show finished the October sweeps number two of all prime time cable news shows, behind The O'Reilly Factor.  Nice launch Megyn.

 

Is there any wonder which of the following news personalities had a higher rating than the other two combined?

 

Now I confess, that is not how Megyn looks on her new show.  Neither is the fact that another "Fox" is on Fox.  She was a jock and cheerleader in school.  But she also was smart, had a law degree, was a ratings magnet and asked for the job.  Here is the "on air" look.

 

 

As the following "ratings" articles show, the Fox prime time shows (7 to 11 PM) had 2.12 million average viewers, more than all their competitors (CNN, MSNBC and HLN) combined.  Whew!

Okay, no big surprise since Fox has been #1 in total daytime and prime time cable for the past 141 straight months.  That is #1 for the entire presidential career of Barack Obama and dating all the way back to 2001, the year of the World Trade Center 9/11 attacks.

Here are articles describing the latest October sweeps.

Fox Tops October Cable News Ratings With Revamped Primetime; ‘The Kelly File’ Ends First Month In No. 2 Spot Behind O’Reilly

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday October 29, 2013 @ 12:00pm PDTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TV Ratings

A month ago Megyn Kelly didn’t have a primetime gig, but now The Kelly File is the No. 2 show on cable news after The O’Reilly Factor. Since its October 7 launch with Fox News’ primetime revamp, the new show has averaged 2.23 million total viewers and 383,000 viewers among adults 25-54 in its 9 PM slot. That’s behind its Bill O’Reilly lead-in (2.84 million and 458,000) and in front of The Five (2.14 million and 369,000). No big surprise that after 141 months at No. 1 in total day and primetime among the cable news networks, FNC won the October ratings battle. Still, it did have nine of the top 10 shows on cable news, with only MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show breaking the monolith at No. 9. FNC also came in at the No. 3 behind TBS and ESPN in cable overall in primetime for the month. News rivals MSNBC, CNN and HLN were far behind at No. 22, No. 33 and No. 45, respectively. Overall, with 2.12 million watching, FNC had more viewers during its new 7-11 PM primetime than CNN (627,000), MSNBC (991,000) and HLN (247,000) put together.

Looking at the ratings for 7 PM to 11 PM since its primetime relaunch versus Q3 2013, FNC is up 22% in total viewers (2.15 million) and 20% in the 25-54 demo (373,000). In primetime MSNBC saw a strong 59% viewership rise (to 976,000) and a 38% demo rise (237,000). After cratering earlier this year, the now-ratings-rebuilding NBCU-owned network certainly was helped this month by a series of well-received specials and docs plus the October 11 launch of the heavily promoted Up Late With Alec Baldwin. CNN saw a small bop of 7% in viewership (569,000) and 1% demo growth (171,000) when compared to Q3 2013. That’s in contrast to last October when all of the cable news networks saw viewership and demo surges with all-election-all-the-time coverage as the presidential race entered the final stretch. FNC actually was No. 1 in all of primetime cable. That once-every-four-years anomaly now has FNC, CNN and MSNBC and all down double digits from last October.

 

 

CNN’s Relaunched ‘Crossfire’ Hits Viewer & Demo Low

By DOMINIC PATTEN 13 hours ago

CNN’s Relaunched ‘Crossfire’ Hits Viewer & Demo Low

Looks like troubles come in threes for CNN lately. First the cable news company had its worst single primetime in over a year on October 30, then it had its worst week since Jeff Zucker took over and now the relaunched Crossfire has hit new lows. Resuscitated on September 9 after eight years off the air, the political debate show pulled in just 233,00 viewers overall and a mere 59,000 among adults 25-54 between 6:30 PM and 7 PM on Monday. Full-hour time-slot rivals on Fox News Channel and MSNBC did a lot better — to put it mildly. FNC’s Special Report had 2.44 million viewers with 411,000 in the key news demo, while MSNBC’s Al Sharpton-hosted PoliticsNation had 707,000 total viewers and 170,000 among the 25-54s.

Related: CNN Falls To Lowest Daily Primetime In Over A Year
Monday’s results represent a significant drop from the October 3 high the Newt Gingrich, Stephanie Cutter, S.E. Cupp and Van Jones hosted show hit with 891,000 total viewers and 326,000 in the demo. Crossfire’s previous viewership low was on October 25 when it had 251,000 total viewers. The previous demo low was on September 20 when it drew just 66,000 viewers among adults 25-54. The September 9 debut of the show earlier this year had a modest 581,000 viewers and 171,000 in the demo.

Danica's Star Power draws 14.24 million on Fox Television

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Being a winner comes in many forms at Daytona 500

So she wrecked three times and finished 38th in the Daytona 500, at least she finished and no wrecks were her fault.  Still her impact was up in the stratosphere in terms of the NASCAR television viewers.

Overall, FOX television averaged an estimated 14.24 million viewers for Monday primetime when the rain delayed Daytona 500 finally got underway, along with an 8.2 rating/12 share.

