Privately owned media

In class on Tuesday, we discussed how there are six privately owned news stations, including ABC, NBC, CBS. In addition to delivering the news to the masses, these corporations also deliver a perspective, which is severely influenced by the opinions of those higher up in the company. Therefore, we the masses, get the news and a bias. That’s a bad thing, right? We’re impressionable as a society, and there should be more public news stations where we can get the clear undoctored, unbiased, honest-to-goodness truth, not some twisted half-hearted version of what used to be the truth. It should be news of the people, presented by the people, for the people. Hmmm, that sounds a little familiar.

Let’s approach this scenario from another point of view. Imagine a world where all the news stations are “public” (that is controlled and regulated by the government). Without the corporate bigwigs filtering occurrences, shouldn’t we get more undiluted news? Well, what about the government? I’m sure that they will demand to have a large say in what is aired over their own stations, much like the corporations. However, without the diversity of the corporations (or at least the diversity in their beliefs), we will still be getting a bias, just one without opposition. The government is a business, just like everything else, and it’s one that will not air stories that make itself look bad or unprepared. Whoever has the control, whether it be the Republicans or the Democrats, would probably gloss over any mishaps in their party. Think about the Watergate Scandal. Imagine that the government owned all the news stations, and the Republicans were the party in power. Do you think they would have made such a to do out of the whole situation? My guess is a big fat no. I think they would have cut their losses and their might have been maybe a blip on the evening news about an alleged break in at the headquarters of the Democratic Party.

In my opinion, this would be too much control put into the hands of the biggest business in America, the American Government. While there might be a lot of bias in the media today, at least it’s six different points of view. And through looking at all six points of view, I’m sure that we can all figure out what the news was supposed to be in the first place.