The fall of the media

It’s here again — the political candidates campaigning like mad people in lieu of the upcoming August primaries. Every other commercial on local television is a political advertisement that begs for your vote. The advertisements can be clean, but most are not. The mud-slinging political campaigning is at an all-time high, but that is nothing new. It is the way American politics has been for the last 200 years. 

As an aspiring journalist, I’ve become aware of something that is relatively new — the media’s role in this absolute madness involving political candidates. The media is willing to make any story or situation into a profit-making story or situation.

This week, Fox News is running very anti-Obama advertisements. The ads claim that Obama took our country’s financial situation “from bad to worse.” Flip a few channels to CNN or MSNBC and see syndicators and anchors praising Obama and his efforts during the recession. 

These media outlets are cashing in on their political viewpoints. Fox News knows that conservative Republican citizens will be more likely to watch its shows — they appeal to that crowd. At the same time, CNN and MSNBC know they appeal more to the moderate, liberal Democrats. 

The political ranting by anchors and syndicators on these network news stations has become so biased that I don’t even want to watch anymore. What happened to fair and balanced news that didn’t lean toward one end of the political spectrum or the other? It is gone for one reason and one reason only: money.

The media is willing and able to skew anything to make more money. While political opinions may be one way for media outlets to rake in the cash, it does not stop there. 

Look at recent court cases. The Casey Anthony case was so skewed by the media that the world was outraged by a constitutional decision that she was innocent. Media outlets made millions from that case alone, and they don’t care about the effect they had on the public. Other cases that had the same effect come to mind: OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson and Rodney King.

Going even further to prove my point about media doing anything for profits are Rupert Murdoch and employees of News Corp. His News of the World tabloid newspaper is accused of tapping into hundreds of personal telephones, including those of members of the royal family in England. The paper printed its last edition Sunday. Why would reporters and editors at the paper do this? They had dollar signs in their eyes — they wanted exclusive information that would make the paper more money. 

What has the media come to? They have resorted to trashing candidates, rationalizing major court cases and committing felonies all to appeal to more people to earn more money. Forget about honesty and integrity. 

These media corporations have replaced those qualities with hatred and moral corruption. Forget accurately portraying the happenings of the world so people can stay informed. These corporations have replaced that with straight lying about those happenings to appeal to more viewers. 

Maybe this is the solution that the media outlets had to the steady decrease in profits over the last few years. If that is the case, their solution was the dead wrong solution. If they don’t make this right soon, people will realize what is going on. Then I won’t have a column to write about it in.

-----
Adam Ganucheau is a sophomore journalism major from Hazlehurst, Miss. Follow him on Twitter @GanucheauAdam.