What Happened to the News Media in America? Part 1 – The Golden Age of News – Defenders of Truth

There was a time between the Civil War and the dawn of the twentieth century when the American news media became so corrupted and so viciously biased that character assassination, fake news, lies, scandalous rumors, bias, racism, and invasions of privacy were the new norm.

In time the few honest news organizations and reporters decided such “Yellow” journalism tactics had to end in order to protect the integrity of the entire news industry that claimed Constitutional protection under the Bill of Rights.

For those of you ignorant of history and blinded by political correctness, the term “Yellow” at the time was used to denote gutless, unethical, immoral and outright lies promulgated by certain publishers and reporters.

The general public was sick of the nonsense and the vast majority no longer believed the news media or press.  To the public, the media had lost all signs of objectivity, were beholden to their advertisers, and intent on destroying opposing views or competition.

The newspaper business started in the 1800’s with papers being affiliated with political parties.  In time the editorial was introduced to allow papers to post articles showing the other party opinion on issues, a technique adopted more to expand the business than to result in fair coverage.  Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune in 1841, is credited with inventing the idea of segregating news reports from opinion writing, by giving opinion its own page.

No national media organizations existed at the time but eventually a group that today is known as the Society of Professional Journalists, founded in 1909, first adopted a Code of Ethics in 1926 covering the print media only.

Although the Code was not enforceable except by voluntary means and had no basis under the law, it was still embraced by all major members of the news media, including radio and television networks and affiliates after the 1973 rewrite.

Three major technological advances would eventually revolutionize the news media industry with the commercialization of the radio in the 1920’s, telephone in the 1930’s, (just 32% of American households had a phone by 1937), and television in the 1950’s (in 1950 just 10% of homes had black and white television, by 1964 a staggering 94% of all homes had television).

Reporting, as a result of the Code of Ethics, took a sharp turn to become popular with the general public.  This tremendous growth in public exposure by television heralded in the Golden Age of reporting, the 1960’s and ‘70’s.

Suddenly television news anchors were among the most trusted people in America, like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley who drew millions of faithful followers for their nightly news broadcasts.

Announcing death of JFK

Cronkite’s integrity was so beyond reproach he reached 57 million viewers for the Apollo landing on the Moon in 1969.  At the time there were 125 million viewers in a population of 202 million Americans meaning nearly 50% of all viewers were tuned to the CBS News with Cronkite.  In terms of average network followers, the 1969 average was about 31 million, with Cronkite pulling 11 million versus 9 million in each of the other two networks.

The population has tripled since the 1969 Moon landing but what happened to network news watchers?  As noted, 125 million people watched the Moon landing on all three networks, with Cronkite pulling 57 million.  Today, with three times as many people, we still only have about 119.6 million network viewers.

From the 31 million average network news viewers in 1969, it rose to 48 million viewers in 1985, then began a rapid descent.  By 1998 there were 30.4 million network news watchers, but today the number has dropped to about 21 million total watchers.

As for the popularity of anchors, Walter Cronkite was consistently voted the most trusted anchor on television and in 1972, he was named the most trusted man in America in all walks of life.  Today the most trusted network news anchors are only known by 21% of the TV audience.

Watch for Part 2 – The Golden Age of News – Destroyers of the Truth.  

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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Are Americans Being Biased or Prejudice Against the Muslim World?

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According to The New American Encyclopedic Dictionary, "An Exhaustive Dictionary of The English Language Practical and Comprehensive published by J. A. Hill & Company of New York in 1906, "bias" of things not material is defined as: "The state of mentally or morally inclining to one side; inclination of the mind, heart or will; that which causes such an inclination, leaning or tendency."

In Crabb: English Synonyms, Crabb thus distinguishes between bias, prepossession, and prejudice: "Bias marks the state of the mind; prepossession applies either to the general or particular state of the feelings, prejudice is employed only for opinions. Children may receive an early bias that influences their future character and destiny. Prepossessions spring from casualties; they do not exist in young minds. Prejudices are the fruits of a contracted education. A bias may be overpowered, a prepossession overcome, and a prejudice corrected or removed. We may be biased for or against; we are always prepossessed in favor, and mostly prejudiced against.

Is there is a bias in America based on suspicion of the intent of the Muslim people's of the world and is it based on the history and modern actions of the Muslim world, in particular the actions of the mainstream Muslim factions. The majority of Muslims belong to one of two denominations, the Sunni and the Shi'a.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, in Muslim tradition, Muhammad is viewed as the last and the greatest in a series of prophets—as the man closest to perfection, the possessor of all virtues. For the last 22 years of his life, in 610 AD, beginning at age 40, Muhammad started receiving revelations from God. The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an, was memorized and recorded by his companions. It has been 1400 years since Muhammad started receiving revelations from God.

Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam, comprising up to 90% or nine-tenths of the total Muslim population in the world. They are often referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h or Ahl as-Sunnah.

The word Sunni comes from the word sunnah, which means the teachings and actions or examples of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Therefore, the term "Sunni" refers to those who follow or maintain the sunnah of the prophet Muhammad.

The Sunni believe that Muhammad did not specifically appoint a successor to lead the Muslim ummah (community) before his death, and after an initial period of confusion, a group of his most prominent companions gathered and elected Abu Bakr Siddique—Muhammad's close friend and a father-in-law—as the first caliph of Islam. Sunni Muslims regard the first four caliphs—Abu Bakr, `Umar ibn al-Khattāb, Uthman Ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abu Talib—as "al-Khulafā’ur-Rāshidūn" or "The Rightly Guided Caliphs." Sunnis also believe that the position of caliph may be democratically chosen, but after the Rashidun, the position turned into a hereditary dynastic rule. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, there has never been another caliph as widely recognized in the Muslim world.

Shia Islam (sometimes Shi'a or Shi'ite), is the second-largest denomination of Islam, comprising anywhere between 10% or one-tenth to 13% of the total Muslim population in the world. Shia Muslims—though a minority in the Muslim world—constitute the majority of the populations in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, and Iraq, as well as a plurality in Lebanon and Yemen.

In addition to believing in the authority of the Qur'an and teachings of the Muhammad, Shia believe that his family—the Ahl al-Bayt (the People of the House), including his descendants known as Imams—have special spiritual and political rule over the community and believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, was the first of these Imams and was the rightful successor to Muhammad, and thus reject the legitimacy of the first three Rashidun caliphs.

The Shi'a Islamic faith is vast and inclusive of many different groups. There are various Shi'a theological beliefs, schools of jurisprudence, philosophical beliefs, and spiritual movements. The Shia identity emerged soon after the death of 'Umar Ibnil-Khattab—the second caliph—and Shi'a theology was formulated in the second century and the first Shi'a governments and societies were established by the end of the ninth century.

Kharijite (lit. "those who seceded") is a general term embracing a variety of Muslim sects which, while originally supporting the Caliphate of Ali, eventually seceded after his son Imam Hasan negotiated with Mu'awiya during the 7th Century Islamic civil war (First Fitna). Their complaint was that the Imam must be spiritually pure, and that Hasan's compromise with Mu'awiya was a compromise of his spiritual purity, and therefore of his legitimacy as Imam or Caliph. While there are few remaining Kharijite or Kharijite-related groups, the term is sometimes used to denote Muslims who refuse to compromise with those with whom they disagree.

Sufism is a mystical-ascetic form of Islam. By focusing on the more spiritual aspects of religion, Sufis strive to obtain direct experience of God by making use of "intuitive and emotional faculties" that one must be trained to use. Sufis usually considered Sufism to be complementary to orthodox Islam.

Once Muhammad lived and provided the Qur'an by 632 AD the various factions fought a 7th century civil war before undertaking 500 years of war against the Christians for control of the Western World. The initial Muslim conquest of Syria in the 7th century under the Rashidun Caliphs began the battle between the Christians and Muslims. After the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Christians and Muslims the wars ended with Muslims in control of most Middle East nations and Christianity split between the Latin and Greek sects.

By the time Christianity reached about 1400 years of age the factions within Christianity forced the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries and the break up of Christianity into many independent denominations.

Ironically, the Muslim factions have now existed for 1400 years and in country after country they have turned on each other in brutal wars, suppression of competing sects, and acts of genocide that have left a sense of fear, distrust and anxiety in the Christian and Jewish worlds. Is it not surprising? If the Muslim sects can justify Holy Wars against each other in this modern age what is to stop wars with us? Just look at the tens of thousands of civilian Muslim deaths at the hands of radical Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is in the news every day.

History is a brutal lesson in fact over fiction. The origins of terrorism within the Muslim factions is no surprise as radical extremists with a religious foundation have been around for centuries. There is no single voice for the Muslim world and no central control of order to that world. Until those elements of the Muslim world can overcome their own hatred for each other and then their hatred for the Christian and Jewish so called infidels, bias will exist and caution is warranted.

Just as the Christians had to overcome the violence and bloodshed of the ill advised Crusades and the Protestant Reformation in order for Christianity to evolve, so to must the Muslim world overcome the bitter wars and rivalry of secular and non-secular violence and the offshoots of terrorism that attempt to destroy any perceived effort to threaten the single domination of one religious sect over any government in a multi-cultural and religiously diverse world.

Any bias of unease or misunderstanding on the part of Americans toward the Muslim world can be changed, if the Muslim world evolves as other religions have evolved. When radicalism and terrorism are set aside, and they exist in all cultures and religions, there are far more similarities between Christians and Muslims than differences and both share the same God or Allah.  Finally, within every culture or religion are good people.

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