What Happened to the News Media in America? Part 2 – The Golden Age of News – Destroyers of the Truth

Finally, I get to Part 2, the “Destroyers of the Truth.”  Turn your clock back to the 1970’s, the twilight of the Golden Age of news.  Events starting in the early 1960’s like the Cold War between the USA and Soviet Union, the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy assassinations, then Watergate shook the news business to the bone.

Instead of a fifteen-minute national news broadcast, they expanded to 30 minutes with additional “news” shows like 20/20 or Sixty minutes among others added to the line-up.  This and a demand for real time coverage of events like the Kennedy assassination in 1963, where network coverage pre-empted regular programming, changed the face of media forever.

Suddenly national and local news became a big deal which led to an explosion of media innovations including the live broadcast of events, field reporting, live inter-active reporting between news anchors and field reporters, and a digital revolution in the collection, processing and distribution of news.

The second major shift taking place simultaneously was the wild and wacky decade of the 1960’s, as the post-World War II baby boomers became the dominant force.  Suddenly the youth of our nation faced crisis after crisis as they filled secondary and college educational institutions with their thirst for a new world.

The Baby Boomers, born in the shadow and deadly radioactive fallout of the only two atomic explosions ever used in war, which were dropped on Japan and ended World War II.  It would take a book to describe the impact the 1960’s had on this new generation and so far, none have done it justice.

“Within the span of a single decade the greatest revolution in world history took place…”

Within the span of a single decade the greatest revolution in world history took place as the Boomers faced civil rights bloodshed, demands for academic freedom, the threat of a Cold War, the added threat of biologic or chemical warfare, death in Viet Nam, death on college campus’s protesting the war, political assassinations, bloody peace protests, and so much more.

The entertainment industry also reached their Golden Age as Broadway, movies, and television all exploded before they would settle into bitter rivals in the battle for the hearts, souls and pocketbooks of the people.  How appropriate the end of the decade would result in Woodstock, a rock festival and anti-war protest drawing over 400,000 concert-goers to a muddy field in the other New York, meaning upstate from NYC.

“I call it the Second American Revolution.”

This amazing decade is what I call the Second American Revolution.  What emerged at the end of the decade showed little, if any, resemblance to what began the decade.  There was not an institution, idea, principle, or political policy that was not tested, tried and trampled over.

At this point I will offer you multiple choices of what caused such a venerable and respected institution like the news media to pretty much self-destruct in the ensuing decades until today.  Decide for yourself which were most responsible as the “Destroyers of the Truth” here in the American. News media.

Causes of the Collapse of the News Media

Cable News? Competition

Internet Technology

Changes in news media valuation from viewers to profits

Profit-driven companies bought news interests as investment

Astonishing increase in political spending for media

Courts rejecting campaign finance laws

Failure of government to regulate Internet

Proliferation of media advertising revenue

Blurring of the distinction between news and editorials

Apathy of a disenfranchised population

Reporters becoming advocates of causes and politics

A general public seemingly disinterested in the truth

Conflicts of interest between media and politics

No enforcement of News Media Code of Ethics

Lack of media accountability for sources and stories

Government abuse of classifying information

To sum it all up, greed, a lust for power, and exorbitant advertising revenue from politics and the private sector fueled the demise of the news media.  Once again, the pendulum has reversed itself and the credibility and believability of the news media by the public has gone off the cliff.

What was once intense competition between news groups has morphed into an insidious and ruthless effort to not only dismember and destroy those of opposing views, but to trample on the free rights of everyone but yourself.  Respect for our Constitutional rights to individual freedom, opportunity and free speech are spit upon by ego-centered, celebrity-driven news media.

“A new, more powerful special interest has cast a long dark shadow over our world.”

A new, more powerful special interest has cast a long dark shadow over our world, the digital answer to control.  Dominated by greed and the lust for power and fueled by an explosion of ad revenues from even more special interests, the news media of today, have no code of ethics.

When it comes to the Internet news providers and news aggregators, stories being pursued are no longer of broad interest but serve their own agenda.  Fake news is highly successful because, quite frankly, the reader is lost in the abyss of power and control.  People have willingly become pawns, because they have no backbone for the truth.

The news media embraces polarization, character assassination, and political agendas which are a violation of the Journalism Code of Ethics.  They are caught up in a tangle of special interests whose interest may be the enslavement of the general public to technology.  We are data-driven fools whose every thought, action, purchase, interest, and personal health and wealth are already under the microscope of Big Brother.

The Internet changed the dynamics.  The loss of integrity, absence of fairness, and failure of news groups to take responsibility for their stories or actions has undermined any hope for credibility in the news media.

“Social media news organizations and so-called news aggregators for the Internet services have become the new overlords of the news media…”

Social media news organizations and so-called news aggregators for the Internet services have become the new overlords of the news media, and the new censors for determining news media content.

I suspect somewhere along the line the institutions of higher learning who once defended the freedom and fairness of the news media decided corporate underwriting of the academic endowment funds was more important than telling the truth.  Or, perhaps they were just taking care of their university graduates in the private, “capitalism” sector.

