Media needs to be nation’s watchdog

When you turn on the evening news, chances are, you’re going to hear the broadcasters pitching today’s top stories with a liberal slant—meaning they’re in favor of progress or reform. You often hear stories about culture or society revolving around a particular story from the far side of the spectrum. These stories act as the beating drum to drive change and prop up political soap boxes demanding reform.

Last week, at the Hinckley Institute of Politics, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” spoke about bias within the media and the potential dangers that come from the talking-head discourse. Although both are moderate in their political views, both reaffirmed the media’s essential role as an additional checks-and-balances protector in society’s political and cultural process.

“One of the dangers in America right now is that you can wake up in the morning with a prejudice and turn on the television and have that prejudice reinforced,” Scarborough said. “By the time you go to bed at night, you don’t think that someone who disagrees with you is wrong; you think they’re evil. That’s dangerous talk.”

Some people will point out that today’s mainstream media are quick to receive whatever messages the White House releases without asking the tough, probing questions to understand what is really going on. These people will argue that Obama, one of America’s most popular presidents when he was elected, has the media in his back pocket.

However, this slanted view is inaccurate because a similar thing was done by the Bush administration when it needed to sell America on the war on terror. A strong patriotic message calling for retaliation after the 9/11 attacks permeated evening broadcasts and headlines across the country. There were some outlets that challenged the administration by breaking classified information on detention centers for captured terrorists. This is the liberal slant to which our “Morning Joe” friends refer.

The media’s job is not to entertain or present news that tests or polls well with Americans. But, because of the current structure in which advertisers write media paychecks and condone content they want pushed, it compromises the media’s true purpose. The media should be a watchdog that holds public personalities, institutions and businesses accountable. When that mission is corrupted by censorship and lazy journalists, we all lose.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/media-needs-to-be-nation-s-watchdog-1.2238306