News Media
An organism that lies about everything all the time, and is functioning exactly as designed.
All media and telecommunications businesses are founded by people who believe they possess the right to shape public opinion. There is nothing wrong with this from an entrepreneurial perspective. It is just as much a legitimate business as any other. Rather, it is the implications of the quality of their product that should be examined more closely from a consumer perspective.
If we purchase a product, we assume there to have been a prudent and honest assessment of quality. Food needs to be safe to consume, housing needs to adhere to strict codes, vehicles need to meet safety standards, and children’s toys need to be safe for their enjoyment. Sometimes our faith can be misplaced, and there are many examples of businesses cutting corners, but if things are working correctly, our trust in standards is reasonably justified.
The news is entirely different. Their product is information, and with it, everything that we can safely assume will be present when humans are conveying it. Media companies are not designed to, nor are they interested in, controlling for bias. Additionally, media needs to work within extremely tight time constraints in order to stay competitive, and nothing that is rushed will bear high quality fruit.
If the industry itself were not alone an indictment of its capacity to convey anything accurately, corporate sponsorship drives the point home. With a sponsorship model in place, only a FOOL would believe we are getting an honest account of current events. If specific details of a report, or perhaps the story in its entirely, could be perceived as damaging to a sponsor’s brand, then they will be omitted. While we may feel betrayed by an industry for their complicity in protecting potentially corrupt entities, a sponsor should expect a return on their investment. They are not providing money to a network out of the kindness of their heart.
It could be argued that the news media could not exist in any other state. The problem then, is the amount of stake we place in anything they report, or the fact we pay attention to them at all. If we modify our engagement and withdraw, they are far more likely to alter their trajectory and provide us with something we might actually trust. This will only be short-lived, because once their numbers rise again, lucrative sponsorship will emerge to capitalize on the captive audience.
We should accept the news media for what it is. No more and no less. It is biased, dishonest, willing to conspire, interested in shaping our interpretation of reality, subject to influence by governments, controlling narratives, and willing to manifest these in any way they see fit (for the right price). We should expect this, it is a human-centric industry with human interests. It is our expectations that are misplaced.
An exception exists to the legitimacy of this industry: when a government is audacious enough to fund news media organizations directly using tax dollars. At this point, they have officially become a propaganda machine. Of course, the news media will happily accept this money, like prostitutes, but now they will be turning different tricks.
Special interest sponsorship uses private money to contaminate messaging in one way, but government sponsorship uses public money to destroy it entirely. Curated news will become controlled news, swaying consumer spending habits will become compelling human obedience, and concealing corporate corruption will become maintaining centralized secrecy of bureaucratic corruption.
This is predictable under authoritarian regimes; it should be illegal under democratic governance.
Posted: 2 Jan 2023