In summary – the truth has been checkmated, the game is over.

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.
  

The Melchizedek Chronicles – Colossal Changes coming to Political Systems - Trump wrecking ball crashes onward!

After his dance with the leaders of the dark side Trump somehow managed to punish them all with his tariff war.  China, Russia, North Korea and Iran all are near economic collapse.  Throw in Venezuela for good measure, also strained to the near breaking point.  The politicians and political activists are aghast at his not politically correct words and actions.

In fact, if you listen to news accounts you might think he just started Armageddon, the final battle before the Apocalypse and the End Times.  Amazing to what lengths the news media is prepared to go to destroy Trump.  Long gone are the days of ethics and fairness in news reporting.

As for the professional political crybabies on television, they are screaming demons and one should take the time to ask why?  What is it about our corrupt, archaic, political system and institutions that is so precious to the radical left and radical right they will do anything to still stop Trump?  By the way, how quickly the Mueller Report disappeared from the front pages and lead story on the cable networks. 

Melchizedek says we entered a three-year period of “colossal changes coming to political systems.”  I say it is about time.  The radical liberals and conservatives, the Democrat and Republican parties, the hysterical Trump haters and the so-called news media, are the puppets and pawns of a much darker force than Donald Trump.

Have we forgotten that America is the boldest and grandest experiment in the history of mankind?  We are the only major nation on earth in which 95% of our population are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.

Truly we are the only true melting pot in the world where people of any race, religion, ethnic background, political persuasion or culture are all guaranteed the same rights, protection, and equal opportunity.

By our very nature, promise and Constitution we are protected from dominance by any one philosophy, culture or movement because individual freedom and equal opportunity are the bedrock of our existence.

Since we are the only true melting pot our Republic is built on a foundation of respect for differences and compromise for accommodation for all.  The people reaffirm this right in elections every two and four years.

When special interests demand one ideology be dominant in our land, whether it be liberal or conservative, Democrat inspired or Republican, and when people attempt to usurp the power of the people by imposing a single philosophy on others it is doomed and results in polarization and eventually fails.

Today we have lost the ability to communicate.  Hatred and fear have overridden all possibility for compromise and progress.  Without compromise there can be no progress.  When that happens, and it has happened many times in our short history, the Constitution provides a mechanism for the people to save our government from special interests and unfair laws.

Once again, we face the same dilemma.  People are concerned with control and dominance, not fairness and justice.  Those advocates of control and their supporters have no place in a house built on compromise, individual rights, and guaranteed equality for all.

When our Fourth Estate, the news media, lose their sense of objectivity as it has and starts trying to promote one side of a policy over another the media no longer functions as a watchdog for the people, all the people, but as an advocate for special interests.  One wonders if maybe biased media should be required to register as a special interest lobbyist to show their true colors.

In the past presidents have always worked with Congress, majority and minority parties, toward compromise in order to solve problems.  That ended in the Obama years.  Unfortunately, he had neither the foresight nor experience to forge political alliances and preserve this presidential function.

When leaders want to impose their agenda on the people, rather than carry out the agenda of those who elected them, they are doomed to failure in a Constitutional Republic designed to prevent dominance by any one person, group or party.

Any crisis America faces will be solved when the people decide what is needed and they use the ballot to force change on the system.  Once again, we have reached the crisis stage, and once again only the people can say what America must do.

The shocking victory of Trump in the GOP primary, the only non-politician among political giants, was the first sign of a major political overhaul of our system.  His subsequence election victory over the overwhelming favorite Hillary Clinton was the people’s stunning reaffirmation that enough was enough, our political house must be disassembled and rebuilt in order to return to a Constitutional Republic as envisioned by our Founding Fathers.

                    

Unfortunately, it seems memories are short in our nation’s capital.  Both the news people and politicians seem to be suffering from hysterical amnesia.  They are no longer twisting the media spin to their benefit but are living the lies they manufacture to justify their hate-filled rants.

As the news media parade an endless stream of former intelligence officials and national security “experts” to trash Trump before the cameras, I noted the incredible hypocrisy of the anti-Trump legions.  Just a decade ago the same people were trashing Presidents Bush and Obama because of the massive and illegal actions by the very same intelligence agencies, including many of the current TV stars being interviewed from those agencies, for the greatest invasion of privacy in history and trampling over of our individual rights.

Not only was every American citizen a victim of the insidious “Big Brother” action, so were the heads of state of every major nation in the world including our closest allies.  Their private phone lines were illegally taped and monitored by US intelligence agencies.  How quickly we forget the truth.

Yesterday’s villains are today's heroes, at least in the minds of the news media and misguided followers who actually believe their brand of nonsense.  Never have I seen so many people so hysterically embrace hatred, bias, distortion and misdirection with such passion, possibly since the time of the persecution and murder of Jesus of Nazareth, and that job was botched up as well.

By now, as we approach the end of the third year of the Trump presidency and with all the power and resources of the intelligence agencies, the Justice Department, the news media, the Democratic and Republican parties, and their friends and benefactors who control much of our wealth, their relentless effort to throw out Trump has failed miserably.