For comparison, Fox averaged a 5.0 final Nielsen rating and 8.6 million viewers for its 13 Sprint Cup Series telecasts this season, up 4.2 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, from a 4.8 rating and 7.8 million viewers over 11 races last year.

In other words, 14.24 million tuned in for the Danica Patrick Daytona 500 show, an increase of over 5.6 million viewers from the most recent Fox NASCAR races.

She wasn't the only one making media history at the race.  When the jet fuel explosion brought the race to a standstill on the 160th lap, fellow NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski grabbed his phone and started tweeting on Twitter.  During the delay his eyewitness Tweets helped boost his Twitter following from 65,000 to 200,000 followers.

But that wasn't what made history.  He was the first driver to ever tweet from the race track during a race, even though he was parked on the track waiting for the restart.

His staggering number of followers still left him far behind the new kid on the block, Danica Patrick, who brought over half a million Twitter followers with her to Daytona.

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Palin Power Prevails in Alaska Premiere Record Setter

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Sarah Palin continues her record setting blitz on television as the premiere of her Sarah Palin's Alaska shattered the record for viewers on the TLC cable network with about 5 million viewers for opening night.  For comparison Conan O'Brien pulled about 2.7 million while Jay Leno, on a network, pulled about 3.6 million on the previous Friday night.

This comes on the heels of her election night contribution to Fox News channel which increased ratings 20% over the 2008 election and double the 2006 election as the Fox cable flagship stunned the network giants by beating all three national networks with Fox cable pulling 6.9 million, NBC 6.2 million, CBS 5.8 million and ABC 5.5 million during prime time.

Fox News with Sarah Palin continues to dominate cable news with average prime time viewers at 2.1 million while CNN has 575 thousand, MSNBC 820 thousand, CNBC 188 thousand and HLN 472 thousand.  In all shows Fox continues to pull two or three times more than the nearest competitor.

Of course it took a Palin to beat a Palin as Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars drew 20 million viewers in the most recent show just as Sarah Palin predicted.
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Save Savannah Guthrie from NBC & MSNBC

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Why we must Save Savannah before it is too late.



There are not many reporters out there in the media wonderland whose careers seem worth saving as there are not many reporters left period. Most have chosen to get sucked into the television ratings game and have lost their objectivity as they now play a variety of roles from reporting to speculating to advocating positions to biased news analysis.



Now there is nothing fair and balanced about it and anyone from Fox, MSNBC, CNN or even PBS that claims to be fair and balanced has clearly lost their marbles or ability to tell the truth. The truth is the media business is all about sensationalism, partisanship, making someone look bad or good depending on that person's conformance to the network party line, and even manipulation of truth.



Why the bizarre behavior of cable network and even major media reporters would drive a journalism purist to suicide if they took them seriously. Yet after all the exposure of so called news celebrities it seems as if the people of America have got better things to do. Of course that's not what you would think listening to the ego maniacs on the air pontificating on what you need to believe.

However, facts are facts and these are the facts. On a typical weekday on cable TV news, which includes Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, HTN (CNN Headline News) and CNBC, Fox has the 13 top ranked shows on cable news. In a dismal response by the liberal MSNBC, viewership and target audience numbers are both down from last year with Keith Olbermann, the flagship of MSNBC, losing 29% of average viewers and 43% of the target audience the past year. Perhaps people are tiring of the nonsense.

Base on average number of viewers, the top morning and prime time shows at Fox are O'Rielly 3.5 million viewers, Beck 2.8 million, Hannity at 2.5 million, Baier at 2.5 million and Shep at 2.1 million. At MSNBC Olbermann is 963,000, Maddow 802,000, Matthews 580,000 and Ed at 500,000. Fox and Friends has 1.1 million while The Morning Joe show has 340,000. The news isn't much better off at CNN as the Rick Sanchez and Wolf Shows have lost 52% of their target audience and 43% of average viewership the past year.



So Fox has been increasing while the other networks decreasing. A typical show at Fox gets 4 times the audience of the MSNBC show at the same time. Does that mean America is 4 times more conservative than liberal? What it does mean is that while 20 million or so watch cable news shows every day about 295 million Americans don't so maybe there is hope for America.



Then there is Savannah Guthrie, named NBC White House correspondent not long ago who was recently given a show, The Daily Rundown, by NBC on MSNBC following the Morning Joe Show. It is too bad that MSNBC had already lost a chunk of the morning audience before they gave it to her and that just 340,000 out of 315 million Americans are watching Morning Joe. What kind of promotion is that?

Truth is she was put on MSNBC to increase the ratings at a time when NBC, including MSNBC, was being sold by General Electric to Comcast Cable. What in the world will a profit driven owner like Comcast do with MSNBC? At least GE stood to make millions of dollars off Obama and his Green America programs so they had a reason to take the liberal position and support him.



