If you ask me, I’m a reporter. I’m a member of the press or if I’m feeling pretentious, the Fourth Estate. I’m a source of information and a watchdog for the people. I’m a believer in the power of truth and the free press against tyranny.
But that’s just me. Others will call me a jackal, preying on others’ misery. Or they’ll say I’m a part of the Liberal Media Conspiracy to destroy America by spreading lies about the people in charge of it. I’ll be called a traitor. I’ll be called irrelevant and untrustworthy and the cause of everything that is wrong with my community, my country and the world.
The Media – note the capital M – gets blamed for a lot of things. Invading privacy. Destroying the country. Keeping liberals in charge. Keeping conservatives in charge. Perpetuating stereotypes. Causing trouble. Making bad situations worse. Keeping god out of classrooms. Keeping god in classrooms. I could go on, but I won’t right now.
But blaming the capital-M-Media is worthless. Why? Because there is no capital-M-Media. The idea of it, in fact, is ridiculous. The idea of a capital-M-Media implies that all media outlets are working together for a common goal (destroying America and such). This could not be further from the truth. They are, in fact, doing the opposite by trying to compete with each other to get the stories.
Yes, each media outlet has an agenda. But they are not all the same agenda. So when people say things like, “Well, the Media is why we’re losing the war in Iraq,” it sounds ridiculous. It implies a teamwork between outlets that simply does not exist. There are trustworthy media outlets and there are those that are not. It is up to you, the consumer of information, to decide which are worthy of your trust.
But in doing so, you cannot lump all media outlets into one category. You have to evaluate each of them individually and when you do that, you will realize that the capital-M-Media is simply a myth.
1 Comment
August 5, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I applaud you. Stay in and fight the good fight. I wish I’d had the strength!