No politician in our history has been under a more massive and coordinated attack for such a sustained period of time yet Trump continues his own relentless campaign to clean up the mess we call government.

Why, because he is not a politician.  He is an outsider who happened to succeed without the help of big bankers, big corporations, political parties and Wall Street.  Trump was not bought and paid for like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or Bill Clinton.

Funny, all three became multi-millionaires because they were president or nominated to be president.  Trump did not need a government job and power to make millions, he earned it before he ever ran for public office.

Make no mistake, Trump is far from an endearing president but perhaps he is just what was needed to reign in the power of government, stop the corruption at all levels of government, reform laws and regulations not in the public interest, and to realign our position in the world.

No professional politician stood a chance of bringing about such badly needed reform.  There was no accountability in government nor responsibility for the actions of the government.  The financial predators and sharks controlled the money for campaigns and leveraged it to buy off enough elected officials to maintain a system that was rotten to the core, not just in America, but around the world.

Yet people, the voters, understood, at least the vast majority of people who were not part of the partisan political cesspool.  This did not happen overnight.  Way back in 1972 Ross Perot, a businessman and Independent, got 20% of the presidential vote costing George Bush his re-election and thrusting Bill Clinton to the presidency with barely 41% of the registered vote.

By the time Barack Obama was first elected in 2008 nearly 50% of all eligible voters refused to even register to vote, such was their disgust with politicians.  When Obama was re-elected in 2012 it was the first time less than 50% of eligible voters participated in an election.  In truth, only about 25% of eligible voters voted Obama president.  Still it got worse.  By the end of Obama’s presidency in 2016 for the first time in our history there were more registered Independents than either Democrats or Republicans.

One need only ask Bernie Sanders how honest the political system was when he faced Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary campaign.  Secret deals between Obama and Clinton were made to bankrupt the Democratic National Committee (DNC), then allow the Clinton campaign to secretly bail out the DNC while giving Hillary control of the actions and resources of the DNC.  She was in a tightly contested primary battle with Sanders when this took place.  Bernie never had a chance to win the primary because the DNC super delegates were already secretly pledged to Hillary.

By the way, in light of the media hype about how Putin said he wanted Trump to win against Hillary, you might have noticed what the media forgot to ask.  Why did the media not ask if Putin wanted Trump to win or Hillary to lose?  Why do they forget to mention the Russians also wanted Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic primary against Hillary?  No matter who won the GOP primary, they would be the prefered favorite for the Russians.  

Putin and Hillary were mortal enemies ever since she was Obama’s Secretary of State and used her office to condemn him and place sanctions on Russia.  Trump was not even a viable candidate at the time Hillary was hacked, and Trump was given no chance to win anything.  There is also some story involving a feud between Putin and the Clinton Foundation to add to the mystery.

When Trump stunned the world and won the primary there was no other choice for Putin but to hope Trump won against Hillary, against all odds.  Make no mistake, no one’s hands were clean during this election campaign.  Trump knew nothing of the political process and it showed.  Still, he was the last one standing and the only non-political outsider available to the people.

No one gave him a chance to win right up to election day when all the media predicted a solid Hillary victory.  No one, that is, except me when I predicted a Trump victory several weeks before the election and posted it in the Huffington Post as a Huffington Post Contributor.

My conclusion was based on a multi-decade trend of increasing distrust of all politicians from both parties born out by the polls.  In addition, I watched the increasing flight of Democrats and Republican voters switch to the Independent registration.  Finally, I expected Hillary to dominate the Black vote, but fall far short of the total Obama received when he barely won his two elections.

Trump’s victory had nothing to do with Russia, Russian collusion, or Putin's pat with Hillary.  It had everything to do with voter frustration over partisan politics in Washington, D.C., the cozy relationship between professional politicians and financiers, and institutional corruption.

Blond Brexit Brothers - Boris Johnson and Donald Trump

Today, the losers from both ends of the political spectrum, Democrats hating Trump and Republicans afraid of Trump, sense the death knell of their quest to deny Trump his presidency.  As do the losers in the media who are in danger of losing all their anonymous sources of classified government information.

With the consistent collapse in news media ratings, the loss of millions of viewers, and the loss of millions of newspaper subscribers, not to mention the huge loss of advertising revenues, the news media has paid a dear price trying to undermine the Trump presidency.

Trump is no saint, but he certainly is an agent of change who was given a chance to fix what the politicians could not fix.  He was also given a chance by the American voters to show us what he can do to clean up the mess.  His opponents are fueled by blind hatred of the outsider.  They ignore the Constitution and will of the people.  In truth they are the protectors of the status quo.

To succeed they ignore their own religious beliefs and the teachings of Jesus and embrace a very dark and toxic attitude.  They will fail.  Trump will easily win re-election in 2020 and may finally get the chance to show us what he can do.

At that point we can give a great big sigh of relief in knowing our Constitution is intact, it worked as expected, and once again the People have spoken.