Dan Rather on Realtime.
 

I'm buying his book, "Rather Outspoken" and I'm cheap but this topic has been a concern of mine since the Nixon years when the Washington Post broke the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. That's when the RNC got the news corps in their sights and it would appear that they have been immensely sucessfull since.

The real elephant in the room is the fact that of the 50+ independent news corps with national distribution has shrunk to six only (four by Dan Rathers count) These were news corps who had a independent (more or less) news desk mostly unfettered by the corporate office dictates and stringent editorial control, which is the norm now.

Only six (or four) main news purveyors on the tube now compared to the bad old days of the independent liberal media? Maybe the FCC has been asleep at the switch? Their is a legal basis for the ether being a public resource, isn't there?

This is disturbing to think that the marketplace has grown maybe just a little bit since the '70s and our choices have shrunk to 10% of their heyday in the '60s.

"Unperson, Smith, Winston............"

"We are at war with East Asia. We have always been at war with East Asia......"

There is now a lot of competition from the internet. One can easily get information of many different shades.

I agree but the peril of the internet is that opinion based news is for the most part what the fare is. It is difficult for most people to distinguish between what's factual and what isn't. Generally they are too tired or lazy to check any facts before regurgitating it.

The corporaider conglomeration of the broadcast waves has turned anything resembling a real news source into a string of endless advertising and no reporting of much that is controversial. They can't risk pissing off their audiences because after all, pissed off people ain't jamming corn chips and soft drinks (or shitty beer) down their throats.

Dan Rather was shit canned for reporting that story about GWB's national guard un service (he was AWOL for a year) No one should get fired for telling a true story was another point in this episode.

The dangerous thing about the internet is that the blogosphere is basicall a national dormroom college bs session on mega steroids with little fact finding or investigative reporting....we still need reporters.

That and being a pompous blowhard with ever-declining ratings but I get your point.

"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" :D

I'm of the Uncle Walter fanclub and agree with ya as to Dan Blather's style. Back to the topic at hand, I find it strange that with all the over the top description of the Liberal media the fact that we get our news from just a handful of soapsellers with very little news that might upset the advertisers.
Doesn't pass the litmus test as to being liberal or conservative IMHO.;)

I check BBC and RT (Russian tv) for balance. I love the Keiser report on RT. This has some comic relief but very often it leads to real sources.

Al Jazeera is a better news organization than any of the four networks. However, I still like 60 Minutes and find it well produced.

Very true!

I'm still calling on PBS for news, Bill Moyer appears to possess the integrity of a newsman in the old mold. The other networks generally are commercial and getting more so every day. 60 minutes excluded, although they could be a bit more hardhitting like they used to be.

The internet news sources are pretty much the same as the networks, if you scratch a little it is a handful of companys providing most of the content we read as news.

The blogosphere is simply a hugely expanded letters to the editor section with a free for all of self appointed experts voicing their opinions as facts with very little attribution or effort at fact checking.

The most typical example of this prostitution of the News desks of some fine old companys was handed to the Fox News Network in a court recently. It appears that the decision means that any news network can lie it's ass off with impunity.

Sad days have come when there is no veracity and integrity in the use of something that is a resource belonging to the people. The FCC has been gutted and stripped of any meaningful oversight over it.

Opinion based news can only masquerade as news. Used to be that you called a shovel a shovel and a spade a spade but now it's beyond even just selling soap. It has crept into the business of molding their clients far into the future.

Madison Ave ain't nothing new! (even I'm not that naive;)) but there were some standards that now aren't even relevent. Thanks to Fox News Corp maybe it's time for the slime purveyors to just drop the word News from their names.:mad:

Just exactly what is it that the FCC does any more? I tried to get action on a pirate transmitter that was stomping on emergency services frequencies a couple years ago and was told "we're a regulatory agency, we don't do enforcement". Doesn't sound like they do much regulating either.

Chop, chop! I spy another bloated government agency that needs to die!

You would look at it that way, Was. After all the private sector has done such a great job of self regulating with respect to national resources and it's owners the citizens. Unless of course you were riffing on DJ..:rolleyes: and that was an attempt at humor. Does the Teabaggers little brown book have a talking points section with those little color coded tabs for easy identification of a rote response to everything?:p

Wasn't the FCC the one that Perry forgot?

