Media Bias

With the recent announcement that MSNBC has extended Olbermann's contract and an email from an Obama supporter (entitled "matches o'reilly's extension at faux news, with a $3.5M annual raise"), lauding that fact, I think it's time to really examine what influence these political pretend news programs have on the average American.

It is a sad reflection on the US that we are fed a diet of rhetoric, propaganda, opinion and untruths from the bloviating Forth Estate. As Bill Moyers so aptly put it,

I heard this story a long time ago, growing up in Choctaw County in Oklahoma before my family moved to Texas. A tribal elder was telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging within himself. He said, “It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil wolf: anger, envy, sorrow, greed, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is the good wolf: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The boy took this in for a few minutes and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf won?”

The old Cherokee replied simply, “The one I feed.”

Democracy is that way. The wolf that wins is the one we feed. And in our society, media provides the fodder.

So long as we continue to tune in, so long as we continue to support the advertisers and feed the bad wolf, we won't be hearing the truth any time soon. It's your choice.

UPDATE: Death by 1000 Papercuts has an incredible roundup of media bias in the election Here