As Obama collapsed in his ratings this past year so did MSNBC and it was no accident Obama's liberal agenda was not what America wanted or expected to hear from him. Yet he seems oblivious of the polls, the lack of support for his agenda, and the beating liberals are taking in the elections since he was elected. That does not bode well for MSNBC who attached their hopes to a falling star.

Savannah Guthrie has great credentials as a trained journalist and lawyer and has done an exceptional job of avoiding the tendency of NBC reporters to take the liberal slant to everything. You can bet MSNBC will be trying to mold her into one of their liberal mouthpieces like Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews. It could ruin her career.



So I want to start a Save Savannah campaign to get her out of MSNBC and NBC before Comcast takes over the networks. Fair and balanced is a phrase used by all these cable networks but none can really live up to it. She still does. Help Save Savannah before it is too late. Write NBC and MSNBC, and tell them to not make her into a liberal puppet. Better yet, write Savannah and tell her to get out before it is too late.

By the way, to be fair and balanced and fully transparent, let me say the fact she was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona and graduated from the University of Arizona has nothing to do with it. The fact I went to the University of Arizona and played basketball there also has nothing to do with it. The fact I used to go watch Linda Ronstadt sing in Tucson, met Sonny and Cher there, got to sing with the Kingsmen of Louie Louie fame, was a frat brother with Gary Lewis, watched two other fraternity brothers perform on the ABC TV hit show Hootenanny, and dated the Queen of the Rose Bowl parade who was in my class had nothing to do with it.

The fact Arizona is one of my favorite places in the world and I remain close to the Hopi Native Americans of Arizona also has nothing to do with it nor does the fact the Grand Canyon is one of the wonders of the world. Okay, the fact I have worked with the National Park Service exploring ancient and sacred Native American sites, some thousands of years old, also has nothing to do with it.

I admit that riding on horseback four hours up a deserted canyon above the Grand Canyon with Park Service archeologists and my crew to film one of these sites also had nothing to do with it. I mean I had a coyote, the trickster, cross my path and soon after got thrown from my horse, broke three ribs, was hours from medical help so I kept riding and filming for 8 more hours. How could that have anything to do with it?



No bias on my part. In spite of our University of Arizona and Tucson ties I've never met Savannah. But I have seen her work and we need her to report the truth to America about what is happening in our nation's capitol. Not the NBC liberal truth but the honest truth like she does. I say Save Savannah and there is hope for the future.

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Obama Extends Control Over Media As Journalistic Standards Continue Freefall

In yet another slap in the face to the 4th estate, the supposedly media guardians of freedom of information and truth, the Obama White House actually staged a question for the president during his news conference today, June 23.

The White House Press Office has already made a joke of the Washington Press Corp by only calling on a limited number of reporters for questions during his news conferences. But today they crossed the line of journalistic integrity by bringing their own news plant to the conference.

You see, until today nobody knew the Huffington blog site was a major national media outlet as it has always been a cheerleading squad for Obama and many liberal causes but thanks to the president the Huffington gang has joined the elite.

At the news conference guards escorted a Huffington reporter into the midst of the White House press corps to ask a question on behalf of the people of Iran. Now does that mean the White House is not capable of getting a question from anyone in Iran without going through a news censorship source?

It was staged and in a clumsy way at best. The venerated old press corps should have been insulted by this grandstanding at the news conference but they sat there like the mindless fools they must be, for only fools could be ignoring all the standards of journalistic integrity like our Washington media.

What ever happened to objective reporting? What ever happened to seeking the truth? Ever since CBS and the New York Times started inventing anonymous sources we have been on a fast track toward the destruction of media credibility. What happened in the last election was the press demonstrated that there is no such thing as journalistic integrity as they tossed "fair and unbiased" reporting out the window.

Character assassination became in vogue, slanted articles became standard, lies and innuendo became fact and advertising dollars became the guiding force for news coverage in the past year of politics in America and the result is as expected. The people lose out.

At least all the public was not fooled as polls on the credibility of media plummeted to the same depths as Congress which is about as low as you can go. The pattern is clear that people do not believe the press corps anymore and they should not believe them if they have any brain waves still left functioning.




News media, like reality television, is mindless entertainment. People know it. Every year ratings for network news drops, newspaper subscriptions are cancelled, newspapers go broke and television stations will be the next to fade into the history books.

Ever since corporate America decided to buy up all the media the goal of the news media has shifted from one of journalistic integrity to one of satisfying the stockholders and advertisers. Make no mistake, it matters not whether you are a raging MSNBC liberal or a staunch Fox conservative, manufacturing news is okay and leading the readers through editorial slants on stories is even better.




For a couple of hundred years the 4th estate earned the protection of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, the freedom of the press, but that was passed long before the news media became bought and paid for just like our politicians. There is nothing left that is free about the press.

As more newspapers go broke, TV ratings continue to drop and news staffs get cut back throughout our great nation one can only hope that fewer biased articles and lies will be propagated by the media. That might be one benefit from the self-destruction of the news media. Perhaps it is long overdue.