Regards,

D-Ray

I believe it was the Energy Dept.

Fox news draws people who believes in their crap.
Viewers seeking substance will search for it.

I'm talking from my own experience here guys. If they don't regulate, and they don't enforce, what do they do?
If the FCC isn't enforcing, who is?
What's the difference between letting private industry run amok, and having a government agency that let's it run amok? I'll tell you the difference, a lot of wasted tax dollars, and nothing else.

But then maybe you guys don't see the value in keeping emergency services frequencies clear of interference.

So, you are all for letting private industry run amuck? Just wait'll they open up a strip mine down the bock from your house. Just one complaining doesn't make a pattern although I submit a little history lesson for ya in the next paragraph. that might 'splain it.

Courtesy of Saint Ronnie and their ilk. Those assholes just furloughed anyone that wouldn't play ball in their righteous quest to starve the beast. Since they couldn't just up and abolish whatever got in the way of their pimps stealing and plundering, they simply fired the employees tasked with regulating and enforcing the law.
You've failed once again with a one dimensional argument.
I've got a lefty movie for you, if you dare, it's called Silver City.

I don't believe that's what I said. Let me check... nope, that's not what I said. I'm pretty sure you can go back and read what I said too, so why do you intentionally twist people's words when anyone can go right back and see what the poster said?

My suggestion was that we dismantle the FCC, as it apparently isn't doing jack doodly squat. Then perhaps if we could get the GSA out of the nightclub, they could write a RFQ (full open bid, for U.S. based companies only) for a private contractor to patrol the spectrum and seek out bandits. You'd have hundreds of bidders, and could award several either regional or bandwidth divided contracts and then reward the best performers with additional territory.
I just think it makes more sense than paying people to do nothing.

True. Anymore, I watch the "news" just to see what kind of stupidity and "truthiness" is being bandied about. Then I go searching for "facts" on my own. It's still hard, because the BS is everywhere. And, that's not a partisan thing, everyone is presenting BS as fact these days. There is no shame at all left in this world.

It truly is sad.

I understand your point, however;

I still fail to see what makes a private contractor less corruptible than a public employee, seeing as how these private contractors are hired by public employees, (and politicians), and there is usually some kind of wheelin' and dealin' going on anyways.

We have had many a case of private contractors receiving special favor (Halliburton, for example.) and providing kickbacks to friendly politicians in the past to serve as precedent.

In otherwords, you can pay a public employee to do nothing, or you can pay him to hire a private contractor to do nothing. I witnessed this first hand during my time in the military. By the 1980s, the Navy had already turned over much of the depot level aircraft maintenance to private contractors-----Who did next to nothing and would raise hell if you asked for their help.

That's my own personal experience.

I suspect that use of private contractors only make the numbers look better, because an employee hired by a contractor does not show up as a direct expense on the government payroll. Yet the budget continues to expand anyways..........................

Your reading way too far into it. So, who is in charge? At this point you. Bring suit on the whole federal gubmint, don't forget to blame Obama. I'm sure you can download a customer satisfaction survey from the FCC but due to cutbacks and layoffs be prepared to wait.
They'll get back to ya in a decade

This sounds exactly like putting the fox in the henhouse. Let me infer a little more, if you don't mind. You're sounding like one who thinks that private industry is the answer to all of our problems. I disagree because that way has been proven time and again to be false.
The Massey Energy kerfuffle which cost 29 American lives comes to mind. Here's a link or are you one of those that thinks wiki articles are all bullshit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massey_Energy
If you have to ask "what does this have to do with the airwaves?" then I can infer once again that you aren't thinking things through and you're repeating out of your playbook. Wasn't it you that stated today that Ca. is a cesspool of liberals? Coming from you that is a compliment, doncha know?

Null conclusion with a titch of false equivalency.

Empty statement with a smudge of bong water.

And yet the Navy planes continue to fly, weird.

And the rest?:rolleyes:What no comment? Can it be that you agree or are you leafing thru your talking points cliff notes, take your time. Ya know?

They were flying before.